[3830] ARRLDX SSB W6QU(W8QZA) SOAB QRP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2020

Call: W6QU
Operator(s): W8QZA
Station: W8QZA

Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: San Diego, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 12.9

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:   13     8
   40:   23    11
   20:   59    29
   15:   33    25
   10:    3     2
-------------------
Total:  131    75  Total Score = 29,975

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

STATION W8QZA:

Radio: Elecraft K-2, 5 Watts.

Antennas:
  10-15-20 Meters: 3 el Stepp-IR up 32 feet
  40 Meters: 1/4 wave vertical with 3 radials
  40 & 160 Meters: DX-LB trap dipole up 30 feet
  80 Meters: Inverted L with 2 radials
-----------------------------------------------

Conditions seemed worse than the CW weekend. However, compared to last year, my
score and stats were very close to the same. So maybe we have bottomed out.

Only 3 Qs on 10 Meters (2 LUs and a PY done over 9 minutes!) despite numerous
trips to check the band. I never heard Europe or Japan on 15 Meters! 20 gave me
3 European Qs each day. I would call and call and once in a great while a Euro
station would come back! 40 Meters had good propagation into the Caribbean and
the Pacific. And I was able to work 2 JAs on 80. I pulled another blank on 160
as I often do on 160 SSB with my low trap dipole!

My best Q was with RT8U on 20 M who is in Zone 18 and somewhere between UL and
JT. That area is very tough for me. D4Z was nice to work on 20, but he was on a
lot and hears VERY well! The rest was pretty normal stuff. I did hear JT1BV in
the last 10 minutes on 20 with a good signal and very few callers, but he just
could not hear my 5 watt signal!

N1MM+ says I operated 12.9 hours.  That is a joke!  This was a full effort by
me. I slept 4.5 hrs the first nite and 6 hrs the second nite. Other than that I
was pretty much on the air.  N1MM+ counts any period over 30 minutes with no Q
as time off. And that happens a lot overnite on the low bands.

My DXCC was 40 and my WAZ was 17, not very good but about the same as last year.
Off continent Qs were 86 of my 131 total.

The station worked well and I had no failures. It did take some work to get my
new laptop to work with my recorded message. There are some tricky things I
discovered like having to check a box that is nested 4 or 5 clicks deep! 
Just having a message with my call to do the calling is a HUGE help. That is
because with QRP a lot of my voice use is just calling stations without a
response!

Anyway, it's all working now. See you in 3 weeks when it's everyone works
everyone and Q totals skyrocket!

...Bill  W6QU - W8QZA


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