[3830] CQWW CW N8II SOAB Classic HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SOAB Classic HP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   22     9       11
   80:  125    14       56
   40:  288    23       81
   20:  662    37      111
   15:  964    30       91
   10:  223    22       60
------------------------------
Total: 2292   135      410  Total Score = 3,638,965

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Congrats to Steve, N2IC and probably others from PVRC land for a great effort.
This category is a mad dash, run whenever you have a good rate and find time to
search out mults too. For example, the first night it was obvious that trying to
run (did so for about 10-15 min.) was less productive than S&P'ing at a good
QSO rate and picking up many more mults. 80 was in great shape from 0400Z until
past 0530Z. 

Overall, conditions were about as good as one could hope for with the SFI
wavering just over 100. The K index stayed low and northern EU was treated to
an actual propagation advantage on the high bands (20/15) at night, especially
Saturday from 20Z-01Z. 10 was just about what I expected it would be based on
the past week. Early in the week, the SFI was in 120's with low K and the band
was barely open at all to EU. During the test, it was a tour of the
Mediterranean with HB9, south DL, PA, and the UK/EI thrown in. I did not work
zone 16. Last year I made 953 claimed Q's on 10 vs. 223 which is pretty hard to
make up for with my rather poor low band antennas. The best time for mult
hunting on 10 seemed to be 1645Z with a passel of Africans active from all AF
zones except 34. Within a few minutes I logged ZD8, C9, ZS x 3, and 9J with D4,
CT3, EA8 and 5R heard already logged. Also caught quite a few new EU mults
running from 1555-1645Z and found zone 2 on scatter and FO5. Most of the EU
signals calling were not that weak.
15 was great except for closing to EU pretty early on Sunday and opening a bit
late that day. The Russians really love the WW and turn out in numbers probably
greater than the RUDX. It is always fun to run them early morning on 20 and then
again on 15. I missed zone 17 on 15 despite a passel of R4 area QSO's. The JA's
were loud with rapid flutter on 15 Saturday evening, but did not turn out in
large numbers. I did get YE1, several Chinese, AH0, 9M6, DS, and R0. 20 was the
usual open in all directions at the starting bell with all continents including
Antarctica logged in the first 17 minutes! The northern EU's were never louder
than they were around sunset Saturday and Asians were pretty loud around
23-24Z. 40 was good from sunset until 2330Z and amazingly stayed open well to
EU through the evening until I QRT'ed. 160 never seemed open that well here and
guess I was not on late enough to catch the Caribbean which seemed very sparse
there. On all bands there seemed to be no really rare countries active, but oh
were the Europeans out in force, especially on 40/80 compared to some other
years. 

Saturday on 15 was just like 10 the year before, I had a nearly perfect long
run with max rates of 5/min at 1214Z (20M), 210/hr over 10 min at 1613 and
170/hr over 60 min. at 1813 (20). The best clock hour rate was 166 at 13Z with
100+ rates from 12Z until 18Z hour. I took time out to run/hunt just over 100
Q's on 10. Many thanks for all of the QSO's and the cluster pile ups seemed
much easier to handle this year than last and less frequent. Bottom line,
claimed score is over 100K less than last year, but I think the overall
operating effort was improved. Somehow despite trying to carefully track off
times, I was off by an hour which I discovered about 45 minutes late, so actual
claimed score may be slightly different than my best adjusting guess.

73, Jeff


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