[RTTY] CQWPX WX4TM SOABHP

[Tom Moore]

CQWPX FEB 9,10 2002

Call: 	   WX4TM
Class:	   SOABHP
Radio: 	   YAESU FT990 @ 10-20 WATTS W/AMP
           40 WATTS W/O AMP
Amp:       750 WATTS (till it smoked!)
Ants:      Hy-Gain TH5MK5 tribander
           80/40 inverted V's
           40M vertical 'Z' experimental.. worked great!
Software:  WRITELOG

Band    QSOs     PTS    PRE
80M	   8	  18	  2
40M	  89	 318	 56
20M	 279	 607	 97
15M	 336	 779	 96
10M	 431	1176	200
total	1143	2898	451

claimed score, 1,306,998

Soapbox:
Wow, what a contest! Started off great with a new AMP and a new
40M Ant and lots of great expectations. But Fri nite was a bust. 
I could hear and work EU stations on 40M but it just seemed there 
were only a few there. 80M was terrible with noise and flutter. 
Then Saturday was really fantastic here. Had about the best run 
ever on 10M that lasted for 4 hrs - during which I got a 75-80 
QSO per hr rate for a good 2 hrs! Conditions stayed great all 
day and I was predicting I'd hit the 1K Q mark by late evening. 
But things started down hill at 2300Z when I made a bad (make
that dumb)decision to take my 1 hr break instead of going to 40M 
which I noted was wide open. When I came back on at 0001Z, the 
CW contest had started and it was just terrible. Maintaining 
any rate at all was out of the question so I went back to 15M 
which was still 'hot'. Then at 0130Z ..disaster. My brand new
amp smoked! What a let down!. Lost 30 mins trying to figure out 
what had happened and then continued the contest with 40 watts 
out of my FT990. I might as well have been running QRP. It 
became impossible to get any kind of run going on any band from
then on. But I think I did pretty good at S&P which I still very 
much enjoy. End result, however, was that I barely missed 
equalling my last year's LP score. Not too shabby, I reckon. All 
in all it was a great contest in which I had lots of fun. Many 
many thanks to all who worked me; especially to the 'casual' 
participants who seemed to be there when I needed them most 
Sunday afternoon. Without you, there'd be no contest! And, of
course, a big thanks to the Contest Sponsor for a great event.
I like and am in favor of keeping the 30 Hr limit for SO (you'd
think I was in the 'over 60' crowd.. hi hi). IF the CW Sprint
test moved in on the CQWPX RTTY contest then why should the CQWPX
RTTY contest sponsor consider changing dates? And finally, again
raising that 'no, no SO2+R issue', I still strongly support 
implementing a new SO2+R class for 'more equally defined' 
competition. 

73,

Tom WX4TM ex kl7q