[PVRCNC] CQ WPX SSB K4TMC SOSB10 LP

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

 CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2023

Call: K4TMC
Operator(s): K4TMC
Station: K4TMC

Class: SOSB10 LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 24.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:    0
   40:    0
   20:    0
   15:    0
   10:  502
------------
Total:  502  Prefixes = 376  Total Score = 470,000

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Portable operation from the sand dune at Atlantic Beach, NC (Grid FM14PQ,
IOTA NA112, USI
NC010S).

Well…the week before the contest, I was recovering from a very bad chest
cold and was on the fence as to whether to continue with the mission. The
window of opportunity to snag a more unique callsign (thanks to Ray, NM2O’s
WPX Prefix SSB Report) had closed.  The weather forecast was looking great,
with the exception of winds (10 – 20+ mph) on Thursday – Saturday.  Coupled
with a late arrival Thursday afternoon most antenna work was going to occur
on Friday. But, I still wanted to provide some points to the club effort
and enjoy some fine beef brisket meals (I did lose 6 lbs during my
sickness). Plus I had some more antenna ideas to try.  I had planned to try
a 4-element stack on a 50 ft mast; however, I ran out of time before
leaving home, and the windy conditions made it questionable if I would have
been successful in the short set-up time available.

Ten was looking great Friday afternoon just before the start, worked a ZL3
with 5-8 signals both ways and heard a number of VK’s and Caribbean/S.
American stations.  By 0115 I had knocked out ZL, VK & KH6 along with a
slew of Carib/SA stations.  Went to bed with visions of the great European
opening on Saturday morning.  Well…that was a bust.  I listened to the
Caribbean and SA stations work Europeans for several hours before I finally
got one at 1400.  However, I was only hearing the western-most Europeans
along with the few offshore island nations.  Finally, on Sunday morning,
the band seemed to be back to normal and I was able to run for several
hours working all of Europe. I think my rarest contact was FW1JG, who
called me while I was running to the West.  I never heard any JA's even
thought I could hear West Coast stations running them.

Most of my on time was spent S&P with some good runs on Sunday when Europe
was hot.
Rig: Elecraft K3+ with Heil HC4 mic element
Antennas: 6 element rope boom yagi fixed on Europe at 40 ft; PAR Endfed
Halfwave
10M vertical with base at 40 ft; 4 element bent wire yagi on BuddiHex frame
at 30 ft
rotatable (armstrong) from East to South to North West.  Antennas supported
by portable BlueSky Mast systems.

Looking forward to CQWWDX SSB in October.

73,
Henry - K4TMC