[CQ-Contest] CQWW WPX PH -(Long)

[Martin Ellis]

Thanks to all contesters for some great contacts in the WPX Phone.

The four weeks interval since the ARRL Phone has seen a rapid change
is the seasons here with the Autumn (Fall) equinox occuring on
March 22.

In the ARRL, best bands were 80m and 40m while 15 was disappointing,
and 10m non-existent.

This weekend for the WPX Phone, it was 80m and 40m that were difficult
from the South Pacific.  When there was propagation to Europe,
excessive EU QRM and local static made it impossible for even
the big stations to hear us.  So we often made do with NA and JA on
the low bands.  No contacts possible on 160m from this QTH due
to excessive static.

In the hour before the contest we had S9++ continuous
electrical noise from the nearby farm house.   To late to ring the
power company, so my XYL Kathy ZL4SO made a quick visit to see
if the neighbours could help. The farmer offered to turn off his 
electric fence, and the noise disappeared.  Must remember to
check later to see if he has a faulty unit.

Started the contest on 15m to North America, and followed with
a JA run that lasted from 0030z to 0615Z - and was running out
of new prefixes.
Changed to 40m to work North America, but very hard to find two 
clear frequencies for a split operation.  So spent some time
above 7.150 in the W phone band, until EU QRM died down.
Over to 80M from 0930Z to 1130z and spent the final hour back
on 40m.

After a rest period, next morning (Sunday local) was on 40M from
1730z to 1930z when 15m opened up.  A solid opening to North America
was followed by an hour on 10m from 2200z to 2300z. Back again to 15m
until the JA/Asia run slowed down at 0400Z, so opened up
on 20m for the first time. 20m contacts were between Asia and 
Europe until it was time for 40m at 0900Z.

This time I was able to get started below 7.100 listening up.
The DVP card helps the long call (instead of a crisp *CQ contest*,
it becomes <... listening this frequency and 7.225, 7.225 contest...> 

80M at 1000z was pretty rough with static, so back to 20m at 1045Z
for EU contacts until the next rest period at 1200z 
(our local midnight). 

Next morning (Monday local) started on 20m from 1830 to 1930Z
and then 15m to North America from 1930 to 2000z when the long
awaited miracle happened- 10m was open from W4 Florida thru W6.
Stayed on 10 through several band reversals, until the run rate dropped,
so back to 15m for the last hour of the contest.

Hassles
--------
Using an old 286 computer (NECPowermate) with 640k memory.
At 1900 QSOs, the screen slowed right down until the computer
was running behind the keyboard entry. No time to reboot with
another log, so finished the last hour on paper log.
After the contest I rebooted without the DVPTSR, and entered the
paper log in POSTCONTEST mode without any problem. 
  


Breakdown
---------

The breakdown by bands shows the full story:

Band     QSO's       PXs     
160         0          0
 80        66         21
 40       273        137
 20       266         79
 15      1225        303
 10       191         21
ALL      2021        561

Section:   Tribander/Single Element-Single Op/ High Power.
Hours on:  35 hours

Special Mention:
================

Thanks to the following stations for 5 band contacts
80/40/20/15/10m with ZL1ANJ:

	AE0M
	KH7M
	KU4V
	NE6N

These contesters will never quit!
(Hint: No 1x2 calls here).


Single band stations were fun to work:
*  Mick W4YV had great signal on 10m single band (he made 188 QSO's).
*  Dan KW4T was good copy in 40m, low power section (made 242 QSO's).

Regards,
Martin ZL1ANJ
=============

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