[3830] CQ WW RTTY P49X(W0YK) SOAB HP
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Mon Sep 28 12:47:14 EDT 2015
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: P49X
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: P40L/P49Y
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 40:37
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------
80: 273 45 32 16
40: 919 52 74 24
20: 1131 52 79 28
15: 2057 54 86 30
10: 654 49 57 20
------------------------------------
Total: 5034 252 328 118 Total Score = 10,453,248
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
3830 Scores Soapbox
2015 CQ WW RTTY Contest
26-27 September 2015
That was a nice way to start down the backside of the current solar cycle!
Conditions and activity far exceeded my expectations. The uncertainty of
propagation prediction is one of many aspects I love about this hobby.
Going into the weekend the SSN was 86 and by the end it was 154, much higher
than I expected. My propagation analysis used a SSNe of 42! It also helped
that the A and K indices were lower than expected, exiting the weekend at 4 and
2, respectively, after being highly elevated the past few weeks. Operationally,
I had no hopes for much happening on 10 meters.
However, I was encouraged by 10 meter QSOs into EU and NA when I was setting up
the station prior to the contest. Still, I didn’t think I’d work any west
coast NA, especially the northwest. Last year, 10 meters was my biggest band
(most QSOs) with 1671, but the 654 QSOs this year was surprisingly high. VE7,
WA, OR and no. CA all came in during the contest, but no KL even though many
were on other bands.
Comparing the two years, QSOs are up and mults are down. Score is only
slightly lower. But the QSO totals by band have dramatically shifted down, the
peak being 15 meters this year instead of 10. One perspective is that this year
is actually more band-balanced in that regard. However, I suspect we are about
to have our share of “little-to-no-10-meters” in the near future.
I didn’t get around to setting up the station until late Wednesday when I
discovered that one of my K3s would not transmit or receive. Elecraft support
was amazing on Thursday as we tried everything imaginable. For some, as yet
unknown, reason the radio has stopped recognizing the new KSYNAs that have been
in this heavily used radio since late 2014. In the end, I sacrificed the sub-RX
in both radios by using the old KSYN3 from the K3’s sub-RX for the main-RX in
the problem radio. The alternative was doing a Single Band entry with SO2V.
Despite that work-around, anxiety spilled over into me worrying about the radio
holding up during the contest, but both radios were flawless. Moreover, the 91B
that failed in RTTY Round-Up was also 100% solid all weekend after replacing its
power transformer. Even better, nothing else failed inside or outside the
station.
My only regret is not being able to effectively S&P while running on each
radio. That is very difficult to do and I wanted to improve my skill this
weekend. My learning will have to QRX for the next big contest. I also use
this excuse as to why my mults are lower this year.
Predictably, my biggest challenge was maximizing the number of operating hours
when I was lucid enough to operate well. I am not yet able to will my body
into not sleeping for 48 hours. When it is sufficiently sleep-deprived, it
simply shuts down. In the past, I have tried powering through this condition,
only to wind up hallucinating. The surprising thing is that my RTTY operating
skills are so ingrained that few errors were made while in this state of not
understanding what I was doing (and, worrying that I wasn’t doing it right).
I’m sure, though, that my effectiveness was greatly reduced even though I was
putting valid QSOs in the log. K5ZD advised me to just sleep a bit each night,
if needed. This, from the guy who wrote an excellent NCJ article many years ago
about contesting, sleep deprivation management and how he managed nearly 48
hours operating.
By now I’m well familiar with when my mind and body have gone over the edge
in a long contest. I reached that point relatively “early” in the contest
period at 5am local time Saturday and took a one-REM sleep break of 90 minutes.
Another half hour to fix breakfast and the days “contest food/drink” before
starting up again. Saturday evening the rate dropped in the transition period
between 10/15 and 20/40, so I took a short break to shower, fix dinner and
collect some nighttime contest food. I wanted to be fully effective for as
long as I could that night. But, the “edge” came again at 2am Sunday, so
I took a 2-REM sleep of 3 hours. I intended to then fix my food before sitting
back down to the radio, but couldn’t resist taking a listen first. I got
hooked after finding some new mults and wound up running for an hour until the
rate dropped on 40 and 80. In retrospect, I’m glad I made this deviation
from plan. It was sunrise, so I quickly did some kitchen work and returned to
the fray.
The rates really dropped off on Sunday, just as they did last year. At the
24-hour point, I was only slightly behind last year and pushed to surge ahead.
