[3830] WPX SSB KU2M SOAB Unassisted Classic HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2023

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

Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Unassisted Classic 
QTH: Wayne, NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 19.4

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  161
   40:  335
   20:  462
   15:  740
   10:  388
------------
Total: 2086  Prefixes = 863  Total Score = 4,256,316

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

I was so exhausted from work and getting over a flu virus the last two weeks
that I just didn't have the energy to even think about a serious effort for WPX
SSB that would eat up my entire weekend (which I needed for some rest), but
since I am certifiably insane when it comes to radio, I somehow found myself
climbing up the tower after work on Friday to put up a last minute 80M antenna
an hour before the contest start... after all, even though I might be on the
verge of pneumonia and exhaustion, what good is it if the only working antenna
you have on 80M is a pathetic ground plane only marginally better than a dummy
load? So, after modeling a few options, I decided my best shot without a
helicopter, 150' crane or a ground crew was the time-honored, simple inverted
vee, which I somehow managed to scrounge together out of some old pieces of wire
and coax and drag up to about 60 feet, mount just below my K0XG Ring Thing
rotator while throwing some catenary lines over tower-mounted yagis without
getting the antenna legs hopelessly tangled or passing out and falling off the
tower (which would have been embarrassing). 

But the really important news was the alarming propagation forecast of impending
doom in the form of solar storms. What good is being alive if there is no
propagation (especially on a major contest weekend)? However, physical
exhaustion usually has the last word in these matters, and ultimately,
especially after finding out that TCM was running Dr. Stangelove AND Network
consecutively starting at 0000Z, I just said "the hell with it" and
passed out on the couch. Then, compounding my sins, I slept late and didn't turn
on the radio until after 8 AM the following morning. At this point, my options
had dried up and it was time to think about the "Classic" overlay. I
would never win, but at least I could tell myself I had operated a category that
fit my mood: limited time, no spotting assistance, and physical and mental
decrepitude.
 
At about this time, I discovered that HF conditions were as advertised - that
is, schizophrenic. I couldn't get a run going; I'd call and call and have
absolutely no one come back - not even anybody from the midwest. As I sat there,
wondering if something had happened to Ohio, I forced myself to do S&P with
low rates until conditions started to improve, which they slowly did, although
still were plagued by periods of high absorption. A main indicator for me is how
well the HF bands open to JA from here in the KU2M Triangle, and this weekend,
there was bupkis from Japan - in fact, the only JAs I heard the entire weekend
were a few watery JA sigs calling 8P5A on 15 on Sunday afternoon. After hearing
those, hope returned that I might be able to work a few JAs, and I turned the
high antenna to JA and started calling CQ. But nothing and no one came back. OK,
so I'm not in the Caribbean, but NOBODY? Nope, nobody - and it was back to
working Ohio and PYs. Well, at least some PYs. And I never heard even one JA -
on any band.

As Mr. Vonnegut used to write, "so it goes." However, when the HF
bands finally awoke and opened up to DX from the other directions, I was
impressed with how well the bands were contradicting the preliminary prop
warnings of utter doom. 10M was crazy good at times, as was 15. I wondered -
what magic sigil had persuaded the propagation gods to have mercy upon all of us
poor contest sufferers? Was it the hastily erected 80M inverted vee? Whatever it
was, even though straining my tortured throat beyond reason made me sound like a
frog by Sunday night, I managed to recover from the work week and have some fun.


And after all, isn't that really what being insane is all about?


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