[3830] WPX SSB KM7W(K7ZO) SO(A)SB15 HP
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Sun Mar 25 20:15:39 PDT 2012
CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: KM7W
Operator(s): K7ZO
Station: NK7U
Class: SO(A)SB15 HP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 1361
10:
------------
Total: 1361 Prefixes = 734 Total Score = 2,221,084
Club: Willamette Valley DX Club
Comments:
I was not sure what to expect the weekend. Conditions last weekend for the
Russian Content and others were clearly poor. But, it seemed like things got
better as the week progressed. So, as an optimist I hoped propagation would
match last year's WPX SSB conditions which were some of the best of the current
cycle. With this in mind I made the two hour drive from Boise over to NK7U. I
chose to operate Single Band 15 Assisted HP. Joe was going to do the same on 10
and our goals were to set new W7 records in the categories.
15 was open nicely to Japan and Asia at the start of the contest. A 155 first
hour was more a function of me not being "in the groove" than anything and a
200+ was certainly possible. Things slowed down the second and third hours but
the 104 and 111 were respectable. Got some good mults from HS0ZCW, EX7ML, UP6P,
UN8GV, UN6G and probably the best QSO of the contest A73A at 0336 UTC. It has
been some time since we worked that part of the world on 15 during the evening.
I had three OH's call in during the 0200 hour and I was their QSO's 1, 2 and
3. I told one of them "Welcome to the contest" to which he replied "Hey its 4AM
here and I just got up!"
When the band closed I had 397 QSOs in the log and felt pretty good about it.
Got up just before sunrise on Saturday and there were a few South Americans
already coming in. That felt good. I didn't expect the band to open to Europe
until a little later. I also knew from experience that Joe's 5/5/5 stack on
Europe is an absolute killer. It has proven itself in many contests. So, I
waited for the band to open and had a cup of coffee. Then another cup of
coffee, and another. I managed to scrape out QSO's with TM6M and EA3GTJ about
an hour after sunrise. This is where I expect the band to open to and figured
it was just a little what longer until the band snapped open. So tuned around
picked off stations I could, got some mini runs going that netted only US
stations, and drank another cup of coffee. I didn't work another European until
an hour later -- now two hours after sunrise. Now I was starting to get worried.
I could tell conditions were not great. Looking at the cluster it was clear 10
was not open from the East Coast to Europe which meant the whole world was on
15. The band did open nicely over the next 30 minutes and after much struggle I
finally managed to wedge in at 21357 and got a run going. I had a 135 hour
followed by a 90 which was respectable. I lost the frequency and took an hour
to find another one. I am not sure I have ever heard 15 as packed as I heard it
this weekend. It sounded like 20 at the bottom of the solar cycle. A clear
frequency meant that the QRM was only S9+5 instead of S9+15. By the time I got
a run going Europe was mostly gone but I had a nice rates in the upper 90s of
North Americans. By then sunrise was hitting Japan and it was time to start
beaming that way. While calling CQ I had F4FFH call in off the side of the
beams which was quite a surprise. Thinking it was a fluke I just kept beaming
to Asia. Then CT1EEK called in and figured something must be going on. In my
deep dark memories I remembered that 15 can be open to JA and Europe at the
same time. So I switched back the Europe stack, quickly worked a dozen
stations, and then it was over. This was around 2100 UTC -- around three hours
after sunset in Europe. Not bad. Unfortunately, when I went back to Japan and
Asia there just was not much happening. I can't believe I worked them all the
first night so propagation must have taken a drop somewhere along the way.
Luckily a steady stream of 1 pointers kept me going. I ended up pulling the
plug at 0200, about 2 hours earlier than Friday night.
At the end of Saturday night I was at 1.8M points with 1,250 QSOs. This was
well ahead of where I needed to be to achieve my pre-contest goals of 2.5M and
1,395 QSOs. I had already passed the old W7 Single Band 15 Assisted HP record
of 550K points. I was thinking with a good Sunday I could hit 3.0M points and
2,000 QSOs. In the 2011 WPX SSB contest the NK7U M/S team had 1,600+ QSO's on
15, so since I was totally dedicated to 15 I figured I could break that. Plus
my 1,250 QSOs at the end of Saturday was ahead of the 1,039 they had at the
same point.
I again sat down at the radio at dawn on Sunday. As I turned on the radio I
could hear IR4A. I could not work him but I did work IO3P, UA5A, and 9A5Y a
couple minutes later. Things seemed much better than Saturday. Then I didn't
work anyone for 15 minutes and it all got worse from there. The band only
seemed open up over the more northerly path in LA, SM, OH, LY, YL, UA3. I was
just not hearing the expected EA, F, and CT stations that we usually hear when
the band is marginal. Then I was working ON/PA and the G's. But, not many. And
even then the band didn't really open until 1745, about 90 minutes later than
Saturday. The rates for my hours on Sunday were 9, 10, 24, 36, 24, and 28 when
I finally said "Enough is enough" and pulled the plug.
