[SCCC] 2024 CQ WW CW 160 SOHP

[Steve Harrison]

                     CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2024

Call: K0XP
Operator(s): K0XP
Station: K0XP

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: DM24ad
Operating Time (hrs): 16:18

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 399  State/Prov = 53  Countries = 19  Total Score = 77,688

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

First contest I've started on time in many years. Friday during the day, I
finally rearranged my inverted L so the horizontal wire is leading off toward
the South-South-East instead of toward the NNW, in the hope that would improve
performance toward JA and the rest of Asia. It may have worked; I won't be able
to tell until I hear 9M2AX CQing again, as he's been doing almost every morning
the past few weeks. Friday night conditions to the east coast were good but I
didn't hear any Europeans nor Africans, and only a couple weak Caribbeans (easy
enough to work). I started the contest with a 93% State-Of-Charge (SOC) rate on
my solar-recharged battery system, which, with the Alpha amplifier running 1100
watts output most the time, dropped to less than 40% too quickly (I'm totally
off-the-grid here). I quit for several hours between 06Z to 12Z so I'd have
sufficient battery power to chase the Asians on Sat morning while running
fullbore. But I only found half a dozen JAs, a very strong HL5IVL (both
mornings), a very strong but unresponding 7D1C, and heard several other YBs plus
XV9DL by 15Z, when my batteries were down to around 12% SOC and I shut down for
the daylight hours to recharge. Thanks to bright sunshine all day, my batteries
recharged to 95% by sunset Saturday evening. Saturday evening was more of
Friday's conditions but seemed to improve quickly to the east coast. I heard
South Dakota work someone, and QSYed up a few kHz to CQ and hopefully get him to
call but to no avail. I was CQing a bit later when my first European called me,
then I worked several more Europeans after awhile. When the rate of east
coasters died down, I tuned around, found a couple more Europeans, but they were
S&P so I couldn't call them. HA9RE hit 559 one time, but I never found him
CQing. Sadly, I did not find a noticeable grayline enhancement toward
F/ON/PA/EA/CT. But during those hours, the band kept improving even further to
the east coast, with storm noise almost nil. I wound up almost working WAS with
48 states; missed North and South Dakota 8-( Also missed a bunch of Canadian
provinces but those, especially in the northeast, are always hard to hear, let
alone work. My batteries seemed to last longer on Sat night despite much more
CQing, but still dropped to 40% SOC by 06Z when I quit for a couple hours, as I
had on Friday. Got back on after 12Z Sunday morning, worked another half dozen
JAs (and heard about a dozen others working other W/Ks), heard and called half a
dozen unresponding BYs plus HS5NMF, who was very strong but not responding to me
(I never heard any W/Ks call him). I worked a very weak RU0, the only UA0 I
heard all weekend, worked XV9T, then finally, when my batteries were down to
just 9% State-of-Charge, gave up half an hour after sunrise at 15Z. HS5NMF was
still CQing when I shut down. I never heard either 9M2AX (does he ever work
contests??), a DU, or any other exotic Asian. The Chinese weren't nearly as
strong as they were last year and during the CQ WW CW test last fall. Last year,
I missed all of Friday night but still worked 15 countries; this year, I managed
19 countries while working both nights but with limited battery power. Although
my back is gonna hurt for a couple days, I enjoyed this year's contest. Thanks
to the WWROF for taking over sponsorship of the CQ contests!


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at:http://www.3830scores.com/