But, Sunday was every bit as depressed at 2014 and my hopes were soon lost as I
slowly lost the lead I had tenuously gained. Then, the dreaded final 2 hours
came with the local transition from the high to low bands. Often, this period
is a great let-down as it can be hard to figure out what bands to be on to
maximize score. I moved the 10 meter radio to 20 and soon had good runs going
on 20 (EU/NA) and 15 (Asia/NA). The JA conditions and activity on 15 at this
time were the best I’ve ever had from Aruba. The EUs on 20 were consistently
coming in at a slow rate. The 23z hour Sunday was a gratifying 137. I was on
such a high roll that someone had to come on frequency at 0001z Monday and
inform me that the contest was over. I smiled at the last official QSO being a
double-mult TF on 20 at 2359.
My latest learning on sleep management is to permit myself to take sleep breaks
when needed. This greatly relieves me from worrying about how to stay alert and
to look forward to taking a sleep break if/when needed. With that as a nominal
plan, I can now work on shortening the breaks. For me this is far better than
pushing myself beyond sleep deprivation just to put a larger number of
operating hours in my 3930 report. I’m convinced that my score is far better
off with fewer operating hours where my effectiveness is higher.
The 4 Beverage RX array here continues to be a low-band asset. My 40 and 80
results would be far lower without it. The seldom used east-west Beverage was
essential to pulling VKs and ZLs out on 80 meters. And, the directivity is key
to splitting NA or EU out of the pileups. The caveat is that I have to be
careful not to miss a station off the side of the operative Beverage.
Fortunately, with the K9AY SO2R 8-port Beverage controller I can engage
multiple Beverages and then select just the direction of the station I want to
work. The convenient pushbutton control head for each radio makes this easy
and they get a thorough workout on 40 and 80.
Like last year, there were periods where signals sunk into the band noise and
spotlight propagation moved around within a continent. Amazingly, my RTTY
decoders printed clearly even when I could not hear any signals in the
headphones. The long-standing RFI problem of 40 getting into 20 was subdued
most of the time, but it returned dramatically in the middle of a QSO on
Saturday evening, just as if someone flipped a switch. I have no hypothesis
for how that could happen. Fortunately our recent problem with some local
man-made noise on the high bands was not present except for a small amount for
a while on Sunday. There were enough strong signals above it so I could keep
on going.
Out of the 5 times I’ve done SOABHP in this contest from Aruba this score is
fourth place. To be fair it is nearly the same as the second and third scores.
But all are far behind my personal best in the outstanding high-band conditions
of 2012, even exceeding some of our M2 efforts in this contest. For this I give
sincere thanks to all the stations who fill the RTTY sub-bands and get into my
logs … contesters and non-contesters alike. Yes, even the stations sending
their brag tape (and, no contest exchange). They are all part of this mode and
thank goodness they get on and participate with us. One advantage of SO2R is
that I can temporarily distract my frustration by focusing on the other radio.
;>)
It was an immense pleasure to meet the P40BC team for dinner Sunday night. Ben
DL6RAI, Luise DL2MLU, and Wolf DK6MCX, are wonderful folks and are clearly
having a great time at their newly acquired (former) P40V-sk QTH here. Thanks
also for picking up the dinner tab for our mutual property managers (Cris P43C
and Jean-Pierre P43A) and myself!
Final thanks to my friends John W6LD/P40L and Andy AE6Y/P49Y for the continual
support of my use of their nice station here. It is lot of ongoing effort by
all of us to maintain it in top operating order and very gratifying when we
prevail over the challenges.
