[3830] WPX CW AE0EE SOAB LP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2019

Call: AE0EE
Operator(s): AE0EE
Station: AE0EE

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MN
Operating Time (hrs): 33

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    4
   80:   48
   40:  217
   20:  311
   15:   67
   10:   19
------------
Total:  666  Prefixes = 358  Total Score = 492,966

Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn

Comments:

100 W, dipoles up 5-10 m, keyed entirely on a Vibroplex bug.

What a rush!  It was great to see some decent openings for this contest.  There
was good action on 15 m at the start, and even some 10 m contacts in the first
hour.  Two Kazakhstan stations were in the log on 20 m within the first two
hours, which will be a new one once confirmed.

Overall conditions seemed good for this time of the solar cycle, and it was
great to have some strong openings on 15 and 10 meters.  Most of the stations I
worked there were domestic (10 m almost certainly was E-skip), but I did find a
few South American and European stations on 15 m.  It seemed like 20 m was open
to much of the world most of the time, even through the middle of the
night---the one exception being JA, which I didn't get in the log on any band.

The low bands were noisy, but I still eked out 4 QSOs on 160 m.  The noise on 80
m was fairly limiting (NA + KH6), but I may have missed a good opening to Asia
and VK/ZL before sunrise on Saturday when the noise seemed to be a little less
intense.  Sunday morning I thought I had missed the good opportunities to VK/ZL
on 40 m, but managed a no-doubt contact with VK6LW almost two hours after local
sunrise.  I love it when propagation works that well!

Rates seemed pretty good, and I could often make progress via search-and-pounce.
 The first few hours, which are often a waste, sustained 20 Q/h rates.  Some of
the subsequent contest hours slowed, but even the best hour topped out at 60
Q/h.  I tried a few times to get runs going, but rarely met with much success;
only two had >20 contacts, and the average rates for those runs were under
60/hr.  With 100 W and wires, the propagation didn't seem to quite be there to
really enable me to run effectively against the KW stations with big antennas.

One fun part of the contest was finishing 6-band sweeps with NR6O and NR4M! 
With only 4 contacts on 160 m, that's an excellent conversion rate.  Honorable
mention goes to KN7NV, who only missed me on 160 m.

Saturday night, I stayed up until 1:30 or so, when I had mostly worked out the
bands.  I decided to get some sleep, but only 3 hours so that I could try again
on the pre-dawn low-band opening to my west.  That plan came together well (+/-
actually making the contacts) but I was in for a long day ahead.  By early
afternoon, I was pretty tired.  Needing a bit of a break from the action, I
headed up to 10 and 15 m and called CQ.  There seemed to be plenty of space, and
the signals I could here were generally quite strong.  With low rates, I was
able to relax and close my eyes, focusing on the feel of the bug in my hand. 
Every now and then I'd get a rush of adrenaline as I snapped back to the world
as someone responded to my CQ, logged them, then went back to my meditations on
"CQ AE0EE TEST".  I didn't fall asleep, but I got the energy I needed
to finish the contest strong.

The last hour or so, particularly last half-hour, got very interesting.  I
couldn't get a run going with any rate, so search-and-pounce it was to be.  The
trouble is that at the end of a long contest I usually have a hard time finding
the stations I haven't worked before in the din of those I have (operating
unassisted).  Fortunately 20 m was open to EU (still!) and many of the stations
calling CQ were both new to me and loud.  It was a thrill to work up the band
and get many of them in the log in one or two calls, often breaking a pileup to
do so.

While I wasn't quite able to break 500K points, I gave it a good run.  The goals
for the contest were 400 Qs (ok), 500 Qs (good), or >600 Qs (great!) and
points are good too.  Sunday morning it was clear I could make the 500 Q goal
easily, and that 600 was likely to happen as well.  Once the 600 QSO mark was
reached, the pressure was off a bit, but I wanted to see if I could make 500K
points.

As for a comparison to last year, the score was up, Qs were up, and prefixes
were up.  DX must have been down, because despite being +10 WPX and +51 QSO, the
total score was +10K.  Once again, this is the most contacts I've made in a
contest.  In keeping with last year, I was again disappointed by the
wall-to-wall stations in a QRM-fest on 20 m below 14.070 MHz, but a lonely few
stations from 14.080-14.150 MHz.

For next year, I hope to take advantage of the *Saturday* pre-dawn propagation
to pick up some prefixes (and DXCC!) to my west on the low bands.  I might also
put up the 10 m antenna rather than just tuning up the big 80/160 m fan dipole.


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