[3830] CQWW SSB K2PO SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

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

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    5     4        5
   80:   29     9       10
   40:   98    25       49
   20:  197    32       87
   15:  391    26       75
   10:  443    29       65
------------------------------
Total: 1163   125      291  Total Score = 1,364,896

Club: Willamette Valley DX Club

Comments:

A fine weekend, but 34% fewer contacts than a year ago.

I think much of the difference was propagation.  Last year was one for the
record books.  From here in the far northwest, I worked 336 Europeans on 10m in
2013, from all over the continent.  This year I worked 60, concentrated in the
Atlantic countries: 26 in Spain, 16 in the British Isles, and 9 in France. 
(Still, in a few years, we'll look back on 10m European QSOs as simply a fond
memory.)

Europeans, overall, were down to 26% of my QSOs (vs. 38% last year).  None on
160 or 80m, and 16 on 40m.
 
Despite the 34% drop in total QSOs, there was a 25% increase in the number of
Chinese contacts �" a good omen for the future.

The local weather rocked and rolled like the bands, with winds up to 66 mph
clocked on my tower �" a good weekend to be inside.

A highlight of the weekend was working VK9LM on five bands.

This was my first contest with an Elecraft P3.  It lays bare who has clean rigs
and who doesn't.  Many of the top US scorers have clean signals.  A few �"
conspicuously �" do not.  If you don't know what your signal looks like on
a good panadapter, you might ask around and find out; you shouldn't be the last
to know.  (And read K9YC's September, 2014, study about TX noise at
audiosystemsgroup.com/TXNoise.pdf).

Tnx to all for the Qs!

Bill, K2PO
~Portland, OR


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