[3830] CQWW CW W1DYJ SOAB(A) LP

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CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: W1DYJ
Operator(s): W1DYJ
Station: W1DYJ

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 20.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    7     3        2
   80:   17     7        9
   40:  112    16       56
   20:  175    25       86
   15:   77    15       42
   10:   23     7       14
------------------------------
Total:  411    73      209  Total Score = 311,892

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Overall goal
	I started CW contesting two years ago, with CQ WW CW.
	(Thanks to Tony for cajoling me to join YCCC.)
	With my still meager CW skills and lack of touch-typing,
	I'm totally S&P.  And with 10M disappearing I was just 
	hoping to match my score from last year.  I came close!
	Hopefully with fewer mistakes my final score will 
	actually beat my score from last year.  I definitely 
	find CW contesting more fun than phone.

 Rig: 	TS-590S
	I brought my TS590 down from my Maine QTH rather 
	than use my 15 year-old EMA QTH's TS-2000. I 
	don't know if it was its better specs on CW, or
	the fewer stations on the bands, or just a
	placebo effect -- but the TS590 seemed to be 
	quieter, with less adjacent station interference.

 Antennas:
	160	Temporary dipole snaked around my yard @ 3m
	80/40	Modified Alpha Delta DX-CC at 7m
	20	HB Moxon @ 12m
	15	Rotatable Dipole @ 11m
	10	HB 5el yagi @ 10m

 Logger: N3FJP's CQ WW DX Contest Log Ver 5.2
	Note: Scott's API generates queries into his station 
	logger, ACLog, allowing me to see band-countries that I 
	need for DXCC.  His activity graph lets me see where 
	(band and continent) the last 200 spots from Zone 5 
	came from.  Both are very helpful.

 Band-by-band -- I don't have enough experience with this contest 
	to comment about the bands as others have in terms of 
	being quiet, not being able to break into EU, etc., but
	here are my thoughts:
	
	160 -- 	I usually try to load up my shortened, loaded, 80M 
	dipole to see what I can find, and usually get one
	US mega-station (usually W3LPL) for a 0-1-1 contribution
	to my score.  I decided to experiment by snaking a 
	dipole around my yard, all of ~3 meters high on average.
	(Modeling shows it to have about -6 dBi of gain straight 
	up -- yes, NEGATIVE 6dBi.)  "Infinitely better" than no 
	antenna, the contribution was 12-3-2.  Now I'm looking 
	to see if it can be improved a bit before this weekend.

	80 -- About half as good as last year.  I did grab two more 
	countries, now 75, to complete 5BDXCC.

	40 -- Almost identical to last year.

	20 -- More than twice as productive as last year.  I spent 
	most of my time here as it was usually the most productive.

	15 -- About half as good as last year.

	10 -- About a third as good as last year

 A final comment for Tony:  I gave up stamp collecting in 1962 
	to take up ham radio, but I still keep all the stamps 
	I receive from foreign QSLs.  If you ever give up ham radio
	and go back to stamp collecting, I'll give them to you...

 73 -- Larry -- W1DYJ


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