[3830] CQ WW RTTY AE0EE SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2019

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

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MN
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX  Zones
-----------------------------------
   80:   64       30      4     5
   40:  109       40      9    10
   20:  145       31     24    17
   15:    9        6      5     5
   10:    1        1      1     1
-----------------------------------
Total:  328      108     43    38  Total Score = 81,270

Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn

Comments:

100 W, dipoles up 5-10 m.

I was optimistic at contest start, having heard JAs on 20 m while getting things
ready before the contest.  However, once the contest started, conditions seemed
to go downhill.  Stations were generally weak, DX hard to find, noise on 80 m
from thunderstorms was awful, and QSB made it hard to complete contacts.  At
least domestic contacts count in this contest!

When I hopped on Saturday morning local to work EU, I was pretty disappointed to
find very little on 20 m.  Only a handful of the strongest stations made it in
the log.  South America was strong on 15 and 20 m, but even those contacts were
few and far between.

Mid-day Saturday I was able to make a contact on 10 m for a point and three
multipliers.  Also, with the bands mostly closed (at least for DXing), it was a
bit easier to find an open frequency to run---about 25% of contacts were from
running.

On several occasions I made good use of the N1MM local bandmap features, finding
a DX or multiplier station with a big pileup that I couldn't break, then coming
back in a few minutes and getting through fairly quickly.  Mostly, though, I was
just working any station I could get reasonable copy from.

I heard a bunch of other Minnesota callsigns in the pileups, but rarely heard
them directly.  I worked a few Minnesotans on 80 m, and that was it.  

Overall I felt my station performed adequately with no major issues or
surprises.  I put a bunch of hours toward operating, and made more contacts than
I thought I might---particularly with the band conditions being pretty bad. 
While I could have had more time at the radio, it's always hard to stay
motivated for a RTTY contest even when the bands are good.  Short of "have
lower K- and A-indices", there isn't much that stands out for needing
improvement for next contest or next year.

Compared to last year:
Hours operated: up 30% from 17 to 22
Score: up 30% from 63K to 81K
Contacts: up 50% from 231 to 328
States/Provinces: up 45% from 75 to 108
DX: down 25% from 57 to 43
Zones: up 15% (how*?!) from 33 to 38
Mults: up 15% from 165 to 189

* 20 m did better this year for zones, more than enough to offset the losses to
15 m.


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