[3830] CQWW CW N8II SOAB Classic LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SOAB LP
Class Overlay: Classic 
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 23.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   29    11       20
   80:  110    16       54
   40:  173    19       71
   20:  929    30      111
   15:  174    21       70
   10:    1     1        1
------------------------------
Total: 1416    98      327  Total Score = 1,719,125

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

It was the best of times (20M into EU); it was the worst of times (most all of
the other bands, no F2 on 10M). As K5ZD mentioned, I also can never remember
working no DX on 10M in the CQWW, a new low! 

160 signals seemed much worse than some years with SFI 75-100, I could not work
many EU, nothing heard from anywhere outside of VE Sunday near sunrise.

I had noise on 80 loud enough to cover over the weakest stations, but many I
could hear could not copy me. EU is much louder here in Nov. when the solar flux
is higher. Working the west Africans was easy. Near sunrise Sunday sounded
really poor. I never tried much CQ'ing, knew it would not bear fruit. The noise
did not hurt the results much.

I need a better antenna on 40 for sure. Signals Saturday around sunset were
fairly weak, very weak at 2220Z. By 24Z southern EU sounded much better, but it
was a struggle calling guys, quite a few could not copy even when S7-9 here.
Near sunrise on Sunday was disappointing, no readable JA's, could not work
anything
from Asia, missed RT9, UN5, E2A (pretty loud but deaf to all NA while I
called).
15M was mostly a S&P challenge; I just was not loud enough to run much.

20, oh 20, my salvation! I decided to try a run low in the band Saturday
sandwiched in between K2QMF and W3UA. My 13Z hour was 142, so it worked, some
good ops with high quality receivers out there. Technology has improved them.
And, everyone was pretty close to zero beat to my frequency which was not true
on Sunday. I probably could have hit over 1K Q's if no time had been taken to
try 15. Saturday afternoon we were treated to extended hours into EU with good
signals from most of EU. It was amazing to work Russians at bottom of cycle past
midnight their time! The opening favored farther west in NA, but I picked up OH0
then. Between EU, AF, and everything south, I picked up a huge number of mults
then, S&P nirvana! Almost everything I heard went into the log, good luck
breaking pile ups. Sunday, I could find no usable hole low in the band, so 14095
worked pretty well, best hour was 96. I could hear a pin drop, blessedly no QRM
or noise! I finished there on Sunday afternoon, working VK2 for double mult with
1 minute left. I nearly missed zone 13, ended up with CX and LU. Last year, I
only made 559 Q's and worked 7 less mults.

15 was frustrating but interesting for sure. I worked almost exactly 100 Q's
less than last year and 8 less mults. But, there was a decent opening to NE EU
just as on phone this year. Normally, this is quite rare recently, we had good
luck. I caught ES,LY,YL,LA,SM,OZ,UR, and ER on Sunday. I also had good luck with
AF, both 5R and 3B8 in zone 39, also zones 35-38. I could not break the OX pile
up, was not the only one. DL west to G was pretty marginal, the openings
definitely were of a spotlight nature. The Pacific was pretty punk, nothing
other than KH6 and ZM4.

Thanks for all of the calls and QSO's; and thanks to those who put out effort to
pull me through. The level of operating is higher in the WW. Hopefully, this is
the only year of being skunked on 10.

73, Jeff


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