[SCCC] CQWW CW N6RA(NF1R) SOAB Classic LP

[Clayton Nall]

       CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2025

Call: N6RA
Operator(s): NF1R
Station: W6RFU

Class: SOAB LP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: SB
Operating Time (hrs): 23.75

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:
   80:   32    12       19
   40:   94    19       31
   20:  162    24       63
   15:  248    25       60
   10:  267    22       44
------------------------------
Total:  803   102      217  Total Score = 727,639

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

I last operated this contest seriously in 2013 from W6YX in the SOAB QRP
Assisted category.  I placed #2 in the US and set the W6 and Zone 3
records, and have
been looking to do another serious entry again.  But in the meantime, we’ve
had three kids, my wife became a law firm partner, and I became a tenured
faculty member in the poli sci department at UC Santa Barbara.  I have
little
time for radio.  Most of my contest operating has been doing multiop in CQP,
Sweepstakes, and an annual Field Day expedition with friends from grad
school.

At UCSB, I recently took on club advisor and station manager duties.  I
will be
trustee of W6RFU and N6RA, a new club call held by a late friend of the
club.
We have a strong core of students who show up for operating events and I
hope to
get students out for SOTA and POTA expeditions and into the shack for more
contest operating.

Steve, AC6T, has done a great job maintaining a good “middle gun” station
with a Skyhawk and 40m and 80m dipoles up 130’ on the Harold Frank Hall
rooftop.  UCSB is on peninsula with salt water in all directions from about
80-220 degree azimuth.  We seem to have great performance to the Caribbean,
South America, and Oceania.  We have mountains to our north.  The primary
drawback is that we are in a lab/industrial environment with high RFI
levels.

I opted to enter the Low Power Classic overlay category, which obviated the
need
to set up the station SO2R or stay up 36-40 hours to be competitive.
Previous
West Coast scores in this overlay category looked attainable.

This was my first DX contest from So Cal and only my second serious DX
contest
from the West Coast.  I paid a lot of attention to schedule strategy,
scheduling
my off times to allow two JA and two EU openings.  I sustained good JA runs
on
10 and 15 both nights, and a few short runs on 20 and 40 later at night.  I
was
hoping to run Europe, but it was not to be.  I struggled to work stations
during
the K=4 conditions on Saturday, while the Contest Online Scoreboard revealed
WA7NB 500 miles to the east running up 170 Qs an hour during the EU opening.
Conditions were better on Sunday, and I was able to string together a few
short
runs of Gs and DLs, but the rate never took off.  I’m sure there was a tier
of
stations I wasn’t hearing beneath the urban/industrial RF noise.

Other highlights: being called by ZD7VI off the back of the beam during a JA
run, and beating a bunch of big guns to work JT5DX on the second call.
N6RA is
a short call, and it seems to punch through the noise well.

This score defeats the previous LP Classic record for the W6 call area and
Zone
3 by 190,000 points.


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


-- 
Clayton Nall
http://www.nallresearch.com
Cell: (617) 850-2062