[3830] RTTY WPX KB4KBS SOSB80(TS) QRP

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CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: KB4KBS
Operator(s): KB4KBS
Station: KB4KBS

Class: SOSB80(TS) QRP
QTH: GEORGIA
Operating Time (hrs): 14

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  144
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total:  144  Prefixes = 104  Total Score = 32,656

Club: Georgia Contest Group

Comments:

"Scott is relentless and determined to always find the hardest possible way
to do something." - everybody who knows him


When Fred, WW4LL sent out an e-mail earlier in the week and listed all of the
records for the 4th call area, I looked at it and marveled that the SOQRP80
record was held by K3TW/4 with a grand total of 9 QSOs and 216 points, I said
to myself, "He's going down!"  Never mind that I have a modest
station and only a G5RV at 30' AGL (in places).  If it was going to take me all
contest to do it, I was going to get 10 QRP QSOs.

I determined that I would make my best effort on Friday night and then reassess
on Saturday.  I have to give a shout out to my wife, Eileen, who calmly and
quietly listened to my grand delusions of being the top score in an obscure and
unpopular category, then graciously allowed me to "give it a go".  All
afternoon I had tinkered and toyed with the station making sure the software
(N1MM w/ FLDigi) was updated to the latest revision, and that all of my macros
were tweaked. 

At 00:00 I was ready to go! First station up was WN4AFP, Dave.  I tried to send
my report and DOH! I had forgotten to update the EXCH to "#" from
"Scott GA" when I had been testing earlier.  I finally fixed it but
he was gone,  In the confusion he got logged, and I couldn't figure out in the
heat of the battle how undo it and reset the counter to 001, so I lost that
contact and my log starts with my first contact being 002.

Later on I had another foul up and ended up logging a station three times. 
Again, I deleted the extras but again the counter would not be deterred so my
QSO count was now even further off pace from my Serial Numbers.  Much to my
surprise, I was actually able to run a frequency using QRP power.  The first
two hours I ran 15 and 16 stations respectively.  Its nothing to write home
about, but I had secured my role in the pantheon of obscurity as the having the
highest score from the 4th call area in CQ WPX RTTY history for 80M QRP.

I then did a little more research (during the 7 QSO hour number three) and
found out that the top score for all time for this category was set in 2015 by
NH7C at NW3R's station - 114 Qs, 81 prefixes, and 21,546 points.  A worthy goal
if the propagation gods smiled and I could be heard across the pond and in the
Caribbean.  As the night dragged on and the gray line moved across the sky, it
became obvious that EU was off the table.  Maybe I would have stood a chance if
I had a 80M mono-bander at 185', but "dreams, we all have dreams".

Finally as hour four (23:00 locally) arrived and the "off" switch for
40M was triggered, I had another good run of stations, mostly by S&P. I set
my sights on "the lower 48" and began to chase down "red
letter" stations and also "blue letter" stations that were loud
and likely equipped with good ears.  It was my best hour, landing 18 Qs in the
log.  I had 65 contacts in the books and 100 seemed achievable so I pressed on,
alternating between running and chasing, looking for hols in the spectrum where
a 5W station might have a chance.


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