[3830] CQWW CW DH8BQA SOSB(A)/10 QRP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: DH8BQA
Operator(s): DH8BQA
Station: DH8BQA

Class: SOSB(A)/10 QRP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:  661    36      142
------------------------------
Total:  661    36      142  Total Score = 286,936

Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Comments:

Elecraft K3, 5 W + 6 ele OWA Yagi (G0KSC design) @ 60 feet

Wow! That sums it up quite nicely! ;-))

Would never have thought that this number of QSOs and especially multiplier
count would have been possible on QRP! Conditions were quite good although not
as well as during the SSB part! E.g. only hrd/wkd 2 x W6 (zone 3) while in the
SSB part there were literally hundreds of Westcoasters audible overhere.
Nevertheless a LOT of fun!

As I am no good CW operator this category was about right for me as most of the
time you're just S&P'ing. ;-)) So only about 15% of the QSOs on my own CQs. Glad
to have found several mults before the packet pileups, that made life a lot
easier.

Speaking of packet pileups: Discipline is as worse as it may get today. :-((
Very often when I finally got through (yes, there ARE tricks to crack a pileup
with QRP, too ;-)) but my call was not copied correctly and the DX asked for
fills there was ALWAYS somebody calling above me. :-(( Come on guys, if the DX
asks for 8BQA? or DH8? it is NOT S5,9A, DL1, etc. You guys just slow down the
process for everybody! I especially want to point out KP2MM who really invested
a full 3 minutes to complete our QSO despite all the hecklers! Many thanks to
the KP2MM team, your effort was much appreciated for the KP2 mult here! It
could have been done in 20 seconds if no hecklers were there ...

Being assisted had the advantage that I had all the mults on the band-map. So I
could easily check if there is still a pileup or not and then decide to grab the
mult. Usually the packet pileups died after 15-20 minutes if the DX was not
spotted again. This is the right time for QRPers then. ;-)) Maybe my good
antenna has helped a bit, too. ;-))

The band closed quite early on both days (about 16:30z time). Interestingly on
Sunday it opened up again after darkness (and signals completely gone for 30-60
mins already) for another 1.5 hours! The pattern was South America again, then
SA getting weaker again, therefor Caribeans getting loud, then weaker again and
finally W/VE popping out of the noise again with up to 599 signals and easy
QSOs. I already recognized those openings during other contests. They are not
to happen all the time, but if they do it is always good for a few extra QSOs.
;-)) What is common to all those after-darkness-openings is the selectiveness
(see the pattern above, even selective within the US, too) as well as with
these openings there is no backscatter anymore! So really really interesting
...

This one could be good enough for a new world record! Admittedly the category
is just existing for 2 years now so this might not be too difficult. Yes, I
chose this category consciously. ;-)) So lets see if it holds or if any of the
LUs, PYs, etc. decided to do so, too ...

Vy 73, Olli - DH8BQA


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