[3830] CQWW CW N5AW SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N5AW
Operator(s): N5AW
Station: N5AW

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: TX (EM00)
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   68    18       42
   80:  223    25       82
   40:  385    34      102
   20: 1043    34      116
   15:  265    26       76
   10:    5     3        3
------------------------------
Total: 1989   140      421  Total Score = 2,985,081

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

I was fortunate to have had no visits from "Murphy" during the WRTC
qualifications. Guess things are catching up with me. I've had a problem with my
40 meter Moxon for some time - intermittent low sensitivity on receive. Was
pretty sure it was a poor connection somewhere in the transmission line that
would bridge when power was applied. Antenna is 500 feet from the shack with
relays and stubs in between. Basically had been through all the connections but
one - a hardline connector on the tower. It was well water proofed and had
avoided taking that off. A few days before the contest I finally did that. Sure
enough it was blackened inside from lightning damage. The second time I've had
that problem with an N connector. Cleaned it up as well as I could and it seemed
to fix the problem. Unfortunately after only an hour or so on 40 meters Friday
evening things went really bad - connector must have opened up as the SWR went
way up and the amp faulted. The high SWR proved to be intermittent but the low
receive sensitivity was now even worse. Not only that but my beverage was not
working properly (turned out to be a receiver problem). I quit trying to run.
Reduced the power to 500 watts and the high SWR quit occuring. Bottom line -
probably missed two or three hundred QSOs on 40 although did manage to get a
decent multiplier total.  

Over all conditions were "OK" for this point in the sunspot cycle.
Marginal openings to Europe and JA on 15 but 20 was great. The new G0KSC yagis
that replaced my old 20 meter yagis worked very well - personal high for 20
meter QSOs for me. Europe was weak on 160 but managed to exceed my totals from
last year. Only DX signals on ten were a couple of LUs and CE3WW on Sunday
afternoon.

Hopefully I'll have my problems fixed by ARRL DX and Murphy will stay away!

Marv N5AW


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