[CCF] WPX CW OH0X(OH6KZP) SO(A)AB HP

[Kim Östman]

Kiitos kusoista OH-ukoille!

73
Kim

-----Original Message-----

CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: OH0X
Operator(s): OH6KZP
Station: OH0X

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: Brando
Operating Time (hrs): 26
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:   66
   80:  134
   40:  601
   20: 1442
   15:  199
   10:    0
------------
Total: 2442  Prefixes = 1048  Total Score = 5,605,752

Club: Contest Club Finland

Comments:

This was my first DX contest in quite a while, as I've been slowly recovering from some major health issues. Getting diagnosed with an intestinal tumor only to have it reversed to uncertainty a week later, losing all your blood and then some due to surgical complications (the original problem turned out to be completely benign!), along with other lesser complications, hasn't exactly made me excited for staying awake in long contests during recovery :) The latest addition is somatosensory tinnitus, particularly bothersome to us hams who are careful listeners used to digging signals out of the noise, but I'm hopeful it will go away with time.

Anyway, the first night was a blast, with great W/VE conditions on 20m. The contest starts at 03:00 local time, and the sun is almost up by then at 60N. I even heard some weak W/VE signals on 15m, but nothing workable. There were two split-second power cuts during the morning; when everything suddenly shuts down and comes back up, it really wakes you up :) 

The first day was spent getting back into "radio shape", practicing dual-band interleaved operating, or 2BSIQ. It's tougher with serial numbers being involved, but manageable. I was pleasantly surprised with a minor JA opening on 15m, and I even got some W/VE in the log on 15m. By 23z after 21 hours of operating I had about 2100 QSOs, so I was pretty happy with the rate.

I then went to bed for a bit, and as we all know, the bands changed "a bit" during that time... With K = 7 at 60N (think Alaska and northern Canada), you're basically screwed. So I did some sporadic operating on Sunday just for fun; I wasn't going to torture myself and left for home already in the evening instead of taking the ferry and driving directly to work on Monday morning, as originally planned. Total op time became 26 out of 36 hours.

The result should be good enough for a new OH0 record, but a much higher score is naturally possible. Thanks to all for the QSOs, let's hope for open bands in the next one!

73
Kim OH6KZP