[3830] WPX CW KQ2M SOAB HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 14.8

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:    0
   40:  258
   20:  586
   15:  888
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1732  Prefixes = 750  Total Score = 3,793,500

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Just three weeks before the contest I was hospitalized for Atrial Fibrillation
with a heartrate approaching 300 beats per minute and a sky-high blood
pressure.  Since I had no previous heart issues, this was "out-off-the-blue"
and quite scary. Ultimately the diagnosis was made of a new and nasty
auto-immune disease (my second in two years).  Two ER trips and three weeks
later it was time for WPXCW.

I had been rebuilding my physical strength and physical stamina for the past
year and was getting back to a place where I might be ready for a "real"
competitive SOABHP operation, the kind that I used to do for almost 20 years
but hadn't been able to do since 2005.  When I couldn't fix the broken antennas
before the contest, I dialed back my expectations from SOABHP Unassisted, to a
serious Single Band 15 Unassisted to "let's just get on and operate".

When you are not operating seriously, you get to use part of the weekend for
other things.  We had a fun dinner with some good friends and when they left
about 03z, I decided to go down stairs and start operating.  WOW!
REALLY good cndx!

In WPXCW, 20 is a night-time band and with little absorption at night, signals
can really get loud.  I heard dozens of S9+ Russians and lots of loud SW Eu
stations.  Not a full EU band opening, but good enough.  I squeezed my way in
and had 153 hour with UN2E, 4L1MA and XP2I calling in.  The rate slowed in the
04z hour with 120 stations and notably loud A73A.  Then TA3AX moved in and
spent the next 30 minutes qrming me before he finally went away. I know that I
am pretty loud on 20 so it can't be a good strategy for another station to call
cq on my frequency while I am running! About 0430z, the band starting dying and
Eu and Russia signals weakened significantly.  At just before 05z, I qsy'ed to
40 to see if I could run any Eu 6 pointers with what was left of my 40M 3L wire
beam.  The rate was decent with a steady flow of very loud EU stations and some
stateside but soon enough the signals got weaker and without a low angle
signal, I had to qsy back to 20, which I did at 0554z to finish a 109 hour.

By 06z, the EU opening on 20 had begun to broaden out with lots of G and DL
stations to complement the steady stream of zone 16 callers.  SV9COL, 4K9W and
V25E were welcome callers as AC5O decided he liked my freq. and proceeded to
call cq for the next 15 minutes on top of me.  This behavior really baffles me.
 What was he thinking?  Despite the intentional qrm, I worked 91 stations and
then the 07z hour saw more Asiatic Russians station along with VK and ZL in
addition to EU.  F5VKT was S9+30 at 07z but the rate was dropping - no doubt
that Eu stations were moving to 10 and 15 rather than stay on 20.

Normally when the band is wide open to EU wat ~ 45 degrees, swinging the
antenna SSE causes a loss of signal strength, so I was fascinated to see the EU
signals drop as I passed Africa and then pick up again for a second signal peak
at 150 deg.  I noticed that 15 meters was also open to EU at 07z via skewpath
150 degrees - this was very unusual.  Cndx were clearly excellent!

Having been up since 5 AM friday morning, at 0730z (3:30 AM) it was time to get
some sleep even though the bands were open.  I thought about staying up a bit
later, but after having the A-Fib, you DON'T want to risk that again so it was
off to sleep (coffee was NOT an option!).

At 1300z I was back on 15 and the band just exploded!  All of Europe was loud
and Russia was even louder although the qsb was intense and super fast - so
what should have been sensational rate hours were moderated because of the
erratic qsb and constantly having to ask for repeats.  VR2XLN was my 3rd 15
meter qso followed by B1Z, BV1EK, various UN's and then at 1350z, JA's!!!

For only the 3rd time in all the years that I had operated WPXCW, I could work
JA's on 15 at ~ 14z.  This was very rare and very exciting!  But although they
were loud, there were very few of them calling in.  The 13z hour finished with
a 141 hour followed by 14z and 15z with 136 and 121 respectively.  The JA
opening unfortunately did not last very long - less than 1 hour, and then the
Asiatic Russians and then the Russians went away as the rest of EU dropped way
down in signal strength.  Normally I would simply switch from my stack at
109'/90' to 90'/60' and then 60'/30', but the 60' antenna was stuck SW from
last October's blizzard and the 30' was broken and on the ground. Having lost
2-3 s-units with low angle antennas during a very high angle opening, I was
weak by comparison into EU and had a lot of trouble with freq. interlopers. 
EX2A and 7Z1SJ called in at 1543z as Europe weakened and US callers began to
pick up.  With the sun now directly overhead at 16z and at the peak of
absorption, I took 1 hour off and resumed operating at 1704z. 

