[NCC] Fw: WPX CW LG5LG(W1NN) SOAB LP

[Hal Offutt]

                   CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: LG5LG
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: LG5LG

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Norway
Operating Time (hrs): 35

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:   19
   80:  133
   40:  361
   20:  665
   15:  336
   10:  202
------------
Total: 1706  Prefixes = 640  Total Score = 1,765,800

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Volcanic ash and Chicago thunderstorms nearly prevented this trip, but 
happily
the ash cloud died down just in time for my departure and after my flight to
Chicago was cancelled I was able to reschedule and go through Washington DC 
and
arrive in Oslo as scheduled.  Following a two hour drive, I arrived at what 
is
probably one of the few if not the only amateur radio station straddling an
international border - the famous LG5LG/SJ9WL station at the Morokulien
international peace park.  Find out more about this fascinating place at
http://www.sj9wl-lg5lg.com/text1_2.html.

I arrived with less than 36 hours to get ready but the station was all ready
for me and I merely needed to hook up my laptop and Win-Key and I was ready 
to
go.  It was a low power station so I did not have huge expectations but as I
tested out the station Thursday night I thought I would be able to do
reasonably well.  The station consists of a log periodic at about 80' for 
the
high bands and dipoles and a G5RV for the low bands.  I knew that 40 would 
be a
challenge with only a dipole and LP, so I was really hoping to have good 
high
band conditions.  Conditions Thursday night were good and I worked a number 
of
strong JAs on both 15 and 20.  I woke up Friday morning just in time to 
operate
the weekly NCCC Sprint contest at 0230 zulu (4:30 AM in Norway, about 30 
minutes
after sunrise) and I was able to work 7 US stations and K4BAI in PJ4, so I 
was
hoping for some good runs on 15 and 20.

As everyone knows, conditions took a dive just before the contest start and
high band conditions were challenging most of the weekend for the 
3-pointers.
I worked only a handful of N.A. station on 15 during the entire weekend, 
while
on 20 I only managed about 100 W/VE stations.  Very few stations responded 
to
my CQs so most of these were S&P.  40 was even worse than 15 and I don't 
think
I was able to work even 5 N.A. stations there the whole time.  And zero on 
80.
QRN was pretty bad throughout the weekend on all of the low bands.

On the positive side, starting around 1500Z on Saturday, I had five really 
good
hours on 10 and 15 and managed to push the Q total over 1000.  I just 
pointed
the antenna south and worked huge amounts of stations all over Europe with
rates over 100 per hour for this time.  While fun, these were not doing that
much for my score as they were almost all one pointers.  Hoping that Sunday
would be equally productive on these bands and that I could take the Q 
talley
over 2000, I planned my off times to be on during these hours, but the 
Saturday
conditions did not materialize on Sunday.  So the last few hours were 
extremely
slow and it took three hours to work my last 100 stations.  I pulled the 
plug
40 minutes before the end of the contest.

Overall, it was a fun and interesting weekend and my final claimed score is 
not
far the LA low power record, so I am reasonably satisfied.  Operating from 
new
locations around the world is very challenging; it's so interesting to see 
the
world from a different perspective.

Many thanks to ARIM for making the station available and to Odd Westby 
SM4SXQ
for handling the arrangements.

73, Hal W1NN