CQ WPX

Talk about sweating this one.......My goals were the same as every contest, to beat the previous score and to have fun.

I should have known that this year's contest was going to be be bad when I broke my toe the morning before the contest. It was painful to say the least and I had to take Allyson to go grocery shopping to boot....

I was able to get home and get a nap in the afternoon so I would not have to operate in the contest with just 2 hours sleep. Unfortunately, I had a banquet I had to attend, so I knew that I was going to get a late start to the contest. I was able to get home and get on the air about 2 hours into the contest. I knew I was in trouble when the usual stack of Europeans were not on 40 meters. I went to 20 and worked a number of South American stations and some Americans. 40 meters began to heat up a little and I worked all that could hear my little 100 watts. I picked up a number of stations on 80 meters, so it was not a total waste and even picked up a single station on 160. I decided to try to get some more sleep and see what I could find to work on Saturday morning early.

Saturday morning brought a few good periods, but the Europeans just could not hear me. I would call them and they just kept calling CQ. I did pick up some contacts on 15 and 10 meters from the US, Caribbean, and South America. Things never did improve for Europe. It was like banging my head up against the wall. I was getting rather frustrated because I working everyone I could but they were all the one pointers and I needed lots of 3 pointers and beyond if I was going to get close to last year's score.

Saturday night, I was working some Europeans on 40 and 80 but it seemed like we were going to have another rough time. I put up with it for as long as I could and decided to get up early on Sunday morning as I always do and pray that the band conditions would be favorable to Europe. Well, I misjudged. I probably would have been better off staying up another 2 hours and sleeping in two hours later. Those two hours in the morning were pathetic, to say the least. I had one hour with 2 new contacts and another hour with 6 new ones. Not a very appealing rate. But, I hung in there and worked all I could.

When I got home from church, I turned on the radio and gave the first European on 20 meters I heard a shout. He came right back to me!!! 20 meters was alive!!! Now, I had to make up for some lost time. I put everything I could into working every station I heard on 15 and 20 meters. 10 was not producing anything I had not already worked. 40, 80, and 160 meters had nothing for me. I knew that I had to stop at about 4:45 to get back to church on time for a program there. So, I had a slip of paper with last year's results on it that I put on top of the antenna tuner and focused on making those numbers my goal.

There were tons of US stations on 20 meters doing their part to catch up also and I worked all of them that I could also. I knew that it was going to take everything I could work for me to pass last year's score. I kept praying that the big pointers were going to start falling into my lap. After about 1pm local time, things changed for the better. I wound up working a number of stations and the totals started adding up. When I came home from church, I was at 393 QSOs, 242 multipliers and 227,722 points. I needed to beat 444 QSOs, 291 multipliers and 339,306 points. The race was definitely on!!!! By 3pm I had passed the number of QSOs from last year, but I was lacking in multipliers and QSO points as many that I had worked were 1 or 2 pointers. I was doing some serious clock watching after 3pm. Would I make it or would my score fall short this year???? I was getting the QSOs but the multipliers were just not coming in the way I needed, so my score was not building rapidly. Then my son came out and said that I needed to type his school project before we left for church.......Now I am really sweating bullets because I know it will take at least 20 minutes to type this report.........

I am inching closer to where I want to be at 3:30pm. but it is not looking good and I am already preparing my excuses.......When, all of the sudden, propagation changes and everything I hear I am now working!!! At about 4pm, I finally reached the multipliers I needed to beat last year's score, but the score is still less than last year. Then about 4:10 I reached the goal of beating last years score. Now the only question was how much more could I pad it before I had to leave to type the report. I still had some good propagation and a few minutes, so I went all out in those last moments. At 4:15, I said I would pull the plug.....Then I realized I was still not at the top of the 20 meter band, so I tuned on to hear anyone else that I might have missed. I found only one Canadian hanging up there near the top of the band, so I worked him and called it a wrap......474 QSOs, 298 multipliers for a score of 345,382. I did it!!!! I had succeeded in my goal of beating last year's score. As for the fun part, it was fun, but it was also a little stressful as I am sitting there frustrated that no one was able to hear me outside of the Americas. But, talk about stress relief, when that total inched up over last year's I was tempted to let out a yell that the neighbors could have heard. It was a great source of personal joy to meet that goal. Those who are not contesters probably would not understand what it is like for you to not only have to compete with yourself, but also propagation. Of course, DXers would understand the frustration of trying to work that last one you need but not being able to get it.

So....that is where I am today. I am personally satisfied with being able to achieve this goal and I am thankful that my wife tolerates my little bit of contesting so that I can achieve a little bit of mental cleansing from this rat race that I often find myself in.

Virginia QSO Party

I had only two goals for this year's QSO Party. First, my goal was to beat my own score from last year. My second goal was to have lots of fun!!! I was able to accomplish both goals with no problem.

