[3830] WPX CW 4O90A(9A3A/E73A) SOAB HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: 4O90A
Operator(s): 9A3A/E73A
Station: 4O3A

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Obosnik
Operating Time (hrs): 35.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    2
   80:   75
   40:  882
   20:  661
   15: 1736
   10:    7
------------
Total: 3363  Prefixes = 1112  Total Score = 9,347,472

Club: SKY Contest Club

Comments:

Quite a hectic period, so I could not fully focus on ham radio activities.
Arrived from W2 on Friday morning and instead of returning to I7, managed to
catch the flight to Montenegro. 4O3A Obosnik QTH, some 500+ meters ASL with
Adriatic sea almost all-around, is a ham radio paradise, except for being the
first lighting target, so there is no assurance all devices (and cables) will
be operational, even if disconnected.  This contest was not an exception, so
Ranko, 4O3A spent most of the Friday afternoon and evening hours getting the
station ‘SO2R ready’ on time. At the end there was no much time to do a
test run, which at the beginning has caused some weird keyboard layout
problems. The keys would one time work and the next time do nothing. This has
destructed me from fully focusing on actual operating, instead of thinking what
to do next, I was looking at the keyboard trying to find a shortcuts for keys
which do not work. Throughout the night I managed to figure out what was the
causing the problem, so during the first break it has been fixed.  

Contest summary: the result below expected 10+ million points. Not being aware
what the completion is doing and struggling with the keyboard first night, I
perhaps did not follow basic WPX strategy. Only in the morning, despite the 60+
R2 contacts, I realized I am already 120+ QSOs behind E7DX. After the first
break on Saturday I was back to regular operating with the goal of fixing what
I've missed first night. I managed to raise the low band totals but Sunday
afternoon was different from Saturday, quite slow with low activity, so the
overall goal of average 100/hour was hard to achieve. My efforts to raise the
score have been further spoiled some 5 hours before the end. I QSY-ed to 40m
and to my joy had an instant mini pile up, but all of a sudden I could not key
the radio. Neither the keyboard nor the paddle hooked to the Microham were
responding at all. After some 30 minutes of checking the cables, rebooting
device by device and finally physical PTT reset, I managed to get back on the
air, but at that point I lost hope of reaching the 10+ million score. Finished
contest moving between 20-15m, hoping to work a few more USA multipliers. 

The callsign 4O90A (90 years of IARU) turned out to be quite confusing - over
100 dupes, a lot of mixing of Oscar and Zero. Expect 4090A on SSB and regular
4O3A on CW in the future. 

Almost forgot to mention the good news:  my comments that such a big station as
4O3A must have full flexibility, including rotating antennas when the operator
wishes, paid off: I had a pleasure of using the rotor control 'Genius' for the
first time, allowing full visibility of the two towers and moving antennas with
a mouse click. The accuracy was perfect, indicating true magnetic north due to
Ranko’s innovative technology. Application is now installed on my phone, so I
can rotate it without stretching to reach the control box...

Thanks to Ranko for letting me use his super station and also to Marijan, S56A,
for providing a taxi service to the airport on Monday. Good to see him after
more than a decade, when we last met at my former 5B4ADA station. We had
interesting conversation including a post-contest breakfast near Podgorica
airport. 

Thanks to all for spending time in decoding and calling 4O90A, CU next time.

73 Ivo I7/9A3A, E73A


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