[3830] CQWW CW WO1N SOAB(A) LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: WO1N
Operator(s): WO1N
Station: WO1N

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 35.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   10     4        3
   80:  112    14       63
   40:  291    24       87
   20:  223    27       84
   15:  328    28       87
   10:  330    25      102
------------------------------
Total: 1294   122      426  Total Score = 2,029,244

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Rig : FT1000D, N1MM
Antennas : C3-SS at 38', 40M Dipole at 45', 80M Vert C

 
 This was the first serious CQWW CW I've done from my home station according to
my records. I mean I can remember breaking a sweat to do 20 Qs or so, heavily
depending on packet for CW decoding back in the early 90's, but once I got the
hang of CW I've been "shopped out" to the highest paying
Multi since
my 
contesting career started. Some 14 years at K1TTT's.

 As such I really didn't have any records to review. I set a 1500Q goal and
played around with some minor station tweaks before the contest started. Since
the fall clean-up is still in process here in suburbia I have not deployed
anything for 160. With the full expectation that 160 is really not productive
even with a good antenna, I deployed a spare DX-LB trap dipole in a bent L
configuration. Feed point about 10' above the ground. This took all of 20
minutes, I was hoping for a couple of countries and zones. This 
proved to be the case.

 I opened on all bands quickly looking for easy opportunities. I was greeted
with absolutely mind killing intermittent (10 minutes duration every 15 minute
cycle) power line noise on *all* bands Friday evening and all day Saturday. It
finally cleared about 1:00 AM local Sunday morning so it might be moisture
related stopping when everything dried out after the cold front pushed through
or the line loads dropped. Only intermittent (few seconds every few minutes)
occurrences on Sunday. I believe it to be maybe one insulator and at least one
local street light cycling on-off by the sounds of it. I'm also still
struggling with the 50 KHz spaced noise wad that is present in the AM band up
all the way through 40M (on top of the power line noise). In earlier days I
would have thrown the headphones down in disgust. Actually as I type this with
the HF radio on in the background the line noise is out there in full force. 

 Still, I was encouraged by the start. Took a strict 3 hour break and was back
on the bands at 0630 local. Then the brain fog set in...I would tune up the
band looking for a hole to run, working everything along the way. Problem was
either there were no holes or so many stations to work I never got around to
running. Big mistake. 24 hours in I had only 667Qs. In the next 7 hours I could
only manage another 100Qs. I knew I was in trouble.

 Conditions were way better on Saturday but not bad on Sunday. However, the
high bands shut down pretty early to Eu on Sunday. This screwed up my Q
recovery plan. Saturday I was lost in DXing mode and I couldn't recover the Qs
on Sunday.

 N1MM says 35.5 hours, sounds about right. Hit the sack Sunday morning when the
last 10 was showing a "2" and I was a bit discouraged with
the Q
count. I did not get back on the radio ‘til almost 9:00 AM after a 5 hour
break. Hit the radio hard all day Sunday with no breaks.

 Best hour was a 77 on Saturday, on an S&P sweep. Sunday had 4
consecutive
run hours of 78/80/82/78 then 20 died earlier than I expected. I needed another
200Qs on 20 to meet my goal. The late start Sunday morning and the early band
closing did me in. 

 These rates are nowhere near what I can do in the ARRL DX from the home
station. The skimmers were not as effective. I read today the skimmer
reporting systems were falling behind. In the ARRL DX two CQs would result
in an instant pileup. This didn't happen this time.  This is a much tougher
contest.

 Highlights were snagging K2WR at GJ2A out of this roiling pileup of Europeans
and US stations on 15, 2nd call. Thanks Rich, YCCC Filter mode was obviously
full on. I managed to snag P40L on 160 out of pure alignment of the propagation
gods.

 I am bailing on 160 for the season and will use the resulting "spare
time" in an effort to locate and resolve these line noise problems.

 73,
 Ken
 WO1N


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