[3830] CQ WW RTTY P49X(W0YK) SOAB HP

webform at b4h.net webform at b4h.net
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


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/


More information about the 3830 mailing list