[3830] CQWW SSB N8II SOAB Classic LP

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CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SOAB Classic LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    6     3        2
   80:   41    14       24
   40:   72    14       34
   20:  332    26       89
   15:  236    22       66
   10:  131    14       41
------------------------------
Total:  818    94      256  Total Score = 772,450

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

These are the times that try men's souls! The forecast was for disturbed
conditions, and boy did we get that and more! A week before the CQWW last
Sunday  15 M was wide open to every corner of EU at 1330Z, but absolutely no
north EU or even zone 16 worked in the WW. The zones missed on all bands were
18 (SWL'ed RW0A on 40),22,23,26,27,28,29 (nothing heard from VK on 20 LP and
looked),32(only heard ZM1A calling stn.),34,and 37 (worst ever with serious
effort).  My best/biggest surprise DX QSO was VR2 on 40 over south magnetic
pole after sunrise. The other big surprise was EU on 10 M from 1519-1553Z on
Sunday working EA,F,CT,and EA6. Also worked on 10 were Canary
Is.(many),CN,ZS,D4,6W,EA9, and ZD8. 10 never seemed to open west farther than
Mexico, no Hawaii. Even 20 never opened well to north EU; SN8 and EU1 had deep
polar flutter on 20 Sunday morning. The low bands were pretty much a disaster.
I could have done better there, but everything past zone 33 was weak on 40 both
Saturday and Sunday evenings. 

There were some pluses against the obvious minuses. Sporadic E opened 10 to all
of the Caribbean early Saturday morning with S9+ signals. At the same time there
seemed to be Es from central to west EU on 15 (stations running at very high
rates). There was also strong auroral Es Saturday evening to the north on 20/40
with booming VE2's and 3's, but no big over the pole opening. I did work about
6-8 Japanese on 20 with weak signals then as well as zone 19. It seemed like
Puerto Rico/Virgin Is. was in a sweet spot for propagation and they were well
represented with activity. Propagation to the south did seem enhanced at times
especially on 10 M. From my perspective, the most under represented country was
New Zealand (no Q's, worked a passel in WPX CW), and the biggest turnout was
Chile with an explosion of new calls on 10 and 15 Sunday afternoon/evening. The
Canary Is. were also out in big numbers. Thank goodness there were many Spanish
stations active, but turnout from France and Italy did not seem quite up to
normal.

Most DX operators did a very good job under challenging conditions (20 was
absolutely jammed with south EU most of Sunday as was 40 at the start). When I
stumbled across a spotted semi-rare/rare station, I was pretty well screwed at
times Sunday. The behavior of some of the USA big guns was shameful calling no
matter who the DX was trying to work. I just saved the frequency and came back
later which worked well. I did break some big pile ups easily on 20-10.
Smoothest/best runner award again goes to Andy, V47T (recognized his voice
after a couple of Q's) with kudos to Tom, 8P5A also (weaker than usual). Some
of the zone 33 ops were speaking so fast they lost intelligibility.

My Q's were almost all S&P, only about a dozen were on runs despite some
tries here and there. Conditions/congestion were just too bad for running to
work. I pushed the rate meter up to last 10 Q's of 173 S&P'ing on 20 Sunday
afternoon after a break with a new cast southern EU characters. 10 and 15 to the
south also went well around that time. Thanks for picking me out of the mess!
Let's hope the WW CW is not a repeat!

73, Jeff


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