[3830] CQ WW RTTY ON3DI SOSB80 QRP

[webform at b4h.net]

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: ON3DI
Operator(s): ON3DI
Station: ON3DI

Class: SOSB80 QRP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 28

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX  Zones
-----------------------------------
   80:  379       4      49    10
   40:                           
   20:                           
   15:                           
   10:                           
-----------------------------------
Total:  379       4      49    10  Total Score = 47,187

Club: 

Comments:

Hi

What a week! The days before the contest I checked the antennas and my
computer. The antennes were ok, but the screen of my laptop was stuck. I tired
to connect another screen but I guess the videocard was stuck. Luckely I had
another laptop at home but I need to do the configuration, not my strongest
part. At my new computer I had only one connection for the mic and headset. I
thought I could solve this with a USB soundcard device, but it didn't work out,
frustrating. Thank god there is Facebook, I became a member of the dxlab group.
Yeah I know not that very logical to use dxlab to contest, but it worked in the
past and I was happy about that. I asked for some help and soon W2IRT, Peter and
AA6YQ, Dave helped me. Step by step they did the configuration with me, also
with a lot of patience, they were incredible! Anyway the problem wasn't solved.
When I was transmitting I had no power, receiving wasn't a problem. The next
days I had to solve this problem on my own but I didn't found the solution. In
my head I knew the contest would be without me, I should not be able to defend
my title on 80m QRP. The thursday before the contest my dad, ON2WVD, suggested
to buy another cable instead of the USB soundcard. After my work on Friday I
would buy it in a local store here, my last hope. I bought a jack adapter cable
 and a USB sound adapter. The last one was the right one. When I was
transmitting I had power and could receive, finally some hours before the
contest it was sure that I could be qrv!

And now about the contest! Months before the contest DK6SP, Phil, challenged me
for a batlle on 80m QRP assisted. I won that category last year with a new world
record. The problem was I had no internet and no connection to the cluster and I
had no interest to fix that after all the problems with the configuation. And
honestly I knew Phil would be strong with all his antennas, I was pretty sure
that I could'nt beat him. I saw also that the world record unassisted was
doable, decision made! I was qrv on 80m QRP unassisted!
The start of the contest was good, I tried to call CQ as much as possible. The
first 6 hours I had circa 20 qso's/hour with a max of 31. K1SFA, came back to
my call, always nice! I worked also V31MA and P49X, I had to call only once!
Unfortunatly I wasn't able to work VA2UP (just like last year), K3LR, N4RM,
AA3B, ..., calling and calling but they did'nt copy me. I worked only four
states: PA, CT, MA and MD, last year I had 5 states. 
After the first shift I was happy, the conditions were pretty good! On
Saturdayevening I was soon qrv on 80m but it was slow, very slow and that for
the rest of the contest. Despite the conditions I worked easily RG9A, nice
multiplier. On sundaymorning I heard USA staions but I wasn't able to worked
them numerous; I worked only AA3B and K3LR, finaly! 
Rates were about 10/hour, that is slow and I was all the time fighting against
the sleep. The shift from 15 utc on Saturday to sundaymorning 6 utc without a
stop was hard, extremely happy that I could go to bed.
Sundayevening was again poor, trying to work some new contestdxcc. I worked 49
dxcc, normally 10 states (not sure about RW0A) and 4 states, that is combined
better then last year (44-7-5), happy about that result!

I was the first time that everyone was active between 3560 and 3615, band was
crowded, think RTTY is gaining interest. Anyway I still love it.

I stopped with 379 QSO's, that is also better then last year when i had 334
qso's. Normally I may claim a new world record, for the second time in a row. I
have almost 100 QSO's and 16 multipliers more then HA1WD during his world
record. Hopefully I have beaten my opponents!
One thing is also sure, I lost my world record 80m QRP assisted, to Phil DK6SP,
he has a really nice score!

Thanks to my parents for everything
Thanks to W2IRT and AA6YQ for all the help
Thanks to DK6SP for the company during the contest, it kept me awake
Thanks to all who worked me

Now fingers crossed for the raw scores, it will tell me a lot!

All the best!

73

Pieter ON3DI


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