[3830] WPX SSB PJ4DX SO(A)AB TB-Wires HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2020

Call: PJ4DX
Operator(s): PJ4DX
Station: PJ4DX

Class: SO(A)AB HP
Class Overlay: TB-Wires 
QTH: Bonaire
Operating Time (hrs): 21.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   85
   40:  291
   20:  505
   15:  543
   10:   26
------------
Total: 1450  Prefixes = 699  Total Score = 3,676,041

Club: 

Comments:

I started the contest full of enthusiasm as it is a few months since I have
entered a major contest as a single operator from my home QTH. The first hour or
so on 20m was great but on the Saturday evening I took a scheduled break for
dinner, after making 1391 QSOs, and when I went back one hour later after dinner
I could just not face the crowded conditions on both 20m and 40m.

Both bands were absolutely full and it was impossible to find a "run"
frequency. It seems the coronavirus has certainly increased the activity on the
bands, with everyone stuck at home and nothing better to do than operate radio
all weekend. Under those conditions you need to have a "mega
station" with at the very least a 2-element beam on 40m, and something
better than a Spiderbeam at 30 feet on 20m!

So, sorry to report, I gave up on Saturday evening, had a couple of glasses of
wine, watched some TV and went to bed early, intending to get up for the 40m
morning greyline opening. But the only stations I heard then were the same ones
I had worked on Saturday morning, so I simply could not get up the enthusiasm
to continue.

On the Sunday I worked just 63 stations (compared with 1391 on Saturday), mainly
calling either new contest multipliers that I had missed on the first day or
calling contest friends (G0DWV, G1A, K4BAI, K4RO etc).

10m was no good at all on Saturday but it actually opened up quite nicely on
Sunday, with some S9++ signals from South America, a single American in Texas
(KZ5MM) and, surprisingly, E51JD in the South Cooks. He was a really good signal
- it's a long time since I've heard any Pacific on 10m.

So, I could certainly have done better. Either I need better propagation, a
better station, or perhaps I am at last coming to the conclusion that 48-hour
contests are no longer for me(!) Perhaps next year I will enter one of the
single band categories?

Some really nasty w-i-d-e splattery signals from South America on 10m on the
Sunday, and one Caribbean station with a 15kHz wide signal the whole weekend,
but generally good operating. One USA station called me with my own callsign
three times, his own three times, then gave me his name and QTH and then a
report. I had to ask him for a serial number, but when he was eventually
persuaded to give me a number it  was several hundred higher than my own number
to him. How could this be, I wondered? Perhaps some stations start at 10000
rather than 001?!

Hope next year to regain my enthusiasm for what used to be one of my favourite
contests of the year.

73
Steve, PJ4DX
(Icom IC-7300, Acom 1500 amp at 1kW to Spiderbeam at 30ft, 40m inverted-V
dipole, 80m quarter-wave vertical. No separate RX antennas.)


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