[3830] ARRLDX CW W6QU(W8QZA) SOAB QRP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: W6QU
Operator(s): W8QZA
Station: W8QZA

Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: San Diego, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 30

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:   11     7
   40:   71    24
   20:  112    49
   15:  258    76
   10:  101    40
-------------------
Total:  553   196  Total Score = 324,576

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

Rig: Elecraft K-2, 5 Watts.

Antennas on my small city lot:

3 el SteppIR up 32 feet: 10-15-20 Meters.

Butternut HF-2V Vertical for 40-80 Meters.

Inverted L for 160 Meters.
******************************************

Conditions out here on the west coast were decent, but not as good as the World
Wide DX contest last November. Specifically, I was only able to work one
European station on 10 Meters, CS2C.

Going through the bands, I was never able to manage a QSO on 160 M with my one
year old inverted L. At one point before sunrise on Sunday morning, I asked
KH6LC to go to 160 and he graciously agreed to do it. But despite our effort, I
just could not get through. That was quite disappointing.

On 80 M I managed to work a two JA and two UA0 stations. In addition, John
(K6AM) at ZF2AM and the guys at TI5N were able to pull my signal out of the
noise; no easy feat on 80!

On 40 M I managed to get into Europe for 4 Qs, a difficult trick with 5 watts
and a vertical from out here in San Diego! I also worked 39 JAs for what must
be an all time high!

20 M gave a nice surprise late Saturday night by having an opening across the
pole into deep Russia. It was nice to work about 10 Qs in zones 16, 17 and 18
in Russia and two in UN. It is incredible to work that path on one call like
I'm running a Kilowatt!

15 M opened to the west late Saturday afternoon and I worked a number of
stations I never get to work in contests: BY, 9M2, 9M6, 9V, and XU9ACY. And
this is the band that provided me with most of my European Qs.

10 M did well into the Carribean and South America. I also managed to get 6V7S
and ZS1EL as well as the usual Canary and Madiera Island Qs. I heard 9N1II
briefly late Saturday afternoon, but never heard him work anyone and he sure
didn't hear me. That provided me with a nice cardiac stress test which I seemed
to pass!

I was delighted to see so many JA stations on the air for this contest. I
managed to have 160 Qs with JA stations, or almost 30% of all my Qs! To bad
they are all one multiplier! I heard ZD8Z on 15 many times during the contest
and it was very nice to see that station active again in the contest!

I approached this contest differently than my usual strategy, and took more
time off to eat meals and relax a bit. It is hard to stay at the rig when your
rate drops to 6 or 7 Qs an hour and I decided to take time and recuperate when
things slowed down like that. That is why N1MM showed my actual time at the rig
to be 30 hours instead of my previous 36 or 40.  Also, I got 4 hours of sleep
each night. I staggered the time of sleep so that between the two nights, there
was very little time where I was not operating at least one of the two nights.

I do not have this problem of perseverence when I am doing a single op at
Keko's station (TI5N). There it is hard to find a time where you can't get into
a pile-up on some band!

I worked 92 different countries, which is the second highest I have ever done.
The best was last November's CQ WWDX CW where I got 97. So I still have not
worked DXCC in a single weekend!

So another great contest is in the books, ...or I should say in computer
memory.

73, and see you again in about 12 days for ARRL DX Phone!

...Bill  W8QZA / W6QU


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