[3830] RTTY WPX VA7ST SOAB HP

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                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 29

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  102
   40:  185
   20:  427
   15:  439
   10:  169
------------
Total: 1322  Prefixes = 534  Total Score = 1,885,554

Club: Orca DX and Contest Club

Comments:

* N1MM Logger + MMTTY
* FT2000 |  FT920 second radio
* 3-ele. Steppir @ 40'
* vertical tribander element in tree (SO2R)
* 40M Steppir dipole 40'
* 40M 2-element full-size quad in trees
* 80M three-vertical triangular array

2013 -- SFI = 170 |  A = 17           | K = 3 
2013 -- SFI = 108 |  A =  3           | K = 1 
2012 -- SFI = 110 |  A =  3           | K = 1 
2011 -- SFI =  96 |  A =  2           | K = 1
2010 -- SFI =  94 |  A =  3           | K = 2
2009 -- SFI =  70 |  A =  4 > 18 > 10 | K = 1 > 4 > 2


More flux, more C-class fares, more Aurora, more Qs, more prefixes all added up
to a weird and at-times frustrating weekend. Setting a new personal best
demanded more hours and more watts, but just in case this was the "one big
weekend" of Cycle 24 (which it wasn't), I did not want to be running low
power and wonder what could have been.

Still, I wonder what could have been, had the bands been working properly.

I heard via backstatter but couldn't work VA7KO once Saturday night and again
Sunday, and Koji was ahead of me by 200 QSOs each time. I see that Koji and
Rebecca VA7BEC co-chaired the VA7KO station this weekend, and their high total
kept me pushing harder than I otherwise might have.

Any time ZS stations call in, I consider the bands to be pretty good --
happened twice, on 20M and 15M, so conditions weren't totally lousy. Then a
needle-pinning E21 called me on 20M while I was working Europe. With a skew
like that, the bands are acting strangely. Might explain FT5ZM's antipodal
roulette-wheel signal strength on long path or out of 60 degrees this week. 

(An aside: Finally got them on 20M RTTY at 0300z after the post-contest nap.
After about 10 hours total over the past week and a half trying to work them on
RTTY with no luck, they heard me on the very first call tonight. Everyone's
heard the pileups, but let me be the first to say out loud they have been
enormous).

Sunday's 20M European opening was far better than Saturday's, but it was only
strong for about an hour and faded away slowly but surely. From out west, you
learn to make a lot of hay very quickly while the sun is still low in the
eastern sky.

Made 47 Qs on the second radio -- 2/3 of those on 10M and the rest on 15M. The
second-radio antenna is the driven element from a retired Mosley Classic 33
tribander, hanging vertically from a high branch in the cottonwoods on the
lower property. It sucks as an antenna, but makes the neighbors wonder what the
hell I've done now, so I'll leave it there until summer. 

Must find a better high-band solution for the second radio. The all-band
vertical I used in this contest last year landed a third of all my Qs
(300-plus), but for some reason I decommissioned it. Guess I should go back to
that little beauty and add a proper radial field under it.

ARRL DX CW next weekend. Won't be running low power then either. May the bands
be with us.

-- Bud VA7ST

        Band    QSOs    Pts  WPX
         3.5     102     400   22
           7     185     744   53
          14     427     973  187
          21     439    1031  201
          28     169     383   71
       Total    1322    3531  534

Score history:
Year  Qs    WPX   Score
-------------------------
2014 1322   534 1,885,554  29.2 hrs HP
2013 1041   466 1,308,994  25.5 hrs
2012  830   373   883,637  26.5 hrs
2011  836   322   806,610  27.5 hrs
2010  921   388   994,056  24.0 hrs  
2009  846   335   907,180  27.5 hrs HP
2008  612   258   470,850  21.0 hrs HP
2007  972   420 1,154,160  28.5 hrs HP
2006  702   284   578,792  28.2 hrs 
2005  584   264   422,664
2004  225   114    67,009
2003  344   149   147,212


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