[3830] CQ WW RTTY K7IA SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 26:57

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------------
   80:   43    58        6      29     5
   40:  205   424       44      35    14
   20:  302   469       40      51    19
   15:  346   720       51      41    17
   10:  157   408       46      14    18
------------------------------------------
Total: 1053  2079      187     170    73  Total Score = 893,970

Club: 

Comments:

I've not been a contester long enough to have ever seen 10 & 15 meters like they
were this weekend!  Just how did all of the Big Dogs of Contesting ever survive
the recent lean years, knowing that things could be like this??  I've got a lot
to learn about how to budget operating time between the high bands, if they are
all going to be open at the same time...

Other than a couple of QSO parties and minor contests, this is the first event
I've operated since a new tower and antennas were raised almost a month ago. 
Just over a year ago, the SteppIR's driven element stepper motor failed for the
third time, and I scrapped it and its 30/40 trombone, replacing it with a
standard driven element.  A year is a long time to go without much of an
antenna on 40m, but the new M2 2 el at 92 feet is now making up for the loss. 
Even an 20 year old HyGain TH5 that I picked up for a song and rebuilt, sitting
within the guy cables at 60 feet, worked extremely well.  The 4 el SteppIR is
now the lone occupant of its 50 foot tower (soon to grow to 70').  High band
beam directions are as simple as turning a switch, if those directions are
first thoughtfully set (more study needed there!).

This event seemed to be better attended than in recent years.  Are the
conditions responsible, or are there more digi operators?  Probably both.  Many
AFSK ops are in need of some Elmering regarding how to set Tx audio gain--I have
never heard so many badly distorted signals--some were impossible to copy (using
MMTTY engine and default DSP/FFT settings).

The most memorable contact came late on Sunday afternoon:  VK3WDX called as I
was running on 20.  Using the old tribander, pointing towards EU, he had a
booming signal, and I thought he was a K7 in 1-land.  Nope, SuperCheck Partial
said "VK," so I worked and logged him, and we exchanged a few comments--he was
long path, and there was no evidence of warble, echo, etc. at either end.  This
hobby is really something.

Many thanks to the gurus of N1MM Logger--there are so many automated features
built into RTTY mode that all exchanges can be accomplished by only three
fingers:  mouse (2 fingers), and a macro for {grab}.  And they call it
"radiosport?"

Thanks also to CQ for sponsoring the WW (and other) events!

Next up:  California QP next weekend and Arizona QP after that.  I'll be on an
Arizona county line and will hope to see you (dunno which line--my usual line
was burned up last Spring).

73, dan k7ia


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