[3830] WPX SSB WM5R(@K5NA) SOAB HP
webform at b41h.net
webform at b41h.net
Mon Mar 26 13:58:41 PDT 2012
CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: WM5R
Operator(s): WM5R
Station: K5NA
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: EM10
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 2
80: 47
40: 752
20: 979
15: 1371
10: 58
------------
Total: 3209 Prefixes = 1022 Total Score = 6,362,972
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
The Station at K5NA:
====================
10 Meters
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 152', rotatable
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 115', fixed NE
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 78', fixed NE
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 100', fixed NW
15 Meters
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 170', rotatable
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 128' fixed NE
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 86' fixed NE
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 44', rotatable from 315 to 140 degrees
20 Meters
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 190', rotatable
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 128' fixed NE
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 70' fixed NE
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 45' fixed SE
5 element Cushcraft monobander @ 104' fixed NW
9 element Cushcraft X9 tribander @ 82', rotatable
40 Meters
2 element Cushcraft XM240 @ 200', rotatable
2 element Cushcraft XM240 @ 128' fixed NE
2 element Cushcraft XM240 @ 70' fixed NW
Inverted Vee @ 35'.
80 Meters
NE - Two element phased vertical array
NW - Two element phased vertical array
SW - Sloping dipole @ 170'
Inverted Vee @ 150'
160 Meters
Full sized Rohn 25G vertical with insulator at 30' and raised radials
Receiving Antennas
Beverages: SW, W, NW, NNW, N, NNE, E, SE
Radios:
======
Radio 1: Elecraft K3, Elecraft P3, Acom 2000A
Radio 2: Elecraft K3, Elecraft P3, Acom 2000A
SO2R Controller: microHAM MK2R+
Headset: Yamaha CM-500
Software: WriteLog V10.80F
This is the third time in the last four years I have operated
the CQ WPX phone contest as a serious unassisted high-power
single-operator from the K5NA/K5DU contest station. Richard
was very enthusiastic about my operation, even though he's just
recently started treatment for esophageal cancer. Thankfully,
the station is fairly mature at this point and takes little
effort to get ready for a contest. I can (almost) just walk
up, put on the headset and go.
I had my best start ever in this contest, coming extremely
close to a 200 QSO hour in the second hour of the contest.
It seems like being on 40 meters is always a struggle at
times on the first night, but by 0900 UTC I was still around
200 contacts ahead of my running total last year. My
lead over the 2011 me shrank slightly over the course of
Saturday and Sunday until late on Sunday, when I pulled it
all back and then some in the final 2.5 hours.
I took a little different off-time strategy this year. I
studied the 2011 rate sheet from my contesting mentor, K5TR,
and decided to follow his basic strategy, and try to adapt to
conditions. Last year, George operated the first 19 hours
straight through before his first off-time. Initially, I
planned to do the same thing, and I felt like maybe I could
pull it off, but then I hit some slow rate in the 0900 UTC hour
and around 0930 UTC decided to take a couple of hours off. My
next off-time was from from 0200 UTC to 0500 UTC on Sunday,
which may have been too long, but coincides with the time
when I really struggle getting a good frequency established
on 40 meters. And I was really tired by that point. In
retrospect, I probably would have been better off with maybe
a one-hour break then and a longer break later in the morning.
My worst clock hour on the air was 1200 UTC on Sunday, when
I only managed 33 contacts. Unfortunately, I think the really
optimal off-time strategy in this contest is a lot of 1-hour
breaks, and it takes some real mental fortitude to give up
that much sleep.
Early Saturday afternoon, Susan came into the shack to tell
me that she was taking Richard to the Emergency Room due
to swelling in one of his legs. On his way out the door,
Richard told me to keep operating. Hours and hours later,
Susan came back to the house while I was sleeping during
an off-time and left me a note. They had found blood
clots in Richard's leg and he was admitted to the hospital
and would probably not be out until Tuesday or Wednesday.
