[3830] CQWW CW W1NN SOAB LP

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CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: W1NN
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: W1NN

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 25

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   17     8       13
   80:   63    13       30
   40:  147    21       57
   20:  310    29       86
   15:  145    19       53
   10:   32    10       20
------------------------------
Total:  714   100      259  Total Score = 694,306

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

I usually operate this contest HP from an excellent station (JH1GTV) in Japan,
so it was quite a lesson in reality to operate this time from my modest (this
is a euphemism) LP station in Ohio.  

I went into the contest expecting to put in a major effort but my plan changed
when, after the first 7 hours of operating, I had the enormous Q total of 140. 
I must have got to 40 too late because Western Europe was very weak, while most
EU stations could not hear me on 80, so it was a real struggle.  Plan B called
for a part-time effort getting enough sleep to function reasonably well on
Monday and allowing me a couple of daylight hours to continue the endless job
of raking the leaves in my yard.  In the end I put in around 25 hours in the
chair.

A couple of big disappointments contributed to this change of plans.  I spent
quite a bit of time last week putting up a new full-sized 80M vertical with the
feed point about 10 feet off the ground and four elevated radials.  It tuned
well and I had high hopes that it would make a major difference, but it
didn’t work any better than my dipole and was noisier.  A big letdown! 
Another disappointment was that my K3 became totally unusable a week before the
contest and needs another trip back to California.  The alternate radio was a
TS-480.  It performed admirably but if you could get K3 performance from an
$800 radio, Elecraft would go out of business.

Daylight on Saturday brought plenty of stations to work on 15 and 20 but I just
couldn’t get any runs going so everything was S&P.  Often I had to wait
until the New England kilowatts had worked the target before he pulled my tiny
bit of RF out of the ether.  I certainly got lots of practice busting pileups. 
At 2359Z on day one, I had increased my Q total to 400 and just couldn’t stand
the thought of another night of S&P at 20 per, so I threw the switch and
took the next 9 hours off.

Finally on Sunday morning I managed to get a decent run going up around 14120
which helped the Q total quite a bit, but it didn’t last all that long and
then it was back to S&Ping the rest of the day in between leaf-raking
breaks.  There were some really loud zone 14 stations on 15 but I got very few
responses to my CQs so I was left to going up and down the band looking for
stations to work.  

I was pretty happy with my mult total, especially working 86 countries on 20
meters.  I was able to work nearly every multiplier I heard, with just two or
three exceptions.  However, I never heard a single station from zones 17, 18,
21-24, 26, 28, 33, 34, and 37 on any band, and I did a lot of tuning!  And if
it hadn’t been for VY1AAA on 20 meters, I wouldn’t even have worked zone 1.
 Not a single AK station heard or worked.      

Despite the disappointments, it was still a fun contest for me.  After all, who
can complain about working 700 DX stations in a weekend?   

Thanks for the contacts and CU in the next one.

The station:  

Win-Test
TS-480AT
Small tribander fixed on EU at 40’
Dipoles for 20, 40, 80 and 160
Useless vertical for 80

73, Hal W1NN
Near Cleveland, Ohio


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