[3830] CQWW CW N1EN SOAB(A) LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N1EN
Operator(s): N1EN
Station: N1EN

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   30    10       17
   80:  248    17       69
   40:  461    24       96
   20:  507    34      111
   15:  374    27      101
   10:  125    20       54
------------------------------
Total: 1745   132      448  Total Score = 2,869,260

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Assorted thoughts, not in any particular order as my brain is fried.

Score down about 10% from last year.  Some of that is attributable to reduced
flux and the near-loss of 10m.  Some of that is attributable to back-to-back
cross-country road trips (a week doing more cleanup of my mother's estate,
followed by the first family Thanksigivng in years).  Got home in the wee hours
Thursday night / Friday morning...and managed to kill two alarms in my sleep
Saturday morning, waking late to find that the party had already moved on to
15m.  Slept through the alarms Sunday morning too, but the cat had pity on me
and woke me just before sunrise.

Used cqcontest.net score reporting and had the website open on a spare monitor
through the contest.  Not many US SOAB(A)LP stations reported, but I was able
to find someone to "race" against, giving a bit of incentive to keep
my butt in the chair.

Added a second K3 to the shack (via YCCC raffle) over the summer, so SO2R
worked better than last year, where radio #2 was an IC7100.  However, I think a
diplexer and some bandpass filters will find a place on next year's toy budget.

Despite my vows to play as a serious contester (running more, avoiding
pileups), a desire to seek instant gratification is one of my character flaws
-- so once again, I had fun clicking-and-pouncing, and I let myself get
distracted a few times to chase DX.  But I had fun, and that's really what
counts.

On Halloween, I put up a K2AV-style inverted L with folded counterpoise for
160m.  This marked the first opportunity I've had to use it in anger.  It's not
a miracle antenna, but it does seem to play appreciably better than the low 160m
Carolina Windom cloud-warmer I had been using.  Heard plenty of DX, and it was
less of a struggle to get across the pond in the past.  Looking forward to the
160m tests in December.

131 countries in 35 zones (never heard zones 23, 26, 27, and only a whisper
from 28; spent way too much time trying for zone 34 with no success)

Station:
2×K3's
Hexbeam @ 7m
40m delta loop
80m Carolina windom @ 20m
Inv L w/ FCP for 160m


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