[3830] RTTY WPX AD7JP(K2PO) SOAB LP

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                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: AD7JP
Operator(s): K2PO
Station: K2PO

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   99
   40:  290
   20:  525
   15:  511
   10:  219
------------
Total: 1644  Prefixes = 3690  Total Score = 616

Club: Willamette Valley DX Club

Comments:

The contest got off to a frustrating start.  I left work on Friday afternoon
later than I should have, and found: the FSK interface cable I'd ordered on
EBay for the new radio had the wrong connector, both SO2R decoders would decode
only the right radio, and I couldn't get the left radio to diddle.  All turned
out to be operator error (naturally...) but it made for an aggravating first 6
hours.  At that point I was more than 100 QSOs behind last year.

It got better, and I ended up beating last year's score by 15+%.

I expect propagation gets the credit.  Only 58% of my contacts this year were
North Americans, vs. 64% last year; I made 219 contacts on 10m, vs 110 last
year, etc.

For the first time, I set up multiple decode windows, and tried 2Tone.  The
MMTTY-2Tone combination is a small improvement, but over the course of the
weekend it is well worth the effort.

Now that skimmer-like software is spreading for RTTY, I wonder if the contest
sponsors should consider a non-assisted class, for the "boy and his radio"
crowd of operators.

Even after fixing my initial snafus, I was bothered by a couple other gotchas
during the weekend.  The 2Tone decode window for the right radio insisted on
color-coding the decoded callsigns (i.e., worked, fresh, new-multiplier) based
on the band to which the left radio was tuned.  And on a dozen random
occasions, N1MM transmitted 0 as my serial number (although the correct number
was displayed in the screen interface).  Never a dull moment...

Thanks to all the ops who got one to hand out a few dozen QSOs, and to the
contest support staff for all their upcoming work.  

73,

/Bill,  K2PO
Oregon


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