[3830] WWDigi NN7SS(K6UFO) SOAB QRP

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                    World Wide Digi DX Contest - 2019

Call: NN7SS
Operator(s): K6UFO
Station: NN7SS

Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: WA
Operating Time (hrs): 11
Remote Operation

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:   20     9
   40:   61    16
   20:  146    21
   15:    0     0
   10:           
-------------------
Total:  227    46  Total Score = 16,376

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

I'm very pleased and honored to participate in the very first 
WW Digi DX Contest! As usual when I contest, I entered QRP.

I couldn't schedule to be at the station, so operated remote, with a 
new internet connection just installed yesterday :)  So, no SO2R, 
lots of glitches... sigh, its sometimes hard being at the far end of 
a long wire.

I got up before sunrise for the start to try low band to Asia. On 
80m worked a lot of USA West Coast :)  40m a bit better with a 
VK and KH6.

20m bustling, but I seemed to take w-a-y too many repeats.
But there were always FT4 stations to call, so I kept at it.
At one point I found my clock was 0.6 seconds slow. Yikes, 
I've never had that problem, and a restart fixed it. "Maybe" 
QSOs went faster with less repeats...  

I would stop and check if my frequency was clear, and at 
QRP it hardly ever was... so find a new freq and start again. 
Otherwise, I tried to have a TX every cycle either a CQ or 
to call someone. Not that it helped when QRP...  

Overall, I think QRP has less of a "disadvantage" than in 
other modes. If I had a clear frequency, and called in the 
right cycle - I had a "reasonable" chance of getting anyone 
above SNR -10 or so.

For a supposed "automatic" and "robot" mode - I sure had to

do a lot of monitoring and clicking and maintaining to keep 
things working and progressing!

Family activities took up most of midday, but I contested for an 
hour or two here and there.  

Lots of unlogged "QSOs" because the sequence was messed up 
and people wanted Signal Reports and didn't send RR73 so it 
didn't auto-log. Rules don't require signal reports - come on! 
I caught a few, but I'm sure I missed a bunch. 

Tried some FT8 but not as many stations, and s-l-o-w.  I copied 
Europeans on 20m FT8 but no good working them QRP from WA.
I only used the "contest" frequencies, and FT4 when I seemed to be 
getting through efficiently, or switch to the FT8 when I needed more 
reliability getting through. I'd guess there was twice as much FT4 
action as FT8 action on the bands.

I tried CQing on 15m, but no luck. During the mid-afternoon slump 
I seemed to do better on 20m FT8 scaring up some South Americans 
and JA's for 3 points each!  No sunspots, A of 36! and it showed on 
the bands... really weak. 40m was okay later, 80m very noisy and 
weak, I copied a bunch on 160m, but couldn't get an answer. 
I finally pulled the switch at 05:30Z and did not set the alarm to try 
again before 12z. Done!

A great introductory contest for new modes and a new exchange 
and scoring system. The software worked well, the operators 
"mostly" worked well. I rate it an A-minus!  Thanks for the fun.

NN7SS Burt WA (K6UFO op)

15m, 20m: GXP 3 element yagi at 72 feet
40m: GXP 2 element yagi at 72 feet
80m, 160m: wire 4-square arrays
Elecraft K3 at 5 watts 
RemoteHamRadio.com
Writelog and DigiRite


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