[3830] WPX SSB VA7BEC SO(A)AB LP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: VA7BEC
Operator(s): VA7BEC
Station: VA7BEC

Class: SO(A)AB LP
QTH: NR Vancouver
Operating Time (hrs): 35

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    1
   80:   25
   40:  108
   20:  326
   15:  335
   10:  117
------------
Total:  912  Prefixes = 500  Total Score = 1,188,500

Club: Orca DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Exhausting. Was it worth the nearly sleepless first night. Maybe, maybe not. I
haven't quite decided yet. 

Higher score than last year -- yeah! -- but fewer Qs. The importance of mults
is ever so clear, and I really appreciate the mult-providing stations who
answered my CQs during minimized running time. I say minimized because I had
planned to CQ for a good chunk of time on the second day but it was very tough
to find a frequency on 15m and 20m that wasn't engulfed in QRN or severely
QRM'd. I've never really experienced QRM to the degree I did this past weekend.
Just as I'd get settled into a nice rhythm, I'd have to move because callers,
despite good audio and strong signals,  or me, or both, were getting drowned
out by mega-splatter from nearby (and no-so-nearby) CQers as well as stations
calling that CQer off-frequency ('cause obviously no one really knew what
frequency that guy was on since he took up so much space). : (  

Since the contest bug only bit me a few years ago, each weekend marathon still
brings new firsts, mostly new entities and higher scores (or components
thereof), and delivers some nice surprises. I guess I underestimate the power
of a YL voice. ; )

10m was much better than I expected. The band stayed open long enough for me to
run for short periods several times when 15m and 20m became too crowded. 

On 80m, after snapping up all the stations I heard and who obviously heard me
easily, I decided to run a bit. But I got very few replies. Conditions seemed
OK, so maybe I just picked a time when possible responders weren't listening
northwest? Or maybe there was a glut of CQers and a dearth of S&Pers?
(Rhetorical questions. There probably isn't a definitive answer.)

It also seemed to me that there weren't as many people playing radio on the
weekend. I heard stations from areas of the world that I usually don't hear, so
conditions were obviously better. But I didn't hear the great abundance of
stations that past contests have brought out and certainly my log doesn't show
the running results I was expecting. 

But I'm happy with all the Qs that ARE in the log. Thanks to everyone who
answered my CQs and to everyone who picked my call out of the QRN/QRM mud. And
I would be remiss if I didn't give a big thank you for all the encouragement
and compliments I received this time. More than usual and very much
appreciated. Reenergized me when I was feeling tired. 

73/88
Rebecca VA7BEC


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