[RTTY] CQWW RTTY WX4TM SOABLP

[wx4tm at tm-moore.com]

CQWW RTTY SOAPBOX

I fully echo all the comments about the unexpected great props... with
one exception: somebody said that 10M was pretty good Sun but I sure
didn't see it here. Last year, I racked up 404 Q's on 10M and this year
I only got 151.  That could partially be because I wasn't running the
kilowatt that I did last year.

I really tried to make up the difference with more Q's on the other
bands.. and I did.. getting more on each of the other bands than I did
last year. But it wasn't quite enough to equal my last year's total Q'
and score. On the other hand, that's understandable since I wasn't
running high power like I did last year.

Last year I had a total of 1543 Q's and a claimed score of 1,875,974
running high power. This year I almost equaled that with 1528 Q's and a
claimed score of 1,826,240 running low power with an hour or two more
on-air time!! Which leaves a big question in my mind: HOW and WHY? I
don't have any kind of reasonable explanation except that maybe the
props were extra good but I'm not so sure they were that much better
than last year; and maybe I had a tad bit of improvement from some
antenna tweaking the last 9 months or so but not that much! Or maybe it
had something to do with the drought we were in last year versus all the
rain we've had this year and the subsequent wet ground around here. Or
maybe it was a combination of the all the above. Or maybe it was just
pure luck! At any rate, I'm very satisfied with my 36 hr SO1R SOABLP
effort.

About the only negative thing I noted was the increase in number of
dupes. We're all guilty of blowing a few calls, or making an error here
or there for one reason or another. But I had what I felt was an unusual
number of stations call that I'd already worked. Too many, I feel, had
blown my call. Associated with this, I think, was that many stations
never sent my call (or any call other than their own) when sending their
report. I tried many times (RPT RPT) without getting them to send my
call. Perhaps I should have never logged them in the first place. The
subject of dupes has always intrigued me. I never understood why anyone
wanted to send the "WKD B4 THIS BAND" response. Hey man, if he's calling
me, that means I'm probably not in his log; therefore the earlier QSO I
'think' we had is NO GOOD! So why not work him again for GOOD QSO
credit?? All of this really wasn't much of a problem, just an ocassional
distraction.

All in all, I thought it was a great, no make that fantastic contest.
Many thanks to all who called me and those who answered my call. I
really appreciate the Q's and enjoyed working each and every one of you.

73,
Tom WX4TM

CALL: WX4TM
ZONE: 04
QTH: AL
HRS: 36

CLASS: SOABLP

SUMMARY

BAND   QSO   PTS  ZN   DX   ST
80      67    80   7    8   32
40     242   438  19   48   43
20     516  1126  25   70   51
15     552  1444  25   72   41
10     151   424  15   53   11
TOTAL 1528  3512  91  251  178

CLAIMED SCORE: 1,826,240