[3830] CQWW VHF K2DRH SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide VHF Contest - 2021

Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: EN41vr IL
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  450   165
    2:   79    40
-------------------
Total:  529   205  Total Score = 124,640

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Feeling a lot better and getting around pretty well now after literally breaking
my back in a fall, but still not 100%.  During the test took a few minutes to
compare notes with Terry W8ZN who had a similar fall a week or so after mine
with spinal fractures too.  My 2M amp took a dump but I was able to get it fixed
the weekend before the test, just in time for a truly rare double hop event into
KP4 and HI8 that hit the record books!  I was all set to go with 3 new UPS for
my three main computers to prevent the last minute commercial power glitch that
had nailed me just minutes before a past contest. They are large enough to also
cover the 6700 Flex Radios and other microprocessor related devices so
ubiquitous these days to operating. 

6M had been relatively quiet for a couple days before the test but Es to W1/2
(and a little out west) was happening at the starting gate.  K1TEO and AF1T were
huge both 10 over (the Flex is calibrated in actual dBm and notoriously stingy
or “Scotch” compared to my old setup) with Dale edging Jeff out a bit. 
Great! Finally some rate instead of FT8. Wrong!  Even though it was open loud to
my bread and butter spot the going was relatively slow. I had a good but not
great hour since the depth just didn’t seem to be there despite WB2AMU telling
me later I was S9 plus for all three times it was open to FN20/30 and he heard
me calling.  I guess the marginal Es conditions we had for the last several CQWW
kept folks away in droves or maybe the new taste for FT8 has passed on to RTTY
and the NAQP that so disruptively runs in parallel on most VHF contest weekends.
 

Rates (such as they were) fell off the second hour and didn’t pick back up
until 0100 when it got open again for an hour, unfortunately to pretty much the
same places and with the same result.  Sadly there was only weak FT8 style
bubble Es openings for most of the rest of the contest. TX, FL and the Atlantic
FM grids were vastly underrepresented in the SSB runs.  All too soon it was time
to start slowly grinding out QSOs on FT8 (once again very little FT4 to be had).
 Ms on MSK144 was very disappointing like last year.  Conditions were fine but
only few stalwart big guns on PJ to add 2M but not a lot of randoms on 6M.  I
went to bed fairly early due to lack of interest.   

The morning was another story altogether.  Woke up a bit earlier than usual and
started listening well before 1100Z (6 AM) to find European stations already
starting to pop in and nobody really interested in working domestic.  Just after
1100Z I had little choice but to break my longstanding rule of not chasing DX
during a contest since they seemed to be the only game in town!  The
approximately 25 an hour rate was maddening since it was almost impossible to
call CQ (even CQ TEST) since most DX stations will call you with TX2 and no grid
to “save time” and are likely using JTDX without any contest mode anyway so
would not auto advance if you sent them a NA Contest Mode TX3. 
 
Despite being a CQWW VHF test, I saw only a few Eu DXers actually calling CQ
TEST (or CQ WW) for the whole three hours or so they were in and disrupting the
NA contest flow. At first I would call loud stations who were CQ DX with a grid
and I had to drop from Contest Mode and use TX1 to complete the require contest
exchange.  When stations would call me I could only answer those who sent me
TX1. Maybe a little iffy if they didn’t actually see my CQ, but it seems like
more were catching on and sending TX1 first as the opening progressed.  It was
maddening but accounted for 40 or more new and unique grids.  I did take a
little time to work SV5DKL who I saw CQ with a grid for DXCC #190.
  
After the Eu “rush” there were a few loud stations like K1TEO and AF1T (whom
several stations here in the MW noted was VERY wide) again, yet my CQs went
mostly unanswered. One again I had reports that I was very loud! Pretty
Frustrating to leave SSB/CW on an open band and have to resort to FT8 to put Qs
in the log again.  The Es fizzled out and it was a grind to the end with the
last two hours or so pretty painful to even find new stations to work on FT8.  


73 de Bob2   

 Band   Mode  QSOs     Pts  Grd  Pt/Q
    50  CW       2       2    1   1.0
    50  FT8    161     161   98   1.0
    50  MSK1     2       2    1   1.0
    50  USB    285     285   65   1.0
   144  FT8     29      58   15   2.0
   144  MSK1     5      10    5   2.0
   144  USB     45      90   20   2.0
 Total  Both   529     608  205   1.1
Score: 124,640
1 Mult = 2.6 Q's


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