She had gone back to the hospital before I woke up. I had
brought all my own food and drink this time around, and
the station was working perfectly, so I kept going, and
tried to just focus on the contest. Richard and I
exchanged a few text messages during the day on Sunday,
including one from him suggesting I should aim for 3200
QSOs and 1200 multipliers, both of which I thought were
impossible at the time.
The contest really ended with some huge rate. After my
final off-time, I focused on 20 meters, where I was still a
little light on contacts and I knew I could still pull in
Europeans. I got some good long-path to southeast Asia and
Australia during this time, and the rate kept gradually
going up and up. In the last half hour, in particular,
I'm sure my rate was well over 200 QSOs/hour. I think my
best minute in the whole contest was 2359 UTC on Sunday,
when I made 7 QSOs. I'm convinced now that operating those
last two hours of the contest (rather than taking them as
off-time) is the way to go.
Before the contest, my only real goals were to make 3000
contacts and 1000 multipliers, which I'd not been able to
do in the same contest before. On Sunday afternoon, I
decided that my previous personal bests were within reach,
so I adjusted my goals to beating my previous best QSO total
(3124), multiplier total (1008), and claimed score (6.0M).
I was able to break all three personal records in the final
two clock hours of the contest. The first one to fall was
the claimed score and the last one to fall was the QSO
total.
Susan was back at the house right as the contest ended,
taking care of this and that, and we shut down everything as
quickly as we could so she could drive back to the hospital
to be with Richard. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then
stopped by the hospital on the way home. When he wasn't
being poked and prodded or being visited by his fighter pilot
friends, Richard had been using a laptop and an
internet-connected HF receiver in Virginia to listen to me
operating. He told me he really enjoyed hearing me send the
3200 serial number with just about half an hour to go.
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 176/115 --+-- 176/115 176/115
D1-0100Z - - - 177/55 17/8 - 194/63 370/178
D1-0200Z - - - 116/40 - - 116/40 486/218
D1-0300Z - - 105/50 - - - 105/50 591/268
D1-0400Z - - 80/29 - - - 80/29 671/297
D1-0500Z - - 97/47 - - - 97/47 768/344
D1-0600Z - 4/0 119/32 - - - 123/32 891/376
D1-0700Z - 12/3 61/20 - - - 73/23 964/399
D1-0800Z 2/1 16/2 25/11 3/1 --+-- --+-- 46/15 1010/414
D1-0900Z - 6/3 16/10 3/2 - - 25/15 1035/429
D1-1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 1035/429
D1-1100Z - - 28/12 - - - 28/12 1063/441
D1-1200Z - - 34/6 8/3 5/4 - 47/13 1110/454
D1-1300Z - - - 26/13 64/45 - 90/58 1200/512
D1-1400Z - - - - 62/39 10/4 72/43 1272/555
D1-1500Z - - - 2/0 71/42 1/1 74/43 1346/598
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 91/32 --+-- 91/32 1437/630
