[3830] CQWW SSB OH0X(OH6KZP) SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: OH0X
Operator(s): OH6KZP
Station: OH0X

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Brändö
Operating Time (hrs): 47
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  274    10       47
   80:  601    20       74
   40:  748    32      113
   20: 1169    36      120
   15: 1670    35      129
   10: 1296    34      112
------------------------------
Total: 5758   167      595  Total Score = 8,928,354

Club: Contest Club Finland

Comments:

Well, the annual splatterfest is over, so now I'm waiting for the much less
stressful CQWW CW!

"Oh cr**" was the opening statement out of my mouth on Friday morning, when I
got up and saw the season's (surprisingly early) first snow outside. I thought
the forecasters were just trying to scare us and thus hadn't taken them too
seriously... So, I slammed on the winter tyres quickly before going to work for
a while and then driving to Ã…land. Good thing I did, because otherwise I might
not have made it all the way here. Full-blown winter road conditions and stormy
weather awaited.

Propagation was quite good during the contest, and I was happy about the
absence of Ms. Aurora. DX signals were coming in from both east and west on the
upper bands, and KC1XX was in the business of breaking S-meters with a 59+40
Sunday signal on 10m. The nicest surprise was getting called by D4C on 160m
during the last hour of the contest. But the SSN and solar flux figures were
not sufficiently high for sustained/polar-path openings on 10m/15m after dark.
Furthermore, the last hours became quite the low-band drudgery, where you had
to be creative and work hard for every QSO. 

The later high-band openings would have been needed to push the score over 10
Mpts. Last year such a score might have been possible from OH/OH0. This time I
managed to stay in the chair and was mostly healthy, but lied down (not sure if
I fell asleep) for a half-hour rest before 03 UTC on Sunday morning with a
resultant loss of perhaps 20 QSOs. I'm happy with the score, which exceeded my
target and the current OH0 record of 8.5M. 

Although I like my Heil noise cancelling headset, the pressure it causes on the
ears and earlobes has increasingly become a problem for me. My right ear in
particular is still hurting, inside the ear canal(!). Fortunately a different
and more ergonomic Heil headset was available, and I switched about 13 hours
into the contest when the situation had become unbearable. I've been thinking
about alternative solutions, but now I guess I finally have to actually do
something about it.

In the spirit of openness and transparency, the Radio Arcala stations CR2X,
OH8X, and OH0X had live video/audio feeds and realtime scoring available
through cqcontest.ru for those interested. Switched on my feed just after 06
UTC on Saturday, when one of the station owners confirmed by SMS that there is
no streaming upload limit on the mobile internet connection. Otherwise it might
have gotten a bit expensive :) Any feedback on the realtime trial will be
received with interest.

Many thanks to the Brändö Island Group and the Radio Arcala team for another
opportunity to operate. And of course, thanks to all for the QSOs, particularly
to those who were willing to travel across the bands with me in the hunt for
multipliers!

Equipment:
------------
2 x FTDX-5000, 2 x OM amps (1.5 kW output used)
160m: Slopers, 80m: 2el + sloper, 40m: 3el + 2el + loop, 20m: 2x4el + 2xTrib +
3el, 15m: 2x4el + 2xTrib + 3el, 10m: 2x5el + 2xTrib + 3el
Microham station automation, incl. SO2R interlocking
No cluster, no second operators, no .... :)

Kim OH0/OH6KZP


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