[3830] CQWW CW K7RL SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: K7RL
Operator(s): K7RL
Station: K7RL

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: 03
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   14     7        6
   80:  272    19       39
   40:  712    32       96
   20: 1048    35      109
   15:  652    30       83
   10:  214    26       51
------------------------------
Total: 2912   149      384  Total Score = 4,331,158

Club: Western Washington DX Club

Comments:

Got a little worried about how the weekend would turn out with predictions of
two CMEs heading for earth. If the polar path closed, it was going to be a long
48 hours. Generally speaking, conditions were better than I expected. Aside from
some DX stations refusing to sign, the contest was fun with lots of action. Here
is a quick band-by-band recap:

160m - Dead. Glad I wasn't the op. on this band at a big M/M station! (No
disrespect intended to those guys, just trying to make my point). :-)

80m - Very surprising. Had a great JA run Saturday morning with nice little
pile-ups. Sunday morning the band briefly opened to EU and added a few new
mults in the log. It's been a while since I've had almost 300 Qs on 80m in a DX
test. Meanwhile, competitive mult totals still elude me. 

40m - One of the money bands. Very poor to EU Friday/Saturday. Most big gun
stations were weak and their signals skewed. But, JA was excellent! Not knowing
what Saturday/Sunday would bring, I decided not to take a break and worked the
band until sunrise with pretty good rate. Glad I did, because Sunday morning
was exactly the opposite. Enjoyed a great EU run lasting until about 09z and
thought my goal of 1,000 Qs was on track. Unfortunately, propagation to JA
Sunday morning was poor and my goal evaporated. 

20m â€" The money band. Excellent EU runs both mornings lasting until early
afternoon. Some of the pile-ups were big and suffered from flutter and echo,
making it tough to get the call on the first try. It certainly demanded my full
attention which shut down any second radio Qs. As a side note, it felt like
there may have been more JA action than usual.
 
15m - Disappointing. Unlike the SSB test in October, the band did not produce
like I had hoped. EU signals were down and it was difficult to establish any
kind of run. The opening was also short, which added extra urgency to working
mults. If it wasn't for good JA activity and propagation, this band would have
been a disaster. I had hoped for better Q totals and especially mults.

10m - Nothing like last October. Going from 900+ Qs in the SSB test to 214 is a
major drop. EU finally made an appearance on Sunday morning, but it was
micro-short and signals were very weak. Adding to the frustration, I could not
break some zone 4 and 5 pile-ups on new EU mults. When I tried to come back
later, the station was either gone, or at ESP level with many still calling.

This contest absolutely attracts the world's best CW operators from around the
globe. It was a pleasure to work so many FB ops! Thank you to all for the Qs!

Congratulations on FB scores to N6MJ, K7GK, N9RV, and any others I may have
missed in my backyard!

73 de Mitch, K7RL


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