[3830] CQWW CW N8II SOSB/10 LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SOSB/10 LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:   22    12       17
   15:                    
   10:  955    32      123
------------------------------
Total:  955    32      123  Total Score = 434,000

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

I had some growing pains with new radio (TS-590 with offset way off) and using
N1MM logger for the first time at home. I also had enough line noise most of
the time to negatively affect performance which probably cost 50 QSO's and a
few mults. So overall, I'm pretty happy with the Q and mult totals. Conditions
were just short of great on 10 for the contest, noticeably better earlier in
the week.
Conditions were reasonable to Russia much poorer than on phone but expected to
be due to seasonal decline. I missed everyone on the Arabian peninsula, but was
called by 4L and 4K. Only one zone 17 was logged and no zone 18. SE Asia was nil
for me, but probably could have worked a few during the busy EU hours LP if I
had the time. 
Best rate was 131/hr at 1355Z,not bad. I ran in the upper middle of the band
Saturday and surprisingly Sunday held a very choice spot down near the bottom
for quite a long stretch with very little QRM or attempts to steal the
frequency. Both days my runs ended quite early compared to the big guns and
Sunday the band barely opened to EU right at sunrise and was getting pretty
punk by 1630 except for G's; one F8 who was loud a short while before was weak
and watery at 1645. Both days the Scandinavian big guns seemed loud later than
expected, but faded out in a hurry when they did with no "midnnight"
openings noticed like we sometimes get around 21-23Z. OH0 called me.
There must have been a solar flare mid day Saturday as signals to deep SA and
the Pacific were way down from normal until around 2030Z or so. I only heard
YN2 from zone 7 all day, but added HR, V3, and TI on Sunday. The top dawgs were
doing their usual great job of running from AF and south Saturday. HK1NA and
P40L were keeping up a great rate and ZD8X seemed pretty busy right thru late
Sunday. It seemed like J88HL was not as busy as he should have been, a pity
because he was very efficient. Kudos to Dave, VP5CW for hearing my backscatter
signal, a CO who was much louder did not. I eventually logged almost all mult I
heard, some big pile ups were easy with a little finesse.
After sunset both days good conditions did not last that long with a virtual
dead band by 2330 Sunday,but still a few Pacific past 24Z on Saturday evening.
The KH2's and KH0's were loud and overwhelmed with callers as the band opened
around 2140Z Saturday, but by Sunday most were begging with CQ's. I never heard
anything from Asia in our evening outside of UA0 zone 19 and JA! JA's were in
well on Sunday just under an hour starting around 2215Z, our sunset was 2153Z.
The DXpeditions were definitely out in force, FG would be a good spot for
someone to visit, consistently not that active in the WW.
Many thanks for all of the QSO's. The biggest problem handling callers are
those that insist on calling when they know another station is being called
instead. This really gets to be a problem when the pile up is big. Seldom did
the pile up actually cover up the DX while I was searching. DX runners, please
send your call fairly often! The rest of us single ops can't wait around for an
ID forever. 
Many thanks for the Q's and the excitement of being called by a rare one like
VU. Conditions on 10 are unlikely to be as good for many years and this year
was far better than 2012.

73, Jeff


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