[3830] WPX CW NC6K SO(A)AB LP

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CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: NC6K
Operator(s): NC6K
Station: NC6K

Class: SO(A)AB LP
QTH: SDG
Operating Time (hrs): 27:24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:   34
   40:  173
   20:  500
   15:  193
   10:    5
------------
Total:  905  Prefixes = 453  Total Score = 759,681

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

I learned a few new lessons about trying to operate low power in a DX contest. I
figured with my shiny new 4-element SteppIR DB36 at 60', I could operate as if I
was using full power and all would be well. Not quite. To start, I had to spend
the first 45 minutes of the contest by tilting over the tower to reattach the
SteppIR control cable that I pulled out when working on the antenna on Friday
morning. Sure worked a lot better once the elements actually moved out of the
spools.

There's nothing like calling an Eastern European station that's S9 for 10
minutes and he doesn't hear you at all. Then there were the Qs that required me
to send my serial number at least 6 or 8 times! I think the record was 12, but I
wasn't checking that closely. Running was interesting - I'd find a relatively
quiet spot and start calling CQ for a while before another station running high
power and having serious key clicks would slide in right next to me. End of run
on that frequency! I was only spotted four or five times in the entire contest,
which was super frustrating, and two of them were with 30 minutes left in the
contest and right before another high powered station parked himself almost on
top of me. I had to move far enough away that the spots were useless.

Conditions seemed fantastic on Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. Even
80 Meters was very usable and the noise levels were reasonably low. 20 was
tremendous Friday night and early Saturday, but by Saturday night, I was really
struggling with the noise on both 40 and 80, so went to bed early and slept in a
bit instead of taking a nap and getting right back on. All-in-all, I operated
quite a bit less than the full 36 hours. It just didn't seem worth losing sleep
to endlessly call CQ.

It was a lot of fun, and I did pick up some new band-entities. I think it's
safe to say that I won't be running LP in any more worldwide contests (I might
do it for some of the US or NA-only ones). It takes a lot more than a
four-element yagi to be competitive from the West Coast, I guess. It was a lot
of fun, and I'm glad I tried it this one time.


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