[RTTY] P49X RTTY WPX

[J. Edward (Ed) Muns]

                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
 
Call: P49X
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: P49Y/P40L
 
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R
 
Summary:
 Band  QSOs   Pts
------------------
   80:  539   3220
   40: 1124   6714
   20:  834   2487
   15:  619   1838
   10:    0      0
------------------
Total: 3116  14259  Prefixes = 744  Total Score = 10,608,814
 
Club: Northern California Contest Club
 
Comments:
 
Another hoot of a time this weekend, here in the legendary contest cottage
developed by AI6V in the 90's.  Carl and his wife Sue, AI6YL, are visiting
Emily, P43E, and we will be reminiscing old times over dinner tonight.  It
was
certainly a thrill on Saturday evening when I surpassed the M2 world record
set
by Carl, Jacky (P43P) and Paolo (I2UIY) in the 2000 RTTY WPX.  RTTY
contesting
has come a long way in those seven years, most significantly in the rapidly
increasing number of call signs I work in each contest.  I had 1558 unique
call
signs in my RTTY Round-Up log and I'm sure there are more in this one.
 
My private stretch goal for this outing was 3200 Qs, 14K points, 725
prefixes
in order to break the 10M point level.  Don't know if that will hold up
after
Paolo applies his magic log-checking software, but it was a blast anyway.
The
plan was to work the low bands (go where the points are) as much as
possible. 
I consider WPX a low-band contest with the 10/15/20 there to fill in the
rest
of the 30 hour operating time.
 
Friday night I took my first break at 0849 when the rate on 40/80 had
dropped
to about 60/hour.  That's equal to 120/hour on the high bands, and I hoped I
could keep above that during the day.  I started up again at 1256 Saturday
morning and ran 15/20 until 2049 when I took a second break for an hour.
The
time was spend with a refreshing shower and a bit of food, plus some snack
preparation to get me through the second night.  I started back up, but on
20/40 at 2153 and moved from 20 to 80 when the 20 started to buckle.  I
figured
the activity would be less the second night and that I would probably take
another break around 6Z, but wonderfully, the rate actually increased as sun
rose across Europe and then didn't start to close down until 8z.  I stopped
at
0814 and got some rest before making breakfast and starting up again on
15/20
at 1519 Sunday morning.  I ran on both rigs until my 30 hours expired at
1812.
 
I thought it might be interesting to use packet and I did pipe it into my
three
logging computers.  But, the run rate on each radio never dropped enough to
bother with it.  I would glance over at the band map where new mults and new
band-stations were color-coded, lusting after those call signs.  But most of
them called me anyway by the end of my 30 hours.  And, certainly, chasing
mults
via packet didn't make any sense because a mult is equivalent to only four
QSOs
in this log ... hardly enough time to even do a Packet pounce without losing
ground, and maybe even my run frequency.
 
A huge thanks to all the ops getting in these RTTY contests, especially the
casual ops, and then moving through the bands with me.  It was fun to give
my
other radio frequency and then see the same call sign displayed in the print
window on both displays at the same time.  A couple QSYers were so fast,
they
snagged my next serial number on the second band.  Then there were a few
QSOs
during my last half-hour when one computer lost its network connection and
the
serial numbers stopped being interleaved.  Those QSYers were probably
wondering
what was going on when the arrived at the second QSO and got the same or an
even
lower number.  But, as we say, "log what you copy" and everything will be
fine.
 
When's the next RTTY contest?
 
73,
Ed - P49X
 
P.S.  I'll run stats on the plane ride home.  Figured it was more important
to
get this report on 3830 in a timely manner.