Ed W0YK/P49X
*****************************************************************************
Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat
CALLSIGN: P49X
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CONTEST: CQ-WW-RTTY
OPERATORS: P49X
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 11 99 57 0 167 167 3.3
0100 0 0 82 93 0 0 175 342 6.8
0200 0 0 102 94 0 0 196 538 10.7
0300 0 0 88 77 0 0 165 703 14.0
0400 0 0 99 65 0 0 164 867 17.2
0500 0 25 70 48 0 0 143 1010 20.1
0600 0 48 43 0 0 0 91 1101 21.9
0700 0 30 53 0 0 0 83 1184 23.5
0800 0 12 65 0 0 0 77 1261 25.0
0900 0 16 31 0 0 0 47 1308 26.0
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1308 26.0
1100 0 0 0 8 16 0 24 1332 26.5
1200 0 0 0 62 128 0 190 1522 30.2
1300 0 0 0 37 112 22 171 1693 33.6
1400 0 0 0 0 112 86 198 1891 37.6
1500 0 0 0 7 108 35 150 2041 40.5
1600 0 0 0 5 119 31 155 2196 43.6
1700 0 0 0 0 116 13 129 2325 46.2
1800 0 0 0 0 124 40 164 2489 49.4
1900 0 0 0 0 93 75 168 2657 52.8
2000 0 0 0 0 96 73 169 2826 56.1
2100 0 0 0 29 68 31 128 2954 58.7
2200 0 0 0 111 62 0 173 3127 62.1
2300 0 0 0 90 65 0 155 3282 65.2
0000 0 0 0 43 19 0 62 3344 66.4
0100 0 0 23 44 0 0 67 3411 67.8
0200 0 22 60 29 0 0 111 3522 70.0
0300 0 44 58 0 0 0 102 3624 72.0
0400 0 40 51 0 0 0 91 3715 73.8
0500 0 8 35 0 0 0 43 3758 74.7
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3758 74.7
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3758 74.7
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3758 74.7
0900 0 16 7 0 0 0 23 3781 75.1
1000 0 12 40 0 0 0 52 3833 76.1
1100 0 0 1 17 24 0 42 3875 77.0
1200 0 0 0 49 56 0 105 3980 79.1
1300 0 0 0 17 53 19 89 4069 80.8
1400 0 0 0 0 45 18 63 4132 82.1
1500 0 0 0 0 47 11 58 4190 83.2
1600 0 0 0 9 55 8 72 4262 84.7
1700 0 0 0 0 76 34 110 4372 86.8
1800 0 0 0 0 72 30 102 4474 88.9
1900 0 0 0 0 70 54 124 4598 91.3
2000 0 0 0 0 67 39 106 4704 93.4
2100 0 0 0 0 53 27 80 4784 95.0
2200 0 0 0 45 60 8 113 4897 97.3
2300 0 0 0 53 84 0 137 5034 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 273 919 1131 2057 654 5034
Gross QSOs=5154 Dupes=120 Net QSOs=5034
Unique callsigns worked = 3072
The best 60 minute rate was 201/hour from 1401 to 1500
The best 30 minute rate was 226/hour from 0158 to 0227
The best 10 minute rate was 258/hour from 0158 to 0207
The best 1 minute rates were:
6 QSOs/minute 7 times.
5 QSOs/minute 66 times.
4 QSOs/minute 265 times.
3 QSOs/minute 526 times.
2 QSOs/minute 697 times.
1 QSOs/minute 630 times.
There were 2767 bandchanges and 1728 (34.3%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 0 230 472 665 922 433 2722 54.1
South America 0 9 11 9 42 50 121 2.4
Europe 0 30 317 378 834 157 1716 34.1
Asia 0 0 105 58 231 3 397 7.9
Africa 0 1 3 7 5 7 23 0.5
Oceania 0 3 11 14 23 4 55 1.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 273 919 1131 2057 654 5034
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 18
4 1550
5 1985
6 1430
7 14
8 26
9 8
11 1
------------------ C o u n t r y S u m m a r y ------------------
Country 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------------
4O 0 1 1 1 1 0 4 0.1
4X 0 0 2 1 2 0 5 0.1
5B 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
6Y 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
9A 0 1 4 2 6 1 14 0.3
9H 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
9M6 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.0
9V 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
A6 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.0
BV 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
BY 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.1
CE 0 1 1 0 1 7 10 0.2
CM 0 1 5 7 4 1 18 0.4
CN 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
CP 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
CT 0 0 5 3 1 4 13 0.3
CT3 0 1 1 2 0 2 6 0.1
CX 0 0 1 2 3 5 11 0.2
DL 0 5 49 54 170 28 306 6.1
DU 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0.0
E7 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.0
EA 0 2 10 31 42 27 112 2.2
EA6 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
EA8 0 0 2 4 3 2 11 0.2
EI 0 0 0 4 5 1 10 0.2
ER 0 0 2 1 4 0 7 0.1
ES 0 0 2 1 2 1 6 0.1
EU 0 0 7 4 8 0 19 0.4
EY 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
F 0 2 16 18 34 10 80 1.6
