[PVRCNC] N9NB CQ WPX CW 2020

[Ted Rappaport N9NB]

Call: NB4N
Operator(s): N9NB
Station: N9NB

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Location: USA
Radios: SO2R

Summary:   Compare Scores
Band    QSOs
160:    11
80:    70
40:    774
20:    985
15:    270
10:    55
Total:    2165    Prefixes    875    Total Score    4,881,625


Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:     [email]     2020-06-01 15:19:32
This was a lot of fun! Heard a couple of Europeans on 10 m for the first 
time in years! Nice to work EU on 15.

I am up against very stiff low power competition in my WRTC district. Kudos 
to Rich NN3W for piloting Steve's NR4M super station to the low power USA 
win.  I feel pretty good about my effort in comparison to his score. If I 
get the energy, I may do a RBN analysis to see what signal strengths look 
like.

My Heil boom mic headset broke on the last day of the contest, and 
thankfully I had a spare headset without a mic, so no down time there. If 
this was a phone contest, it would have been a major problem. Does anyone 
have a good light headset with a mic to recommend to me?

After working Rich on Saturday night, seeing that I was down about 150 QSOS, 
I made a concerted effort at dual band CQing in a major contest for the 
first time. I made many fumbles, but kept at it for several hours on the 
last day and became much more proficient after doing it for an hour - I 
didn't really know what I was doing consciously after about an hour, as I 
was "in a zone" but it was working, sort of seamlessly!  Wow, is that 
intense, but very exhilarating! I began to sweat after 30 minutes from the 
workout....I cant wait to do more of that in the next one.

I am guessing that my call was spotted as N6VN throughout the weekend, as 
many operators sent that call sign to me, and then duped me later in the 
contest, perhaps when they realized they had the call wrong earlier in the 
contest. About half way into the contest, I began to send my call manually 
with an exaggerated spacing between the B and the 4 and the last N, and 
invented a new morse code character for the number for 4 by inserting a 
couple of extra dits in it:

" ......_".

That seemed to help many operators.

Extra spacing between "NB" and the "4",  and the "4' and the "N" helped 
somewhat, but its hard to overcome the power of a visual spot that is wrong. 
I spent so much time correcting my call sign - maybe had to resend it to 
over 300 ops, and wonder if I should just go on with each QSO and not spend 
the time correcting?

A few people called me "NB6N", and I am guessing they visually see the B and 
the 6 in their head as being similar for the characters, just as they are 
written on paper. Or, maybe there was an errant spot that propagated the 6? 
Maybe I need to get a new WPX call? Thanks to those last year who wrote me 
and showed me how to put a spacing in between the B and the 4 in N1MM --  
that did help somewhat.

For me, it nice to not have spotter assistance, so that such things don't 
interfere with my joy of copying the CW over the air. But its nice that 
there is such diversity in the radio sport.

If anyone reads this and has any suggestions, regarding how to handle the 
call sign issue when it is often miscopied, or your ideas for a good new 
replacement boom mic headset, I would welcome your feedback.

Thanks to CQ Magazine and the organizers and volunteers of CQ WPX 
contesting! It is truly a wonderful contest, and the participation this year 
was truly amazing!

During this bizarre time in the world, I realize how lucky we are to have 
this great hobby of ham radio! It was so sad to miss everyone at Dayton this 
year, but kudos to Contest University and the great team that ran the 
all-day Zoom session - still up on the web - it sure was a bright spot to 
see the great presenters and to see the chat during the day, and to be able 
to live ham radio like we do at Dayton every year!

Be safe and healthy, and hope to work you in the next contest ! 73 ted n9nb