[3830] CQWW CW K8BKM SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: K8BKM
Operator(s): K8BKM
Station: K8BKM

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 16:42

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   10     7       10
   80:   54    15       42
   40:  143    20       80
   20:  314    27      101
   15:   73    15       47
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total:  594    84      280  Total Score = 594,776

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

After participating in both SS CW and phone, I was a bit burnt out on contesting
and told myself that my entry in CQWW would be just for fun and for band fill.
That's pretty much how it started Friday, hunting for new countries on 160M. I
did manage to work 4 new countries (TK, 4O, LA, J8) but while conditions on 160
weren't too bad, signals on 40 and 80 were way down. I thought the contest got
off to a pretty poor start. I thought that would be an indicator for conditions
the rest of the weekend, but I was wrong. I went about my normal business
Saturday morning, going to b'fast with my ham buddies, then off to run errands.
After getting things squared away on the home front I got on 20. Boy, I was
surprised at the signals from all over the world. I noted to my contesting buddy
Jeff, WB8WKQ, that in a few moments, I heard and worked stations in Europe,
Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Central America, the Pacific, and
Japan. The entire world was on the air and we had propagation
"everywhere". Only a DX contest like CQWW brings out so many people in
so many different countries. I was officially hooked for the rest of the
weekend. 

Because I was mainly after "band fill", I chose to operate assisted.
Also, because I wanted those new countries on 160, I ran HP. However, on
Saturday, conditions were so good that I was working 20 meters barefoot and kept
the amp turned off. Except for the rare multipliers, I could pretty much work
anything I could hear. Followed the sun and propagation from east to west and by
the time 20 was closing down I had fewer than 200 Q's in the log compared to my
friend's 400 Q's. I never ran Saturday and was just going from multiplier to
multiplier. The low bands weren't very production Saturday night so I turned in
early. 

Got back on the air a little after sunrise on Sunday and 20 was hopping again.
The band was full of Europe and now I decided to start picking off every Q I
could find. Again, running barefoot, it took just one call in most cases to get
another in the log. After running up and down the band I found an opening,
turned on the amp, and started calling CQ. Holy cow. Started a very long and
productive run. A few hours later and I was up over 400 Q's. I took another
break to drive my wife to work and run some more errands, and then came back to
try to repeat my success on 15, but 15 just wasn't open nearly as good as 20. I
worked all the mults and Q's I could find on 15 and went back to 20. As the
afternoon progressed things really started to slow down. Left the house again to
pick up my wife from work and take her out to dinner. Came back home nearing
sunset hoping to work a long run of JA's on 20 but few answered my calls so I
had to go looking for them. 

My rotator sure got a workout on my single 3-element yagi. A SteppIR would have
been nice to flip 180 degrees with the flick of a switch. Again, the band was
open to Central and South America, the Pacific, and Asia. By the time 20 closed,
I had 101 countries in the log - DXCC in a weekend. I don't think I've done that
before. I moved to 40 and worked some more Europe with the amp on but signals
weren't very good. Worked a lot of Spain, England, and Germany but didn't get
too deep into Europe. Flipped back and forth between 40 and 80 the rest of the
contest, anything and everything I could hear, now trying to maximize my score.
Easily broke 500 Q's and my previous CQWW best score, but fell just short of
600K.

I tend to shy away from DX contests because I don't consider my station
competitive. However, I still had a great time and found it to be very fun, even
at the bottom of the solar cycle. No other contest brings out such a variety of
stations. 

I think I'll take a break for a while and take a pass on my all-time favorite,
the ARRL 160 contest. I just can't spend another weekend in the chair. Now it's
time to practice my pileup skills with Morse Running in preparation for running
ARRL DX CW from Martinique as TO8T in February. 

Great contest!

K3
Alpha 78
TA-33 at 50'
204' G5RV inverted-v at 40'

Tom
K8BKM


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