D1-1700Z - - - - 92/36 - 92/36 1529/666
D1-1800Z - - - - 65/9 14/8 79/17 1608/683
D1-1900Z - - - - 68/20 13/8 81/28 1689/711
D1-2000Z - - - - 89/33 - 89/33 1778/744
D1-2100Z - - - - 108/17 2/0 110/17 1888/761
D1-2200Z - - - - 87/16 - 87/16 1975/777
D1-2300Z - - - 90/7 19/4 - 109/11 2084/788
D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 70/9 19/3 --+-- 89/12 2173/800
D2-0100Z - - - 123/15 - - 123/15 2296/815
D2-0200Z - - - 4/0 - - 4/0 2300/815
D2-0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 2300/815
D2-0400Z - - - - - - 0/0 2300/815
D2-0500Z - - 71/15 - - - 71/15 2371/830
D2-0600Z - - 56/5 - - - 56/5 2427/835
D2-0700Z - 9/2 26/1 - - - 35/3 2462/838
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2462/838
D2-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 2462/838
D2-1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 2462/838
D2-1100Z - - 29/6 - - - 29/6 2491/844
D2-1200Z - - 5/1 23/4 5/1 - 33/6 2524/850
D2-1300Z - - - 59/9 12/3 - 71/12 2595/862
D2-1400Z - - - - 67/26 - 67/26 2662/888
D2-1500Z - - - - 74/33 17/2 91/35 2753/923
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 88/28 1/1 89/29 2842/952
D2-1700Z - - - - 11/2 - 11/2 2853/954
D2-1800Z - - - - 53/15 - 53/15 2906/969
D2-1900Z - - - 1/0 1/0 - 2/0 2908/969
D2-2000Z - - - - 27/5 - 27/5 2935/974
D2-2100Z - - - 53/11 - - 53/11 2988/985
D2-2200Z - - - 80/14 - - 80/14 3068/999
D2-2300Z - - - 141/23 - - 141/23 3209/1022
Total: 2/1 47/10 752/245 979/2061371/536 58/24
Distribution by Continent
-------------------------
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
SA 0 3 24 23 22 33 105 3.3
NA 2 39 572 799 754 9 2175 67.8
AS 0 1 30 41 40 0 112 3.5
OC 0 2 19 9 6 1 37 1.2
AF 0 1 7 6 5 6 25 0.8
EU 0 1 98 101 543 8 751 23.4
Distribution by Country
-----------------------
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
3V 1 1
4O 1 1
5B 1 3 4
5N 1 1
5X 1 1
5Z 1 1
8P 1 1 2
9A 4 2 7 13
9H 1 1
9M6 1 1
9Y 1 1
BY 2 2
CE 2 1 4 5 12
CM 3 5 2 5 15
CN 1 2 3
CT 1 4 8 13
CT3 1 3 1 1 6
CU 1 1 2 4
CX 1 2 3
D4 1 1 2
DL 19 9 90 118
DU 2 2
E7 1 3 4
EA 14 10 29 3 56
EA6 1 1
EA8 1 2 1 1 5
EA9 1 1 2
EI 1 3 8 12
ER 1 1 2
ES 1 3 4
EU 5 5
F 4 1 28 33
FM 1 1
FO 1 1
G 6 5 25 36
GI 1 1
GM 2 6 8
GM/s 1 1
GW 2 2
HA 1 2 9 12
HB 4 2 6 12
HC 1 1
HI 1 2 3
HK 1 1 2
HS 1 1
HZ 2 2
I 9 14 55 1 79
IS 1 1
IT9 4 2 7 2 15
JA 1 28 13 25 67
JT 1 1
K 2 30 509 711 664 4 1920
KH2 1 1
KH6 2 7 1 2 1 13
KL 1 8 7 7 23
KP2 1 2 1 2 6
KP4 1 1 1 3
LA 1 1 4 6
LU 1 5 7 4 8 25
LX 1 1
LY 1 1 10 12
LZ 1 1 7 9
OE 1 1 6 8
OH 1 4 10 15
OK 4 3 18 25
OM 1 10 11
ON 2 1 15 18
OZ 8 8
P4 1 1 2
PA 2 2 15 19
PJ2 1 1 1 2 5
PJ4 1 1 1 1 4
PY 8 12 11 11 42
PZ 1 1
S5 7 4 12 23
SM 6 17 23
SP 2 1 24 27
SV 2 5 7
SV5 2 2
TF 1 1
TI 1 1 2
TK 1 1
UA 8 29 37
UA9 2 21 7 30
UN 3 2 5
UR 1 2 22 25
V4 1 1
V5 1 2 3
VE 4 40 73 74 1 192
VK 3 7 2 12
XE 4 1 1 6
YB 3 1 4
YL 5 5
YO 1 17 18
YS 1 1
YU 5 3 6 14
YV 1 3 1 2 7
Z3 2 2
ZL 1 2 3
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