[RRDXA] DL3YM (@DF2PY) WPX-CW SOAB HP

[RRDXA Claimed Score Submission]

Claimed score submission: WPX-CW 2009

Call: DL3YM (@DF2PY)
Operator(s): DL3YM
Mode: CW
Category: SOAB
Active hours: 35.8
Power: HP
Assisted: no
Club:Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Summary: 

 Band	   QSOs	    Prefix

 -------------------------------------
  10m:	      2       0 
  15m:	    122       0 
  20m:	   1315       0 
  40m:	   1065       0 
  80m:	    240       0 
 160m:	     18       0 
 --------------------------------------
 Total:	  2.762     903 
 
 Claimed Score:  6.834.807 


Comments: 
 It has been a long time since I last entered one of my favourite contests with such an amount of accumulated fatigue, caused by job challenges and family obligations. As I realized I simply could not switch myself into contesting mode I decided to restrict myself to the following goals for the weekend:

a) have fun
b) chase my personal best score from last year
c) work on my SO2R-capabilities and have the main radio running all of my operating time

Guess all goals were achieved:
the usual pre contest pizza dinner together with the boys from DR4A and my host DF2PY was good fun. In fact is was so much fun that we added a wine tasting at Wolf’s place which lasted right up to the contest start. While I did refrain from trying too much of the good stuff there was no pre contest nap this time.
Operating strategy was kept as simple as possible: run on 40 / 20 whenever possible, never tune the main radio to one of the bands at the edge of the spectrum. That is the reason why all QSOs on 10, 15 and 160 were made on the second radio. I figure that 10 and 15 were fun, yet I did not care much about them as long as 20 produced good rates. In fact it did all weekend long. 20 was good enough that it was hard to leave for running on 40, which I did especially on Sunday evening because you simply must not loose those precious 6 pointers there. First time I could use the new 3 el wire beam fixed on NA in a WPX on 40, and I believe this thing performed very well, giving access to at least one more level of workable stations.
There were no hardware problems at all this year which is testimony to Wolf’s exceptional engineering capabilities reaching a steady state of reliability for a set up that has grown to quite some complexity over the years, yet still relies on a lot of homebrewed components.
All in all I found condx very similar to last year, in any case far from being spectacular. Unfortunately fatigue caught up on me in the end and for the first time ever I messed up my breaks, resulting in losing some 10 minutes operating time.
Thanks all for a most enjoyable weekend.
Special thanks to Wolf and family who made me feel like being at home, to my XYL for letting me play radio and to my two boys for not burning down our house while I was away, hi.


Mailed by RRDXA Contest database: http://www.rrdxa.eu