[CCF] WPX CW OH6QU SO(A)SB15 HP

[oh6qu at netikka.fi]

Hupia viikonlopun sadepäivien ratoksi & 21 MHz:n napakelien tutkiskelua.


                     CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2019

Call: OH6QU
Operator(s): OH6QU
Station: OH6QU

Class: SO(A)SB15 HP
QTH: Maalahti
Operating Time (hrs): 35

Summary:
  Band  QSOs
------------
   160:
    80:
    40:
    20:
    15: 1008
    10:
------------
Total: 1008  Prefixes = 629  Total Score = 840,344

Club: Contest Club Finland

Comments:

After a long, dark and cold winter in Finland I find it difficult to 
motivate
myself to participate in CQ WPX CW because it is finally sunny and warm 
weather
outside. Well, this year I didn’t have that motivation problem - the 
national
weather forecast told that during the contest weekend it is hardly 10 
degrees
Celsius and rainy.

I am still in lack of antennas and a station automation for a serious 
multi-band
operation and therefore I decided to participate the contest in 
SO(A)SB15
HP-category. The 21 MHz band is my favourite – it is not too crowded and 
my
stack of three Hy-Gain TH7DX antennas are performing very well on this 
band. On
the other hand my QTH is located at 63N latitude which normally means I 
am not
blessed with those regular openings towards North America and Japan as 
they do
in Central and Southern EU but you just have to live with it.

As expected at this stage of the solar cycle the band didn’t really open 
for
me towards North America around 11 – 14 UTC. Saturday I only managed to 
work
KC1XX during this time window but Sunday there were around thirty North 
American
stations audible. Most of them didn’t move my S-meter but they were 
still
workable. Thanks for your patience for making the QSOs!

The fun part of the contest was nearly around the clock ES-propagation 
within
the EU area and Polar Path openings towards North America, Pacific and 
Japan on
all three nights. The contest starts at 3 AM local time. Around that 
time the 15
m band was still partly open towards North America and Japan! For 
example during
Saturday/Sunday night I managed to log AH6KO, KH7M and KH6TU after the 
local
midnight. I am really looking forward to the next solar cycle maximum to 
see how
good this Polar Path propagation gets with more sunspots boosting the 
density of
ionosphere F-layer.

The contest setup was FTdx5000 + OM2500A / 1.5 kW and 3 x Hy-Gain TH7DX.

Tnx for QSOs!
Jari OH6QU & OG6A
https://www.qrz.com/db/OH6QU/