[3830] WPX SSB K7HKR SOAB Rookie LP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: K7HKR
Operator(s): K7HKR
Station: K7HKR

Class: SOAB LP
Class Overlay: Rookie 
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    1
   80:   13
   40:   71
   20:   71
   15:   35
   10:    9
------------
Total:  200  Prefixes = 117  Total Score = 47,268

Club: 

Comments:

7-foot diameter magnetic loop (160-20), 3-foot diameter magnetic loop (20,15),
3el bent Yagi (10); all at 5 meters height and all search and pounce.

That was actually fun!  ARRL DX SSB left me wondering if I should even bother
with DX contests with such a limited station.  However, last year's WPX SSB
featured only 17 out of 140 QSOs outside W/VE, so I wasn't expecting this to be
much of a DX contest.  For some reason, I set optimistic goals of 200 QSOs
and/or 120 mults and/or 30,000 points and I almost got all three!  I also
decided to be optimistic enough about rate that I went unassisted; the spectrum
display on the IC-7300 was plenty enough help and I never got bored.

I had to work all day Friday until 10pm (5UT) with just a few minutes at my
dinner break to make 2 QSOs on 15 meters.  After work, I didn't work anything
exotic, but the DX on 40 was tons better than last year at the same time; CN,
VK, ZL, EF8, CT3, FY5, JA.  That turned out to be the only JA I worked (a little
disappointing), and I never heard Europe.  I quit at 2am local time because I
had to work all morning Saturday.  There was some decent SA activity on 15
meters Saturday afternoon, but it was mostly a domestic day.

I managed to get some more DX on 40 late Saturday evening, but was too tired to
take full advantage.  All told, I worked nearly as much DX as during ARRL DX SSB
and almost 3 times as much as last year's WPX SSB.

Sunday afternoon, many SA stations were popping up on 10 meters, but my loop
just wasn't cutting it.  So, I decided to sacrifice 20 minutes to take down the
large loop and put up my bent Yagi, trying not to hurry so much that I fell off
the ladder or something.  Although it only amounted to 9 QSOs in about a
half-hour, it was nice to have a bit of "presence" on the air and to
have a chance at most of the stations I heard.

I pushed as hard as I could Sunday afternoon to reach 200 QSOs and literally did
it in the last minute!  The biggest surprise was shortly before the end when I
stumbled across an RW0 station on 20 and was able to work him.  Other than one
particular QSO, everyone was great, even when I wasn't heard very well.

My point total was much higher than expected because I got many more of the
juicy 6-pointers and averaged 2.02 points per QSO as compared with 1.65 last
year.  No complaints, but too bad there isn't a "PATIO-ANTENNAS"
overlay, hi hi.


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