[3830] CQWW CW WC1M SOAB Classic HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M

Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Classic 
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 13.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   25    12       21
   80:   73    13       42
   40:  498    21       72
   20:  480    26       76
   15:   26    13       22
   10:    1     1        1
------------------------------
Total: 1103    86      234  Total Score = 1,016,640

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Only 13.5 hours, but made my million for the club (before UBNs...)

Would have loved to do a full effort, or even a full Classic effort, but two
months of the most intense work schedule I've had in years dictated that
Thanksgiving weekend needed to be as restful as possible. For some strange
reason, 40+ hours with little or no sleep and trying to keep my head straight
with a radio blaring dits and dahs in each ear just doesn't seem all that
restful anymore Guess I'm getting old.

As Sig N3RS reported, I did spend a fair amount of time on the phone with him on
Thursday and Friday troubleshooting my antenna-switching and station control
software, AntennaMaster. I heavily modified the software more than five years
ago when I implemented support for K1XM's MOAS II USB relay switch. Sig was
operating exclusively SO2R at the time and ever since, so neither of us noticed
that the Multi-Op code was broken. When Sig decided to do M/2 with his neighbor
this year, my app refused to cooperate. The main problem was due to a relatively
small change in the frequency packet from N1MM to N1MM Logger+. Most of the rest
of the problems were bugs driven by differences between my station's
configuration and Sig's. And there's still one bug I'm working on that I think
Sig was able to work around. While it might seem that several hours of software
troubleshooting would have added to my fatigue factor, it was actually a welcome
break from my work stress, which is all caused by humans, not computers.

I thought I'd make it through Classic, but soon after starting I decided that
the time would be better spent relaxing with family, sleeping, eating, watching
football and contesting only when I felt like it. Result: a lot of rest and
plenty of fun making over 1,000 Qs with zero performance stress. 

I hope not to make a habit of this. After all, earlier this year I actually
started to see a glimmer of retirement coming (must have been when the Medicare
card arrived). That was before my work life got really, really busy and the
stress level of same skyrocketed to nearly obliterate all my time for ham radio.
I simply don't have my priorities straight anymore.

I thought conditions would be pretty poor, and judging from my rate sheet they
weren't great the first day. That said, I slept in and skipped the morning runs
both days, so who knows? I did get some serious rate going on the second day,
first on 20 and then on 40. My best 1-hour rate was 179, and the 10-minute meter
peaked at 198 pretty often. All in all, I was pretty happy with 1100+ Qs in 13.5
hours, especially after missing the highest rate hours.

Adding to the theory that conditions were better on day two, I didn't hear
anything but South on 15 the first day but was able to S&P EU quite well on
15 late Sunday morning. Couldn't run, though -- most likely it was too late for
that.

10 didn't exist here, except for K1TTT, who is maybe an hour or so to the South.
Thanks for the double-mult, man.

80 and 160 were pretty good, but I didn't spend a lot of time there. Mostly ran
40 at night and turned in early. If I had better antennas on the low bands there
were plenty of Qs for the taking, and my Beverage seemed to work pretty well on
EU for a change.

All in all, it was a very pleasant weekend. No matter how much time I put in,
The King of Contests always delivers.

Hope to do more in WW CW next year and in ARRL DX in February. See you then.

73, Dick WC1M

P.S. To Sig, N3RS, thanks for your kind words. It's always been a pleasure
working with you, and I'm glad to see my software made it through the contest
and was a part of what appears to be another top-ten performance at your
station.

Antennas:

160M  -  trapped vee @90'
 80M  -  delta loop @75, trapped vee @90' (not used in this contest)
 40M  -  Cal-Av 2D-40A @110', 4-square    (used together for Diversity RX)
 20M  -  4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 4-el @72'
 15M  -  4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 5-el @50'
 10M  -  4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50'. 6-el @115'
 
Tower#1:   Force 12 EF-610, Cal-AV 2D-40A, 4-el SteppIRs, 160/80 trapped vee
770-MDP:   Force-12 EF-420
AB-577 #1: Force-12 EF-515
AB-577 #2: Force-12 C3E

Delta loop hung from a tree

dual 580' beverage aimed 20/220 degrees

Equipment:

Elecraft K3/P3 + Alpha 87A, Writelog, YCCC SO2R Box (never switched for Classic,
homebrew Windows antenna switching/tuning software ("AntennaMaster"),
iPad Pro running Touchmon USB for touch-screen "button box", K1XM MOAS
II USB Switch, TopTen and KK1L SO2R switches (second radio not used), Green
Heron and Hy-Gain rotor controllers, microHam Stack Switch and StackMax


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