[3830] CQ WW RTTY AA8IA SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 17.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------------
   80:                                  
   40:   55    83      25       10     7
   20:   95   203      22       35    19
   15:  141   343      16       55    21
   10:  285   760      11       59    22
------------------------------------------
Total:  576  1389      74      159    69  Total Score = 419,478

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Being tired of low wires in contests, likely having achieved near max number of
new DXCCs that I'll pick up in a DX contest, and not wanting to suffer
excruciating back pain for the sake of a hobby, along with the fact that we had
threats of thunderstorms at least one of the two days, I had no intentions of
doing more than a couple of hours.

But, the propagation gods smiled upon us and 10m was open.   I couldn't resist.
  I ended up with a little over 17 hrs of BIC.   Once I got up to 400 Qs and
realized there was still a whole Sunday afternoon left to play, I figured I
might actually try and best my previous Q count.   I did that, by just a
handful.

The difference between this year and last year is that I spent no time on 80m
(no 80m ant up right now) and much time on 40m.   On the other side of the
equation, I played a lot more on my favorite bands of 10/15m.

What a blast.   I managed to work a nice handful of new DXCCs to boot -- with
some of the most unexpected having already confirmed via LOTW.

Now that I've recovered from the back pain, I can say that I'm really happy
that I chose to put in enough time to best last year's score.

The downside is that I finally came to the realization that 18 hours is about
my maximum, in any contest, and that I likely will never be able to put more
time in than that... nor would I want to.   18 hours in 36/48 contest is doable
[for me].   Anything more is not.

I'm also happy to report that during my time spent in the contest, I didn't see
any bad behavior.   Although there were a few DX that I felt gave up on picking
out my call way too soon.   If they had a pileup, I'd understand them wanting
to move on.   But if they were CQing for a full minute before I arrived and
then a full minute after they dismissed me and started CQing again, I'd say
they weren't too busy to put in the extra effort to try and actually pick out a
call.

I had swore to myself that I would try to have a portable beam of some sort to
stick up for 10/15 this year, just for contests like this.  But, it never
happened.  I always put that stuff on the back burner until it's too late. 
And, given where we are in the solar cycle now, you never know when a great 10m
opening will be the last one that we have for a long time.

Thanks to all of the great ops, especially those that answered my CQs and those
who gave me a new DXCC.   What a great time.


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