FG 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
FM 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
G 0 6 8 17 41 9 81 1.6
GI 0 0 0 2 5 0 7 0.1
GJ 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
GM 0 0 1 2 9 0 12 0.2
GU 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
GW 0 0 1 2 4 0 7 0.1
HA 0 1 6 6 14 6 33 0.7
HB 0 0 4 7 10 3 24 0.5
HB0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.0
HC 0 1 1 0 0 2 4 0.1
HK 0 1 0 0 2 0 3 0.1
HL 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0.1
HS 0 0 0 0 5 0 5 0.1
HZ 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.0
I 0 3 25 52 89 19 188 3.7
IS 0 0 2 1 2 2 7 0.1
*IT9 0 2 4 3 8 4 21 0.4
JA 0 0 98 22 198 0 318 6.3
K 0 197 411 585 826 384 2403 47.7
KG4 0 0 1 2 4 2 9 0.2
KH2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
KH6 0 0 1 3 8 3 15 0.3
KL 0 0 2 2 2 0 6 0.1
KP2 0 2 1 1 3 1 8 0.2
KP4 0 0 2 1 0 0 3 0.1
LA 0 0 3 3 6 0 12 0.2
LU 0 1 1 0 12 15 29 0.6
LX 0 1 2 2 2 2 9 0.2
LY 0 0 5 1 7 0 13 0.3
LZ 0 0 5 5 3 0 13 0.3
OE 0 0 5 7 8 1 21 0.4
OH 0 2 7 8 21 0 38 0.8
OJ0 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0.1
OK 0 0 14 9 29 6 58 1.2
OM 0 0 1 1 8 1 11 0.2
ON 0 1 4 5 14 5 29 0.6
OZ 0 0 4 2 12 3 21 0.4
P4 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
PA 0 0 8 12 35 5 60 1.2
PJ5 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
PY 0 0 5 5 20 19 49 1.0
S5 0 0 10 8 23 7 48 1.0
SM 0 0 8 6 17 0 31 0.6
SP 0 0 14 16 50 3 83 1.6
SV 0 0 6 9 6 0 21 0.4
SV9 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
TA 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
*TA1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
TF 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0.1
TG 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 0.1
TI 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
TK 0 0 1 0 2 1 4 0.1
UA 0 0 24 25 57 1 107 2.1
UA2 0 0 0 0 3 1 4 0.1
UA9 0 0 4 24 17 0 45 0.9
UK 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
UN 0 0 0 2 2 0 4 0.1
UR 0 1 26 29 42 1 99 2.0
V3 0 1 0 0 1 1 3 0.1
V4 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
VE 0 26 43 59 75 36 239 4.7
VK 0 1 4 2 0 0 7 0.1
VP8 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
VP9 0 1 1 0 1 1 4 0.1
VU 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.0
XE 0 1 3 1 4 4 13 0.3
YB 0 0 4 8 9 1 22 0.4
YL 0 0 2 3 7 1 13 0.3
YO 0 0 9 7 15 1 32 0.6
YU 0 1 5 5 3 1 15 0.3
YV 0 4 1 1 1 1 8 0.2
Z3 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0.1
ZA 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
ZL 0 2 1 1 2 0 6 0.1
ZS 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 273 919 1131 2057 654 5034
------------ M u l t i p l i e r S u m m a r y ------------
Mult 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
04 0 82 187 262 369 207 1107 22.0
05 0 98 160 286 351 182 1077 21.4
14 0 17 125 170 409 98 819 16.3
15 0 12 112 125 287 55 591 11.7
03 0 44 109 95 184 34 466 9.3
25 0 0 98 22 199 0 319 6.3
16 0 1 59 60 108 2 230 4.6
20 0 0 22 25 29 3 79 1.6
11 0 0 5 5 20 19 49 1.0
13 0 1 2 2 16 20 41 0.8
08 0 4 9 13 8 4 38 0.8
28 0 0 6 9 11 1 27 0.5
17 0 0 4 8 13 0 25 0.5
33 0 1 3 7 4 5 20 0.4
18 0 0 0 15 4 0 19 0.4
09 0 6 2 2 4 2 16 0.3
31 0 0 1 3 8 3 15 0.3
06 0 1 3 1 4 4 13 0.3
07 0 1 2 4 2 2 11 0.2
12 0 1 1 0 1 7 10 0.2
19 0 0 0 2 6 0 8 0.2
30 0 1 4 1 0 0 6 0.1
32 0 2 1 1 2 0 6 0.1
01 0 0 2 2 2 0 6 0.1
10 0 1 1 0 1 2 5 0.1
26 0 0 0 0 5 0 5 0.1
40 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0.1
21 0 0 0 2 0 2 4 0.1
24 0 0 0 2 2 0 4 0.1
38 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
27 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 0.1
22 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.0
95 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
29 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
02 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
35 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
DX 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 273 919 1131 2057 654 5034
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 1903
2 bands 662
3 bands 294
4 bands 140
5 bands 73
6 bands 0
------- S i n g l e B a n d Q S O s ------
Band 160 80 40 20 15 10
----------------------------------------------
QSOs 0 46 277 410 1021 149
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