[3830] WPX CW DL3YM(@DF2PY) SOAB HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: DL3YM
Operator(s): DL3YM
Station: DF2PY

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 36.0
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:   35
   80:  289
   40:  916
   20: 1118
   15:  212
   10:   15
------------
Total: 2585  Prefixes = 924  Total Score = 5,634,552

Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Comments:

Who ever said that contesting is for wimps? I am simply amazed at the
willingness of my fellow CW contesters to sit out the extremely challenging
condx this weekend and I am proud to be a part of this brotherhood.

I had high hopes of improving my personal best of 2009 after some major
improvements were implemented regarding station interference and RF blocking
the weekend prior to the contest. The fluttery and weak sigs from the US
Midwest on Saturday morning on 40 quickly showed, however, that there was
something bad going on condition-wise. Having no cluster access I had no idea
on how bad the solar shock wave would affect shortwave propagation, but after
returning to the station from my first off-time on Saturday midday the high
bands simply sounded like an EU QSO party. There literally was no DX to work.
After an agonizingly slow afternoon I took another lengthy off-time early
realizing that condx could not get any worse and hoping that the low bands
would not suffer as much. Guess the idea was ok in principle, yet it got worse
on Sunday.
Without the serious competition from my friend DK6XZ who put in an absolutely
amazing score running 1 radio only (congrats Suad) I would have probably thrown
in the towel and rather opted for a beer or two, hi. Sunday afternoon found me
CQing in broad daylight on 40 and S&P-ing with the second radio on 10, go
figure! But then came along a finale furioso with conditions rapidly improving.
All of a sudden 20 opened up big time with loud sigs from the US including the
west coast, KH6 and KL7 as well as arm chair copy of stations from Japan long
path. At the same time 15 provided a lot of exotic mults from South America
until deep into the night, while on 40 I was called by loud stations from East
Asia and VK. I mostly ran 20 and 40 while pushing hard on the second radio.
Finished of the party running on 80 and picking up a few more contacts on 160.

The score is much better than last year due to the significant improvement in
mults and DX worked. If conditions had improved 5 to 6 hours earlier a new
personal best would have been within reach. Well, there is always next year.

I am deeply grateful to Wolf, DF2PY, for all the work he puts into providing a
competitive setup and his family for taking care of me over the weekend. Thanks
to Axel, DK4US, for solving all the IT-glitches I have managed to include into
the set-up, as well as to Suad, DK6XZ, for a fun race. And last but not least
thanks to my XYL and the boys for excluding me from their plans for the
weekend.


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