So in the end, yes I hopefully sent a new W7 record for Single Op, Single Band
15 Meter Assisted. I fell well short of my goals though and in then end felt
like the contest really ended for me when I turned the radio off on Saturday
night.
One very positive thing from the contest are the 31 BY stations in the log.
Contesting activity continues to increase from this country. It will be
interesting if this trend continues for another 10 years or more. It would
change the nature of contesting here on the west coast.
Thanks to Joe for letting me come over and play radio for the weekend and KL9A
for the use of the KM7W call.
Scott/K7ZO
QSO/Pref by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
D1-0000Z --+- --+- --+- --+- 155/106 - -+- 155/106 155/106
D1-0100Z - - - - 104/67 - 104/67 259/173
D1-0200Z - - - - 112/46 - 112/46 371/219
D1-0300Z - - - - 26/9 - 26/9 397/228
D1-0400Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-0500Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-0800Z --+- --+- --+- --+- --+- --+- 0/0 397/228
D1-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-1100Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-1200Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-1300Z - - - - - - 0/0 397/228
D1-1400Z - - - - 10/7 - 10/7 407/235
D1-1500Z - - - - 30/28 - 30/28 437/263
D1-1600Z --+- --+- --+- --+- 72/62 --+- 72/62 509/325
D1-1700Z - - - - 135/98 - 135/98 644/423
D1-1800Z - - - - 90/61 - 90/61 734/484
D1-1900Z - - - - 52/32 - 52/32 786/516
D1-2000Z - - - - 98/26 - 98/26 884/542
D1-2100Z - - - - 92/25 - 92/25 976/567
D1-2200Z - - - - 67/29 - 67/29 1043/596
D1-2300Z - - - - 66/30 - 66/30 1109/626
D2-0000Z --+- --+- --+- --+ - 60/19 --+- 60/19 1169/645
D2-0100Z - - - - 61/18 - 61/18 1230/663
D2-0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-0400Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-0500Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-0800Z --+- --+- --+- --+- --+- --+- 0/0 1230/663
D2-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-1100Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-1200Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-1300Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-1400Z - - - - - - 0/0 1230/663
D2-1500Z - - - - 9/5 - 9/5 1239/668
D2-1600Z --+- --+- --+- --+- 10/7 --+- 10/7 1249/675
D2-1700Z - - - - 24/14 - 24/14 1273/689
D2-1800Z - - - - 36/18 - 36/18 1309/707
D2-1900Z - - - - 24/14 - 24/14 1333/721
D2-2000Z - - - - 28/13 - 28/13 1361/734
Total: 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 1361/734 0/0
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
AS 0 0 0 0 342 0 342 25.1
NA 0 0 0 0 557 0 557 40.9
OC 0 0 0 0 25 0 25 1.8
SA 0 0 0 0 50 0 50 3.7
EU 0 0 0 0 371 0 371 27.3
AF 0 0 0 0 16 0 16 1.2
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
3V 1 1
4X 1 1
5B 2 2
5N 1 1
5Z 1 1
6W 1 1
8P 1 1
9A 6 6
9M6 1 1
9V 1 1
A7 1 1
BV 2 2
BY 31 31
CE 6 6
CM 4 4
CN 2 2
CT 4 4
CT3 3 3
CU 1 1
CX 4 4
D4 2 2
DL 66 66
DU 2 2
E7 4 4
EA 20 20
EA8 2 2
EA9 1 1
EI 6 6
ER 2 2
ES 1 1
EU 2 2
EX 1 1
F 14 14
FM 1 1
G 26 26
GD 1 1
GM 9 9
GW 1 1
HA 4 4
HB 2 2
HC 1 1
HI 1 1
HK 3 3
HL 9 9
HS 2 2
I 43 43
IT9 4 4
JA 258 258
JT 1 1
K 500 500
KH6 8 8
KL 8 8
KP2 2 2
KP4 1 1
LA 3 3
LU 12 12
LX 1 1
LY 6 6
LZ 2 2
OE 2 2
OH 7 7
OK 6 6
OM 2 2
ON 19 19
OZ 8 8
P4 4 4
PA 10 10
PJ4 1 1
PY 17 17
S5 8 8
SM 7 7
SP 29 29
SV 7 7
SV5 2 2
SV9 1 1
TI 1 1
UA 7 7
UA9 28 28
UN 3 3
UR 17 17
V5 1 1
VE 33 33
VK 5 5
VP5 1 1
VR 2 2
XE 4 4
YB 5 5
YL 1 1
YO 4 4
YU 5 5
YV 2 2
Z3 1 1
ZL 4 4
ZS 1 1
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