[3830] WPX CW AE0EE SOAB(R) LP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: AE0EE
Operator(s): AE0EE
Station: AE0EE

Class: SOAB(R) LP
QTH: MN
Operating Time (hrs): 26

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:     
   40:  136
   20:  152
   15:  209
   10:    9
------------
Total:  506  Prefixes = 343  Total Score = 404,054

Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn

Comments:

100 W, dipoles @25' (10m, 20m, 15/40m).

I got a late start, Saturday morning local.  Had to put up the antennas, but
already had lines in the trees so that went fairly quickly.

Bands were in good shape, but I had a hard time getting the rate up where I
wanted it for the first few hours.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear Europe,
the Middle East, and Asia all coming in around 1700z Saturday.

Late in the day Saturday, I managed to get a run going on 20m, and again early
Sunday (UTC) on the low part of 40m for almost two hours.  Not bad for 100 W
into a dipole!

I woke up Sunday morning to tough conditions, and took a break to get the 10m
antenna up.  Eventually I worked a few stations on 10m, but they were all
really tough to pull through.

Many band-slots were filled in this weekend for my DXCC, and I worked six new
ones: Egypt, Georgia, Hong Kong, Jersey, Jordan, and United Arab Emirates. 
Highlights of the contest include being called by Egypt (for the ATNO), as well
as the generally good conditions to the Middle East.

It was a tough call to decide when to chase DX and when to maximize contest
score.  I guess this is what I get for primarily engaging in contest dx-ing,
and I generally erred on the side of DXing.

This contest almost didn't happen for me.  When I was trying to work a 6m
opening Thursday evening, a poor contact between the wire connector and the
fuse in the fuse holder for my rig got very hot and melted things---the magic
smoke was released in the process.  Being a relatively new op with limited
budget (or space for stuff, I expect to move a few times in the next few
years), I don't have a spare.  Fortunately I was able to borrow K0BBC's rig
runner for the contest, which did a great job.  Thanks Matt for once again
saving the day!

As it was, I had a 9.5 dB improvement in score over last year (as AG6RB), with
a combination of better CW decode ability (I was pretty new to CW last year),
more BIC time, and better access to Europe being the main factors toward the
improvement.  The rate gets a lot better when you can [copy well enough to]
run!


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