[Mldxcc] AD6E WPX cw

[Alan Maenchen]

Per N6DE,  this year we should support our local club in WPX .. NEXT year
will be the year NCCC wins WPX !   Start thinking about that now.



I haven't done a solo WPX for years.  The opportunity came unexpected when
W6NV and the usual cast of characters were not available to do a multi. So,
I had the station to myself.

It helps to have attainable goals !!

Goal:  score some points.

I arrived at the station in plenty of time.  I simply disappeared from work
after lunch. I don't think anyone even noticed.
The station was already set up and ready to play. I brought my P3 from home
so I had to install that.  It turned out to be very helpful and I'm glad I
brought it along.

I've NEVER started any contest running.  I'm a slow starter naturally and
it takes me a while to get into the swing of things.  This time, I found a
spot on 15 and just started CQing at the opening bell. I sat on 21041 for
two and a half hours !!  The band was open to both JA and EU at the same
time.  What to do?  Work both! It's so nice when you can do that. Despite
the wide open paths, I never really got a sustained high rate going. Rate
all day bounced around 80 to 150 with a couple of bursts here and there. It
turns out 15 was the money band by kilomiles.  10 never opened to anywhere
but SA, and I worked both of those guys easily. I think >97% of all
contacts were RUN.

Back to goals ...  having achieved the primary goal in the first few
minutes, I thought I should maximize my score by staying up all night and
work all them 6 point JAs.  Well, by about 4am I was getting really tired.
Thought:  I'm at 900 Qs, let's make 1000 and take a nap. Well, I crashed
with 945 in the log. So much for that goal.

I slept in the car for a couple of hours and felt better.  I missed the
dawn band shift and found 15 again wide open.  I happily sat on 15 for
hours running endless EUs.  The summary shows it all.  I've not had to
think about off times in WPX as part of a M/S or M/2 team.  So, I went QRT
at 01Z and slept for 8 hours... except there wasn't much sleep.  The wind
was howling, the rain was horizontal.  The car rocked like a boat. I got up
at 3am local to catch the JAs that I had missed Friday night.  Good choice
because they were there in hordes. Nice runs on 40, and even a great 1/2
hour run on 80.

Sunday morning, the K3 just up and died.  I took a short bathroom break,
and when I returned, the receiver wasn't receiving, and the transmitter
would not transmit.  Each time I changed bands I saw the ERR PLL1 alarm.
At that point, I had 3.90 megapoints and I thought that maybe I should just
quit.  However, KX7M has a certificate on the wall saying Pacific Div
leader, M/S with 3.97 meg.  It just isn't right to leave that unchallenged.
Fortunately, there is a spare K3.  After swapping it out, everything was
fine. Goal now is to make 4 megapoints.  After the rig swap, that came just
too easily.  At that point I had about 1700 QSOs .. why not shoot for
2000?  15 meters was in a festive mood and even that was fairly easy.  But
enough is enough.  I went QRT at 20Z and came home with 2000 Qs and 4.5
megapoints. All lofty goals met.  Conditions were so good I think I could
have easily passed 5 meg and maybe even 6.  In WPX that first million
points is hard, but the next mil is easier. The fourth was almost too
easy.  I suppose if you get to really big logs, each QSO after a while is
another million points?

Summary:
band    Qs       Pts      Pref
160:       1           1        0     (woke up the NR6O op)
80:        46       173        3
40:      379      1397      99
20:      452      1157     235
15:    1073      2650    459
10:        49       138      30
Tot:   2000      5508     826     Score claimed:  4,549,608

On time:  28:25  (includes many 15 min breaks.)

Had 14 dupes, so last actual serial number sent was 2014
Log checking will reduce that by a considerable amount.  I was not very
careful and went for rate instead of accuracy.

One last note:  This was SO1R.  The station is not set up for SO2R. I did
try SO2V and made a couple of QSOs that way, but the effort actually
dropped my rate so I gave that up.

Thanks to W6NV for the use of his fine station.

73, Alan  AD6E