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

[RRDXA Claimed Score Submission]

Claimed score submission: CQWW-DX-CW 2010

Call: DL3YM (@DF2PY)
Operator(s): DL3YM
Mode: CW
Category: SOAB
Active hours: 47.3
Power: HP
Assisted: no
Club:Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Summary: 

 Band	   QSOs	    Mults      

 -------------------------------------
  10m:	     80       45      16 
  15m:	    705       94      30 
  20m:	    857       74      25 
  40m:	   1096       97      29 
  80m:	    774       70      17 
 160m:	    373       55      12 
 --------------------------------------
 Total:	  3.885      435     129 
 
 Claimed Score:  4.527.792 


Comments: 
 If we look at the fun that I believe everybody had in this year’s CQWW I can only wonder what kind of party it is going to be once sunspot activity will return big time!

Although the basic setup for the contest was done early November, running a new Laptop / microHam combination for the first time without thoroughly checking all band combos of running and mult radio was asking for trouble I guess. In fact Wolf, DF2PY and me discovered a whole list of issues when doing final preps on Friday afternoon. So instead of catching up on sleep I found myself busy resolving glitches, resulting in a pretty significant lack of alertness right from the start.

The bands sounded pretty good overall. 160 opened to the US nicely, however no zone 3 worked this year. Was able to catch many of the usual suspects from the Caribbean through mostly very unruly pile ups. 
Achieved a new personal best kick off with a 110 Q first hour, followed by another 113 Qs in the second hour running on 40 with the second radio checking 80 or vice versa. My 80 meter log shows 23 zone 3 stations which is significantly better than I have done any time before. However, no KH6 or other zone 31, no zone 18 and 19 were worked, so the mult total on 80 is disappointing.
On 40 meters the 29 zones and 97 DXCC worked are close to my personal best. Rates were great any time I was running here, and it is simply amazing to work double mults for zone 24 and 28 just 1 minute apart or have country mults for 8Q, 9L and 6W call in one right after the other. It was moments like this that helped me through the second night. Still had a hard time keeping awake and had several moments of micro sleep during early Sunday morning prior to sunrise, virtually crashing my head onto the keyboard.
20 opened up much better than the year before, providing a seemingly endless supply of DX. Nice to work into the US west coast until well after my sunset. Having 15 in good shape helped a lot with the QSO total and straightened out the available frequency spectrum. I do not know why my mult total on 20 is beyond expectations, whereas I am happy with my 15 m performance. The rates there reminded me of the good old glory days and mults from Central and South America were lined up side by side.
As others have noted, 10 was very spotty. I could never get a run going here and being unassisted I was always afraid of missing out on big action. Only KC1XX worked from zone 05 who had a thunder signal. But calling CQ and hoping for a US run on 10 was not to be this year for me. Though my alertness quickly deteriorated after sunset on Sunday I fortunately remembered that it often pays off to check ten again in the dark, and sure enough I worked two zone 11 and one zone 13 here around 1900 UTC.

I tried to push it for 48 hours straight but had to give up 40 minutes before the end, realizing that I could not remember the sequence of keys I had to press on the keyboard, go figure!

Looks like I achieved a new personal best in Qs and points since I do this one from DF2PY. So I am happy with the result overall though I feel I could have done better, especially so if the preparation had been more favorable.

Thanks all for the Qs. Thanks Wolf, DF2PY and family for taking care of me. Thanks to my XYL and my boys for letting me do this crazy yet most enjoyable stuff.



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