[3830] CQ WW RTTY W4PK SO(A)AB HP

[webform at b4h.net]

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: W4PK
Operator(s): W4PK
Station: W4PK

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 24:50
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------
   80:  228       40      23     7
   40:  382       47      57    18
   20:  524       36      78    27
   15:  308       16      67    21
   10:   12        1       7     5
------------------------------------
Total: 1454      140     232    78  Total Score = 1,525,500

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Score this year was about 58% of what I had achieved in 2011.  Of course a lot
of this was due to 10M being open to Europe back then and 15M being wide open
around the world. But the lower score also was due to my inability to stay up
late anymore.  I called it quits about 10:30 each night and took naps both
afternoons. But I did manage to get up before daybreak on both mornings to take
advantage of the paths to Asia on both 40 and 80M. 

I had some decent runs going on Saturday morning but Sunday morning was a
different story.  20M was jam-packed with stations from 14080 to 14150,
including the packet portions!  It was late on Sunday morning before I had any
success at running, but not nearly at the rate as I had Saturday morning.  To
me the propagation on 15M was down from Saturday.  I never did get any runs
going on that band.  

The highlight of the contest was being called by VU2LBW on 20M late Sunday
morning! One low-light was that my home-brew control box's SO2R audio routing
system started "chattering".  Fortunately this did not affect the
audio to my sound cards so it didn't affect copy, only my ability to hear.  I
temporarily bypassed it by using the speakers on the radios, but I must admit
that I did miss the earphones.  

Early in the contest my computer locked up two times while I was running SO2R
and I do apologize to those of you who were affected by that.  The software
(latest version of N1MM+) ran without any lockups for the rest of the contest,
and I am happy to report that overall N1MM+ ran flawlessly!  I was monitoring
my CPU Performance Meter and I did note that it had peaked up to 100% when it
locked up. Otherwise it ran about 12-16% on average. The fault clearly is in my
computer and not N1MM+. 

One thing I did notice was that occasionally  "N/A" would pop up in
the "State/Provence" field when running foreign stations.  This was a
very minor annoyance and when this happened I would just click in that field and
hit the delete key.

The most important thing about this contest is that I had fun!  I am getting
too old (not to mention my equipment) to put in a serious effort any more.  My
2011 score (placed #6 North America, #4 U.S.) is my personal best!

Thanks to everyone for all the QSO's! 

73, Sam WW4PK


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/