[3830] CQ WW RTTY 8P2K(8P6SH) SO(A)AB LP

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CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: 8P2K
Operator(s): 8P6SH
Station: 8P6SH

Class: SO(A)AB LP
QTH: Barbados
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------
   80:                            
   40:  289       41      51    15
   20:  262       36      46    15
   15:  203       32      41    13
   10:    9        1       7     5
------------------------------------
Total:  763      110     145    48  Total Score = 583,881

Club: 

Comments:

To be fair, the conditions were better this week-end than I have experienced in
the last several months. But propagation was still basically bad. Low power
doesn't help.

There was a lot of noise at my QTH but I believe that had to do with
propagation and not being generated locally.

A few hours into day 2 I was smelling that smell of smoke being let out of
components. I thought it might have been the bandpass filters but after some
checks both bandpass filters appeared to be fine. Next 40m transmission and
there was a BIG BANG. Initially I couldn't figure out what had happened but it
turned out to be the power supply for the FT950. Initially this had been
configured to be on 20m for the entire contest but I had moved it to 40m to
possibly try and work both 40m and maybe move some mults to 80. Nothing good
came of the 80m antenna so I left the 950 on 40 and moved the main FT2000 to
run 20m. 

I recently loaned the spare PS to another ham friend so I would have to
continue the contest with a single rig. I was quite put off though so I did a
quick look inside the Samlex PS to see if I could find the source of the
fireworks. Looks like a transistor may have overheated - it has certainly been
really hot over the last several weeks and my shack just happens to be in the
hottest part of the house. Hopefully it's a simple repair.

The fireworks made me suddenly feel very wary and it was a big effort several
hours later to resume the contest. 

In the end the numbers are just about 50% of my plan. I know I needed at least
a few dozen Q's on 10 and ideally 100+ in order to achieve my goal. That never
happened. It felt lie 10 was wide open as I was hearing dozens of stations in
EU but very few ever responded and only a few responded to my extended CQ's. 

Finally a few thoughts. Thanks to the Italians - it feels like half my contacts
were with Italians. In reality it was Italy and Gerbany together accounting for
50% of EU stations that accounted for 48% of all Q's. This was just 2 QSO's
more than total NA stations (48%) with the balance coming mainly from SA and
Asia. 

No thanks to the several stations that answered my CQ's and then took over my
frequency. That happened so many times I wondered if it was a sprint contest.
In the future I am thinking not to log such calls. It is most frustrating
especially as a LP station.

Finally it was a pleasure to welcome 8P6ET into the RTTY contesting fold. He
operated as 8P1W and while I didn't work him at least I heard him once on twice
on 20m. Thanks to everyone for the nice Q's, your patience and for all the
memories.

Dean 8P6SH / 8P2K


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