[SECC] WAE CW Contest 2000

[John T. Laney, III]

Hello all:

I planned to spend most of my weekend in the DARC Worked All Europe CW
Contest this weekend.  This is a contest I really love.  In 1998 I
worked it from W4AN and did quite well.  In 1999 they acknowledged my
log, but left my CW score out of the results.  They are sending me a
certificate based on my log resubmitted in the past month or so after I
got a copy of the 1999 results.  In spite of this bad treatment (if they
acknowledge a log and there is some problem with it, they should e-mail
the sender, not just drop it out of the results), I still was planning
on a big effort.  This in spite of not being able to key the new
FT1000MP with any of the interfaces that I have used with IC736 and
TS850S rigs in the past.  If anyone with a FT1000MP has an idea, please
let me know.

Conditions seemed OK the two hours before the contest.  15 meters was
closed to Europe, which is often open to Europe late at night in the
summer, but this often stops by mid August.  However, by the start of
the contest (8 PM Friday local), the European signals on 20 were weak.
A number of them in the first two hours were on the skew path across
Africa.  This was particularly true of OH1F.  There was no signal on the
direct path to OH.  20 closed to Europe completely after the first 2
hours.  I was counting on it being open to Europe most of the night
Friday and Saturday.

40 meters was very poor Friday night.  QRN was bad, but not terrible.
Signals were just weak.  At one time the Asian stations UN4L and RU9J
were louder than any Europeans.  Eventually I did work 34 stations in 17
countries on Friday night.  There were no Europeans heard on Saturday
night above 7025 that I had not already worked.  I did get 9A5W and
HA6NL on 80 meters.  I usually work no Europeans on 80 in this August
contest.  QRN was so bad that I only worked a few from W4AN in 1998.

Only a few European stations were heard that were workable on 20 and 15
Saturday.  Last year 10 meters was even open to Europe, but I doubt it
was this year.  Due to the bad conditions, I was QRT during Sunday
School and church (and lunch out) on Sunday.  But when I came home, the
bands were still to dead to Europe.  Finally, it opened about 4 PM.
There wasn't much activity on 15 by then, but a number of stations were
workable.  The last three hours on 20 were not bad.  Apparently, the
terrible conditions were due to a solar storm late in the week.  The
recovery time seemed unusually long.  I think this is the worst wipe out
of conditions during a DX contest I have every experienced.  The
European scores were very low as they cannot work each other in this
contest.  I assume the big non-European score will be from H2G on
Cyprus.

The only member of the local clubs I heard was W4AN on Sunday AM on 15
meters.  Bill was calling CQ and had 8 QSOs the last time I heard him.
Thank goodness I didn't drive 3 and a half hours to his QTH for this
contest.  My computer says I was QRV for 6.5 hours, but there was a lot
more time spent listening.  I did work a number of stations in the MDC
QSO Party this weekend, so that kept things interesting.

Band    QSOs    QTC    Countries
40          34         34        17
20        117        117       30
15         19            19      11

ALL    172        172        60    = 48,504 points.


Remember there is a club compeition, so mention your club on your log.

Interesting QSOs were HB0/DJ9CB, IA5/DF2CH/P, JW/DJ3KR and a OY/DL
station.

Have a good week.  Hope to see a lot of you at the SEDXC meeting on
Tuesday.


73, John, K4BAI.


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