[3830] CQWW SSB 8P5A(W2SC) SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: 8P5A
Operator(s): W2SC
Station: 8P5A

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Barbados
Operating Time (hrs): 47
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  135    10       27
   80:  734    23       78
   40: 2397    30      107
   20: 2446    29       97
   15: 1973    27      105
   10:  533    14       31
------------------------------
Total: 8218   133      445  Total Score = 11,200,484

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

Definitely a challenging weekend on a number of fronts.  I brought down two new
computers and installed them the night I arrived.  The next morning, neither
would turn on.  Either lightning or a power surge had damaged them both.  My
wife Kathleen had a commitment at home and did not travel to Barbados until the
next day so she brought down a couple of old laptops for he contest.

Other than the computer damage, the rest of the station came up well.  I had a
small issue with one of my own programs but the station was completely ready at
the start.

20 was already closed by the time the contest started, so it was a pure lowband
first evening.  40 and 80 were in good shape, but signals were way down 160.  

Saturday morning started well on 20 and then to 15.  All the while, I kept
checking on 10 for an opening.  I tried a few CQ's when heard some US calls
answering the South American stations.  The first responses were from VE.  This
was exactly how the opening in March started so I was optimistic.  Eventually
the band opened to the US east of the Mississippi for about 90 minutes.  

At the  half way point , I was a few hundred Q's behind the last two years and
was still hoping to catch up.  40 and 80 were again solid and I was looking for 
rebound on 160.  Signals were clearly stronger, but static crashes made copying
the weaker signals more difficult and more tiring.  

Sunday proved to be very disappointing.  The morning started with the failure of
one of my solid state amps due to a stuck relay in the antenna switching
hardware.  Fortunately, once I thought of a workaround for the hardware problem,
the station is configurable and a backup amp could be brought on line with a few
key strokes.  Time lost was only a matter of minutes, but it took some time to
mentally regroup.

15 was significantly less productive to Europe in the morning and 20 was wall to
wall QRM.  The 10 meter opening the day before did not recur and I only made one
10 meter QSO on Sunday.  After a far slower morning, I kept waiting for the big
afternoon runs into North America, but they were not as deep and sustainable as
prior years.

Overall, finished about 900 Q's behind last year with substantially lower points
per QSO.  

I think we are all hoping that this is the bottom for propagation and, despite
periods of frustration throughout the contest, there is no such thing as a bad
8200 QSO weekend.  Big thanks to the contest organizers for this great event.

Congratulations to my friend Yuri, VE3DZ/P40T, on his likely win.  His
perseverance on a difficult weekend and his strong multiplier total made the
difference.

Thanks to everyone for the QSO's and the moves

73, Tom W2SC 

QSL vis LoTW or HA1AG


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