[3830] CQWW SSB KU2M SOSB15 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2022

Call: KU2M
Operator(s): KU2M
Station: KU2M

Class: SOSB15 HP
QTH: Wayne, NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 27

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:                    
   15: 2107    34      121
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 2107    34      121  Total Score = 917,135

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

It was a good weekend for 15 Meters, and in spite of a few technical
difficulties which were luckily overcome during the heat of battle, I'm pretty
sure this turned out to be a personal best for me for 15M single-band in CQWW
SSB. The key aspect to a successful 15M effort is a decent opening to Japan,
which has been absent out this way for years, but propagation to JA seems to be
returning with the sunspots. Although conditions there were disappointing on
Saturday, JAs were much more in evidence on Friday and DupeDay (some people call
it Sunday) evenings. We don't hear much else from East Asia other than JAs over
here on the east coast, but in the last hour I actually was called by a YB, a
first for an evening opening, and while I didn't expect to break through to work
him, 7D1C actually said "Wow" when I called him the night before,
surprised that my signal was fairly strong. However, except for one other, that
was it for YBs. Although I read about other stations out in the western
scrublands raving on about running hysterical mad hordes of hundreds of YBs and
JAs (as well as other exotic multipliers), I can only sit in mute awe of such
mind-numbing wonders (I think last year in one contest one of those western
folks worked 545 JAs or something on 15M - while yours truly worked 3). I doubt
anything as incredible as that will ever happen here in the KU2M Triangle, save
for the second coming of Gus Browning, or someone like him.

That's the bad news. The good news is that activity was hot, except for
you-know-where. Very few UAs were heard or worked, and I was grateful for
whatever could be put into the log from that area (and from the Ukraine), which
wasn't much. Meanwhile, there was an exceptional avalanche of Western Europeans,
causing the run rate-o-meter (using N1MM+) to go off the hinges and hit over 260
at a few points - and that didn't include the dupes that were already calling in
by late Saturday morning, a whole day early. 

On a different tack, in the interest of scientific investigation, I decided to
use a new radio for the first time in a major contest (Elecraft K4D). While I
was half expecting to remove it from duty on Saturday evening and go back to my
usual rig, it remained in place the entire weekend, and not just because of
laziness. Surprisingly, it seemed to be able to pull out the down-in-the-noise
coat-hanger-antenna stations pretty well (just what the heck are they using for
antennas over there?), and also handled the usual QRM from 9A1QRO and the other
wideband splatter experiments that come out and run wild in phone contests.
However, scientific inquiry can only go so far, and I think I'll go back to my
trusty "boat anchor" for the CW weekend!


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