[3830] WPX SSB NR3X(@N1LN) M/S HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: NR3X
Operator(s): N4YDU, W4KAZ, N1LN
Station: N1LN

Class: M/S HP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    1
   80:  334
   40:  695
   20: 1013
   15: 1203
   10:  234
------------
Total: 3480  Prefixes = 1267  Total Score = 11,738,755

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

The NR3X team:
 
N4YDU, Nate
W4KAZ, Kaz
N1LN, Bruce
 
Most of the time we enter in the M2 category, but the team just did not come
together for this weekend, so we decided to try MS.    It had been quite some
time since any of us tried MS, but you don’t do a M2 with three people.  OK,
we don’t do a M2 with three people as we find sleep to be an important factor
to keep the enjoyment metric up there.   After we agreed on the entry category
the next discussion was about a goal to work towards, so we picked a total QSO
count only, not a score.  Then we looked at last years scores and knew that if
band conditions were good, our Q count goal might get us in the top 5 if we had
a high enough mult count and points per Q average to go along with it.   In any
event, with the outstanding MS competition this would be a race to the finish
and we really wanted to be in it.   The starting gun went off and the bands
came alive.
 
If statistics were kept for QRM and overall band congestion, the old records
would have certainly fallen.    A clear run frequency was something to dream
about, but never to be found.  So, we jumped in with everyone else and carved
out our little piece of whatever band we were on.   The excellent band
conditions and strong signals really helped keep our rates up.    We had good
runs on 40 and 75, but as many have already said, 15 meters was the band to be
on.   We moved to 15 meters at 1152 Z on Saturday morning and stayed there
until almost 2300 Z, only moving off to optimize our multiplier count by using
the allowed 10 band changes.   
 
Sunday we wanted to work 20 meters hard, but the rates were not there until
much later in the morning.  An open frequency was easy to find, but everyone
was still on 15.  NOTE TO SELF â€" determine what needs to be done to improve
the 20 meter signal.   Finally in the last 5 hours 20 meters came alive, but
another record for band congestion and QRM was set.  We had a great run
frequency, but it was shared with two other stations.  So we pushed on and made
the best of it.   The rate was not great, but it did give us the opportunity to
use our band changes again to grab the mults on the other station. 
 
One welcome surprise was to find 10 meters open on Sunday afternoon.   We moved
there to collect a few mults and found the band open to SA, EU, AF and NA, all
with the beam heading at 135 degrees.  Some stations were strong, but most were
just whispers.  This 10 meter opening proved very productive in the multiplier
column.  
 
Then the clock struck 2359 Z and it was over.  The bands were once again quite.
  Our original goal was to make 3500 Qs.  We were very close.  We wanted to
maximize our high point Qs.  Only 38 percent were NA.  47 percent were EU with
the rest split evenly between South America, Africa, Oceana and Asia. 
 
We would like to thank all the stations that worked us and made the
contribution to our score.  We would like to congratulate the other MS entries.
  The scores posted so far are absolutely OUTSTANDING and easily exceeded those
posted last year.  And finally, we would like to thank the contest sponsors. 
Another great one is now behind us.
 
Hope to be there in WPX-CW as either a MS or M2.
 
73, Bruce N1LN


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