The 15 meter opening continued to disappear and reappear with the perplexing
weakness in US West coast stations.  A REALLY loud KL7RA S9+10 called in at
1743z off the side of my antenna! followed by TF3DC at 1757z.  The 17z hour had
106 q's followed by 88 in the 18z hour.  As 15 started to reopen to EU, I
noticed that my left leg was really hurting.  Sometimes I get pins and needles
in my legs while sitting in the operating chair for many hours, but this felt a
bit different.  Starting at about 18z, I proceeded to stand for 10-15 minutes
each hour and then sit down again.  I thought that this should help make things
better and relieve the pain, but it didn't.  As 15 reopened to EU with the
occasional Russian caller, I ignored my leg but at 1907z, with the pain
intensifying, I decided to go upstairs and lie down for a while.  That seemed
to help a bit and I got on at 2007z.  15 sounded open to EU and the West Coast
US, and with the absorption mostly gone and with lower angle signals, the high
stack was back in business. At 2026z, a loud JO7WXN called in and when he was
followed by JF1KML at 2029z, I began to have visions of a big JA run - a real
rarity from New England in WPXCW!  EU kept popping in and out with S9++ signals
to S3 in less than 1 minute.  Even Eu Russian stations were calling amidst the
occasional JA.  The JA run did not materialize however so I swung both antennas
back to EU.  The 20z, 21z, and 22z hours were 92, 118 and 117 with a steady
stream of EU callers interspersed with US and the occasional JA station.  

At 2140z, a very loud BA1SN called in followed by BH4RRG at 2146z.  I continued
to run the occasional JA but mostly it was EU and US and the band apparently was
continuing to stay open well past what I might have expected.  

The most remarkable thing was that the JA's calling in DID NOT HAVE ANY
FLUTTER!  In fact, they sounded like Europeans!  It has been almost 22 years
since I heard JA stations without flutter from the Northeast - it was an
incredible JA opening on 15 in the 1990 ARRLDX SSB contest and I was the 15
meter op at N2RM.  15 stayed open to JA until ~ 07z when it finally closed for
me and for the West Coast.  For 7 hours I had run JA's and was almost as loud
as the 7's! That was extraordinary! Now I was hearing JA's without flutter
again, but they were not as loud and my run was nowehere near as good.  

I was excited about the excellent conditions and if now for the rapidly
intensifying pain from my toes up to my knee I would have been having a great
time.  But as the pain began approaching an "8" out of 10, I knew that
something was wrong.  When you have been in the hospital with A-fib very
recently, you tend to take such things seriously. 

At 2235, E21EIC called in - a real S9 and RX3DBG was a solid 59+20.  The rate
though had slowed and without the JA's and JA prefixes, I knew that I would be
better off on 20 and sure enough, a big pileup ensured and the rate meter
topped 170.

I continued to operate into the 23z hour with another 94 q's, still on 20, but
knew that I had to go to 40.  Just before qsying to 40, I went back to 15 at
0002z and ran more EU! Simply incredible cndx on 15! but time to qsy to 40.

At first I was ignored on 40 which was mostly empty - no doubt the EU stations
were still enjoying the high rates on 15 and 20.  The first few EU callers on
40, 4U1ITU and IU9T, were very loud but few and far between.  And then the band
exploded! I knew that I had been spotted because everyone was zero beat!  UGH! 
Lots of EU callers, loads of Russians and a very loud 4L1MA with quite a few
CW5W, Pw7T and quite a few other SA stations.  It was a great run with the 113
in the 00z as the rate meter stayed above 150 for the last 10.  It was fabulous
and I knew that I would have a few more good hours, but I was now in unbearbale
pain and at 0123z I had to qrt.          

I took the sock off my left foot and was shocked to see the from my toes up to
my knee was so massively swollen, it looked like the skin was going to burst.

I called my Cardiologist who said that it could be a blood clot and I needed to
get to the ER.

At 4 AM we left the ER with the requirement that I come back in 6 hours for an
Ultrasound.  Fortunately that proved negative (no clot), but I had to keep my
foot up the rest of the weekend so that the pain and swelling could go down. 
As the auto-immune disease worsened, I was back in the ER 2 more times in the
next week for other problems.

My final score:

1732 q's x 750 mult for 3,793,500 in 14.8 hours.  (118 per hour!)

I was very pleased to do so well with 1 radio and so few working antennas.
I probably would have been competitive if I could have lasted for the contest,
but unfortunately that is not how it worked out.

For the forseeable future, serious contesting is completely out of the
question.  Hopefully this will not be a permanent situation but I have to be
realistic - with my 3rd serious illness in the past 4 years, contesting as I
know it, may be over for me and far, far too soon (I just turned 51).  I sure
do miss the competition and the joy and challenge of building a big score.

Congrats to all the ops with the record scores and thanks for all the Q's! 

73

Bob  KQ2M

kq2m at earthlink.net

www.rlsfinancialgroup.com
www.kq2m.com


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