[3830] IARU WT2P(@K9ZO) SOAB(A)Mixed HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship - 2022

Call: WT2P
Operator(s): WT2P
Station: K9ZO

Class: SOAB(A)Mixed HP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 24
OpMode: 2BSIQ

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:                            
   80:    98     2     11       12
   40:   398    15     25       32
   20:   522   168     36       39
   15:   314    72     37       43
   10:    41     9     15        9
-------------------------------------
Total:  1373   266    124      135  Total Score = 1,240,351

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

First time back at K9ZO's for IARU since 2019. That year was a personal best,
with 1677q's, 189 mults and a claimed score of 1,019,277.

This year was a personal best, although the Q count was down slightly (1639) but
I more than made up for that in mults and "high value" QSO's.

This contest also tested out setting up Ralph's station for SO2R operation.
Friday night we got things re-wired, added an Antenna Genius and put in the 40M
high power filter. The goal was to have a radio on 40M and the other radio (or
slice) jumping around on other bands. Given that the high bands use a SteppIR
currently, I could not run 20/15 or 20/10, or 15/10 - there's work needed there
to make that a reality. I also added Green Heron Everyware to ZO's station so
that I could integrate with his rotor control. That is all now done on screen
and with 1 click I can have the beam at VK/ZL in 20 seconds or less, and another
click and I am back at EU or AF or SA. That really helped when it came time to
snag multipliers.


Nothing broke this weekend!

SO2R definitely made a difference right at the beginning when 40 and 20 were
both hot. I was running 2BSIQ for the first hour and had 131q's. As the second
hour progressed, I was running on 40 and then moved to 15/10. One of the things
that stands out at least in my initial log analysis is I was on 20 a lot. That
seemed to be where the party was happening. Having the ability to quickly
switch, grab a mult (usually on the first call) and jump back to the CQ
frequency helped me snag a lot of the HQ stations. I tried to keep the needed
mult window neat and tidy (they should all be worked). There was very little
interference on the other bands, even just with using the 1 40M bandpass filter.
There's lots of exciting work to do at the station to get the high bands in a
SO2R configuration.

The real highlight was the late night 20M opening. I pointed the SteppIR at 005
degrees (over the pole) and was able to run both JA/EU/SA/Russians at the same
time for quite a few hours. That snagged me well over 250 high value q's in that
time period.

The online scoreboard helped in motivation as well. It was a real horse race
between myself, WO4O, N6AR, W3MA. In the beginning, me and K5ZD were trading
places for 1st, but ZD would eventually turn on the afterburners and leave me in
the dust! Me and WO4O traded places a couple times, I could see him creeping up
on me and that was motivation to get more mults and more high value qsos (i.e.
same zone q's in the US are 1 point), so I really made it a point to get HV q's
in zones 6/7, Canadians and of course *any* DX and new mults. For a while, WO4O
had a sizeable lead on me and got to 1M while I was at 800k. When things slowed
down, I didn't really think I would break 1M (I was also running on coffee and
starting to get really tired) -- but I kept going. 80M was a boost. The antenna
on 80 + a KW bursting through pileups the first call gave me a real morale
booster. I hit 1M, then passed WO4O. I didn't stop there, W3MA was nipping at my
heels on my way to 1M as well. That late night EU run really helped me come in a
solid 2nd on the Scoreboard.

Thanks to Ralph and Connie for their hospitality and excellent food as always,
and to Ralph for motivating me. Once the station improvements on the SO2R side
are done, I hope to break the 2K QSO barrier.

WT2P (@K9ZO)


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