[3830] RTTY WPX AA5AU SOSB10 HP

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                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: AA5AU
Operator(s): AA5AU
Station: AA5AU

Class: SOSB10 HP
QTH: LA
Operating Time (hrs): 26.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:     
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total: 1088  Prefixes = 593  Total Score = 1,459,373

Club: Louisiana Contest Club

Comments:

After struggling in the Roundup, I took advice from my friend Ed, W0YK, who
suggested I work on something that needed improvement. He offered that maybe I
should change something up in order to make RTTY contesting enjoyable again. So
I decided to work on S&P on a 2nd VFO while running this weekend. To do
this, I ran single band. I opted for ten meters and high power for no other
reason than I thought it would be fun and it would allow me to get more rest at
night.

I got home from work an hour before the contest started. I was pretty tired but
happy to find the band open at the start which was just past my sunset. It
stayed open for two hours then someone pulled the switch at 0200Z and the band
went dead. But in that time I worked some really nice DX like DU3/N0QM, BA7CK,
BA3DX, BV1EK, 9M6XRO, DS5DNO, YB0NFL, VR2XMT, AND ZM3T. Those two hours only
yielded 90 contacts but there were 70 multipliers. I thought that was pretty
good.

Saturday morning I listened for FT5ZM on 10 CW, but did not hear them so at
1300Z, which is around my sunrise, I started contesting. The band was already
open to SA and AF and was quick to open to EU. Saturday AM was filled with big
runs into EU. The runs were so good there wasn't much time for S&P or
chasing packet spots. When EU faded, I was able to work a lot of USA, Canada
and South America and do more S&P on a second VFO and this was working very
well. The only disappointment for the whole weekend was not being able to hear
Central America or most of the Caribbean so I missed the likes of the YS1, V31,
CO, etc. They kept getting spotted and I kept checking but never heard them or
FP/W6HGF either.

Since I was doing very well, I checked to see what the NA record was for 10 SB
because I didn't know what it was. The record was set by Charles, KK5OQ, in
2002 at just under 743K points. At the time I was very close to the record and
at 0100Z Sunday (Saturday evening), the record fell. At 0200Z, someone turned
off the switch again and the band went dead after another nice opening into
Japan.

It's been a long time since I broke any kind of contest record, so I was pretty
excited to know I still had a full day Sunday to distance myself from the record
and try to win this thing in NA. But I kept seeing Fred, WW4LL, on ten meters
and a spot check showed he was only spotted on ten meters so I knew I had some
competition. I wouldn't be the only one after that record! Since Fred's
antennas are much bigger than mine, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he beats
me. What's funny is that Fred and I kept spotting each other over and over
throughout the weekend which was pretty neat considering we were competing
against each other. If it wasn't for Fred, I wouldn't have gotten spotted much.
Thanks Fred!

Overall, I thought the spotting on ten meters was a little lackluster so I
decided to spot everything I heard while S&P. I realized it would help
Fred, but I really didn't care about that. I was having fun.

I tried using the RTTY skimmer spots but they are just not worthwhile for
contesting yet - too many bogus spots and too much time wasted chasing stuff
that's not there so I had to turn the skimmer spots off. Who needs a skimmer
when AA5AU is spotting?

Despite very high A and K index numbers, Sunday was pretty good into EU. But
once EU went away, it got REAL slow and I worked very hard at S&P while
trying to run, but not much was answering my CQ's so it was a LOT of S&P
with a LOT of spotting. The rate toward the end was around 20/hr for the final
hours. I certainly spotted more stations than I worked.

Regardless of whether or not I get the record, I still had a lot of fun. Thanks
to everyone who worked me. And thanks for the competition Fred, it made it that
much more enjoyable.

73, Don AA5AU

Equipment:
Icom IC-756 PRO III
Ameritron AL-80B amplifier 500 watts output
3-element SteppIR @ 45'
2-element SteppIR @ 35'
WriteLog for Windows


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