[LCC] FW: RTTY WPX AA5AU SOSB10 HP

[Marsh Stewart]

Don,

Congrats on setting a new record!

73,
Marsh, KA5M

-----Original Message-----
From: LCC [mailto:lcc-bounces at louisianacontestclub.org] On Behalf Of Don
Hill AA5AU
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 6:51 AM
To: lcc at louisianacontestclub.org
Subject: [LCC] FW: RTTY WPX AA5AU SOSB10 HP

I thought I sent this after the contest but did not see it come out. I was
able to outscore WW4LL, so if it stands it will be a new
NA 10 SB HP record.


                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: AA5AU
Operator(s): AA5AU
Station: AA5AU

Class: SOSB10 HP
QTH: LA
Operating Time (hrs): 26.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:     
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total: 1088  Prefixes = 593  Total Score = 1,459,373

Club: Louisiana Contest Club

Comments:

After struggling in the Roundup, I took advice from my friend Ed, W0YK, who
suggested I work on something that needed improvement.
He offered that maybe I should change something up in order to make RTTY
contesting enjoyable again. So I decided to work on S&P on
a 2nd VFO while running this weekend. To do this, I ran single band. I opted
for ten meters and high power for no other reason than
I thought it would be fun and it would allow me to get more rest at night.

I got home from work an hour before the contest started. I was pretty tired
but happy to find the band open at the start which was
just past my sunset. It stayed open for two hours then someone pulled the
switch at 0200Z and the band went dead. But in that time I
worked some really nice DX like DU3/N0QM, BA7CK, BA3DX, BV1EK, 9M6XRO,
DS5DNO, YB0NFL, VR2XMT, AND ZM3T. Those two hours only
yielded 90 contacts but there were 70 multipliers. I thought that was pretty
good.

Saturday morning I listened for FT5ZM on 10 CW, but did not hear them so at
1300Z, which is around my sunrise, I started contesting.
The band was already open to SA and AF and was quick to open to EU. Saturday
AM was filled with big runs into EU. The runs were so
good there wasn't much time for S&P or chasing packet spots. When EU faded,
I was able to work a lot of USA, Canada and South
America and do more S&P on a second VFO and this was working very well. The
only disappointment for the whole weekend was not being
able to hear Central America or most of the Caribbean so I missed the likes
of the YS1, V31, CO, etc. They kept getting spotted and
I kept checking but never heard them or FP/W6HGF either.

Since I was doing very well, I checked to see what the NA record was for 10
SB because I didn't know what it was. The record was set
by Charles, KK5OQ, in
2002 at just under 743K points. At the time I was very close to the record
and at 0100Z Sunday (Saturday evening), the record fell.
At 0200Z, someone turned off the switch again and the band went dead after
another nice opening into Japan.

It's been a long time since I broke any kind of contest record, so I was
pretty excited to know I still had a full day Sunday to
distance myself from the record and try to win this thing in NA. But I kept
seeing Fred, WW4LL, on ten meters and a spot check
showed he was only spotted on ten meters so I knew I had some competition. I
wouldn't be the only one after that record! Since
Fred's antennas are much bigger than mine, I wouldn't be at all surprised if
he beats me. What's funny is that Fred and I kept
spotting each other over and over throughout the weekend which was pretty
neat considering we were competing against each other. If
it wasn't for Fred, I wouldn't have gotten spotted much.
Thanks Fred!

Overall, I thought the spotting on ten meters was a little lackluster so I
decided to spot everything I heard while S&P. I realized
it would help Fred, but I really didn't care about that. I was having fun.

I tried using the RTTY skimmer spots but they are just not worthwhile for
contesting yet - too many bogus spots and too much time
wasted chasing stuff that's not there so I had to turn the skimmer spots
off. Who needs a skimmer when AA5AU is spotting?

Despite very high A and K index numbers, Sunday was pretty good into EU. But
once EU went away, it got REAL slow and I worked very
hard at S&P while trying to run, but not much was answering my CQ's so it
was a LOT of S&P with a LOT of spotting. The rate toward
the end was around 20/hr for the final hours. I certainly spotted more
stations than I worked.

Regardless of whether or not I get the record, I still had a lot of fun.
Thanks to everyone who worked me. And thanks for the
competition Fred, it made it that much more enjoyable.

73, Don AA5AU

Equipment:
Icom IC-756 PRO III
Ameritron AL-80B amplifier 500 watts output 3-element SteppIR @ 45'
2-element SteppIR @ 35'
WriteLog for Windows


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


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