[3830] WPX SSB IY3A(IZ3EYZ) SOSB15 HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2023

Call: IY3A
Operator(s): IZ3EYZ
Station: I4FYF

Class: SOSB15 HP
QTH: JN54
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:     
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total: 2266  Prefixes = 1115  Total Score = 6,359,960

Club: 

Comments:

Last-minute decision to operate.
SOSB is not my business but with the only antenna for 10/20m being unavailable
(boom to mast plate broken), I had to go for SO15.
No repair was possible as we had strong wind 90/100 km/h throughout the weekend
with gusts up to 150 km/h.

Did station setup on Friday night, just before the contest start.
Just when I thought I finished at 01z I realized the latest Wintest version
(4.46) still blocked UA/EW (!).
I didn't want to setup and re-test everything from scratch into DXLog, so
installed Wintest 4.47 dev that cured the issue.
Unfortunately 4.47 dev proved to be unstable as it would randomly close about 20
times during the contest.

Anyhow, the contest itself wasn't meant to be for Southern EU this time.
Besides Saturday afternoon, I always felt I was in the wrong place.
On Saturday morning stations North and North-East of me were running JAs I
couldn't hear at all.
On Saturday evening to the US the same story against stations North, North-West
and West of me.
The latter is not unusual but not to this extent (2/3 hours more).
On Sunday in daylight the band sounded more like 20m in daylight in WPX
CW/IARU/WAE.
Too much absorption at this latitude even towards mid-latitude paths in full
daylight.
On top of this the band closed to US almost at the same time as of Central and
Northern EU.
Hence, no way to recover.
On the other hand, Polar path was in full swing on Sunday.
So, no matter the S9+20 sigs from W6/7/VE7/KH6, the entire Sunday
afternoon/evening was all about lousy rates (just two hours slightly above 100
Qs/hr).
Central/Northern EU enjoyed access to high-latitude direct path to US with lower
absorption and QRB advantage compared to Southern EU.
EA/CT were in the same pot as me, unable to get any real rate/runs to US.

QTH: hilltop, 450m asl
STN SETUP: 1 x RTX (FT1000MP) + 1 x PA (8877) + 5/5L @17/9mt (bottom all the
time to NE, upper mostly to NW and sometimes turned into other directions)

North America      1187
South America      79
Europe             542
Asia               298
Africa             29
Oceania            130


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