This year I had 503 QSOs and 123 multipliers for a total score of 68,019. That beat last years score nicely. I was somewhat disappointed that I did not hear tons of Virginia stations on. But, I was pleased to hear a number of mobile stations working hard and I was able to snag a few new counties because of them. I did add a few new counties to my totals for Virginia, but I noticed that a few counties I worked last year were absent. So, I guess it was a trade-off. I always enjoy this contest because I love a good pileup and I was able to generate a couple of them during this one even though the band conditions were not the greatest. Larry (W3MGL) was not able to be in this one because of his wife's health, so it was not the same with him not being there. I have grown used to working him at least once during this contest and so I was a little sad that we broke with tradition, but I am well aware that wives are priorities!! I was not able to work all that I wanted to, but I did get a fair amount of time in (at least enough to top last year's score).

I was encouraged to hear a number of our local club members in the contest and to work them. I even worked one of our local guys (AI4QQ) on 20 meters!!! So, I know of at least 3 of the local club members who did a little in the contest because I worked them. I hope that a few more were sleeper entries.

I was able to have a fairly good run to the west coast on 20 meters and I wound up working a total of 43 states. I even had a guy from Alaska join in the pile-up! I found that 80 meters was the key to Virginia. There was some guys on 40 meters, but the bulk of my Virginia contacts were on 80. Unfortunately, since the band conditons were not the greatest, I was able to work Virginia, but some other contacts got lost in the QRN of the approaching storm and the QRM from a few guys who don't believe in giving anything more that 1.5 kHz spacing between us. It was not very helpful to have to ask people to repeat their exchange until the offending station took a breath long enough for them to come into the clear. I know that is the nature of contesting, but there were a few that were not listening or asking if the frequency was in use prior to calling CQ.

All in all, it was a lot of fun being the hunted and to be able to give out James City County. Larry and I were first and second place in the county last year. Since Larry was not in the contest, it will be interesting to see who gets the certificates.

This contest is always a good warmup for WPX.

ARRL DX results

ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Class: SOAB LP
Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
 160:    0     0
  80:   56    40
  40:   73    43
  20:  226    70
  15:   44    27
  10:    0     0
-------------------
Total:  399   180  Total Score = 215,460

In the middle of a contest

Well, it is just after midnight and I have pulled the plug on the VA QSO Party for the night. I had a few nice runs on 20 and 80 meters tonight after getting a late start because I had to watch Emma since Allyson was at a bridal shower. The contest got off to a slow start for me, but then it heated up nicely. I am right now about 30 QSO's short of last year and have more multipliers than last year. I should be able to beat last year's results with no problem. I am going over to Larry's in the morning to help him get a couple of things done before he goes to the hospital to bring Toisie home. I am so thankful that he loaned me his IC-718. It is a good radio and appears to be more sensitive than the TS-440S. I am hearing lots of stations that I probably would not have heard using the Kenwood. But, it was not bad for a 20 year old radio. I still have not made up my mind on if I will repair it or replace it. I am just waiting for the right deal to surface.

I was getting tired at the end of my last 80 meter run and was making some errors. Not in the log, but on the air. So, I decided that it was time to turn in. I still have all afternoon and tomorrow evening after I get home from church. So, I should have a better result to send in.

I will post the results tomorrow after the contest ends..........

Catching up again.....

It has been quite a while since I posted anything here, not because I have not been doing anything, but because I have been quite busy.

Let's see, Allyson had surgery on February 22 and I took a week off to be here for her. I was supposed to be at W4MYA's house the weekend of the 3rd for ARRL International DX contest. I was really pumped. But, Allyson was not doing as well as we thought she would so, I decided to stay close to home. I did not put forth an all out effort, but I did work maybe half the contest. On Sunday, I noticed I started having a sore throat and coughing. Tuesday, I went to the doctor and he decided to keep me out of work until Wednesday (March 7) and treat all of my symptoms. I kept getting worse, but went to work on Wednesday night. I had a mandatory supervisor meeting Thursday morning, but the Fire Chief, and my bosses all made me leave after an hour. I was just not able to shake this stuff. I went back on Sunday to the doctor and he made changes to the medications that I was taking, and I am showing some improvement, but I am still not back to even close to normal. I even had to have the Vice President of the radio club stand in for me tonight at the meeting just because I am still so weak and unable to function as well as I would like.

As if getting some terrible upper respiratory infection was not enough, the old Kenwood TS-440s appeared to give up the ghost during my last few contacts on Sunday. My signals were all over the board, people were saying that I was distorted and I was noticing that it was doing wierd things while I was operating. So, I am pretty bummed by that as I don't have enough money right now to go out and buy a new radio. I am going to borrow Larry's Icom for a couple of contests until I can get Kenwood to give me an estimate on repairing the 440S. Of course, because of my health, nothing got done radiowise around here.

I was able to get about two pounds of cards to the bureau, so the only outstanding DX for the bureau is the contest I just finished. I do have some that I want to send direct and hope to feel well enough in a few days to complete that task.

The tower is still not up as the weather or my health have not been cooperating. But, the weather appears to be breaking and as soon as I get a day off, I want to break ground for the tower. With the tower project complete, then things will hopefully go smoother.

I am keeping all my fingers crossed!!!