[3830] WPX CW AA4LR SO(A)AB LP

[webform at b4h.net]

CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR

Class: SO(A)AB LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 25.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   15
   40:  226
   20:  447
   15:  162
   10:   39
------------
Total:  889  Prefixes = 452  Total Score = 866,936

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

Antennas:
Cushcraft A3S/A743 at 15m (10-40m)
Shunt-fed 15m tower (80m)

Equipment:
Elecraft K3/100 w/KAT3 running 100 watts

Comments:

It's been a while since I operated any contest seriously. My previous large
effort in WPX CW was way back in 2010. I wanted to try and make a personal best
effort. My 2010 effort was just shy of 500,000 points, so that was the goal.
Because of church obligations, I'd missing late Saturday night and Sunday
morning through mid-afternoon. But there was still plenty of operating time.

At the contest start, I worked AE0EE on 10m, but he was the only signal on the
band. I worked 15m and 20m hard, but I didn't want to linger too long because I
needed to hit 40m hard. By 0230z, I was on 40m, and working many 6-point Qs.
Lots of europeans available, but I finally ran out of gas at 0530z and hit the
sack. I slept late, well after sunrise, and was back at the radio just before
1200z. 

20m was productive, but quickly turned short. Oddly, though, 15m never did seem
to open east-west. We never had a bit Europe opening on 15m. From about mid-day
to later afternoon, 20m had that odd quality of being open in every direction
at once -- working EU, SA and AS without turning the beam (well, not much). 10m
never did open Saturday, not even to SA. 

Virtually all my work was S & P to this point, with a few short runs
(<10 Qs) when I found a reasonably clear frequency. 

By 0030z, I was back on 40m, but it wasn't really that open to EU yet, so it
was back to 20m for an hour. Then I finished up on 40m at 0200z.

At this point, I had beaten my previous best Qs, Prefixes and Score with over
620,000 points. Any operating I did Sunday would be gravy.

Sunday I finally got back to the radio just before 1930z. Conditions were
seriously different from Saturday. 10m was open with Es, but just about all of
that was stateside. I was able to run on 10m, 15m and 20m, but virtually all
the callers were stateside. While not worth a lot, they did provide needed
mults, and the rate was very healthy. At one point, the rate meter was over
170/hour. I can't complain, because I rarely see this running low-power.

Worked very few europeans on Sunday. I don't think propagation was favoring
them. Went to 40m for the last hour, but it was pretty early. Made the jump to
20m, where I ran for a while, and then got pushed off in the last 15 minutes so
I jumped back to 40m. One of my last Qs was CR6K - over 40 minutes before my
sunset. 

Noted one problem with the A3S. 15m appears to have an intermittent high SWR.
Never saw this on 20m or 10m, but it did happen several times on 15m. 

Very happy with these results. I believe this is the largest number of Qs I
have personally made in any single contest. Looks like 1 million points is
certainly achievable, and might have happened if I had more operating time.
Perhaps next year.


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