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

[RRDXA Claimed Score Submission]

Claimed score submission: WPX-CW 2011

Call: DL3YM (@DF2PY)
Operator(s): DL3YM
Mode: CW
Category: SOAB
Active hours: 36.0
Power: HP
Assisted: no
Club:Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Summary: 

 Band	   QSOs	    Prefix

 -------------------------------------
  10m:	     15       0 
  15m:	    212       0 
  20m:	   1118       0 
  40m:	    916       0 
  80m:	    289       0 
 160m:	     35       0 
 --------------------------------------
 Total:	  2.585     924 
 
 Claimed Score:  5.634.552 


Comments: 
 Who ever said that contesting is for wimps? I am simply amazed at the willingness of my fellow CW contesters to sit out the extremely challenging condx this weekend and I am proud to be a part of this brotherhood.

I had high hopes of improving my personal best of 2009 after some major improvements were implemented regarding station interference and RF blocking the weekend prior to the contest. The fluttery and weak sigs from the US Midwest on Saturday morning on 40 quickly showed, however, that there was something bad going on condition-wise. Having no cluster access I had no idea on how bad the solar shock wave would affect shortwave propagation, but after returning to the station from my first off-time on Saturday midday the high bands simply sounded like an EU QSO party. There literally was no DX to work. After an agonizingly slow afternoon I took another lengthy off-time early realizing that condx could not get any worse and hoping that the low bands would not suffer as much. Guess the idea was ok in principle, yet it got worse on Sunday.
Without the serious competition from my friend DK6XZ who put in an absolutely amazing score running 1 radio only (congrats Suad) I would have probably thrown in the towel and rather opted for a beer or two, hi. Sunday afternoon found me CQing in broad daylight on 40 and S&P-ing with the second radio on 10, go figure! But then came along a finale furioso with conditions rapidly improving. All of a sudden 20 opened up big time with loud sigs from the US including the west coast, KH6 and KL7 as well as arm chair copy of stations from Japan long path. At the same time 15 provided a lot of exotic mults from South America until deep into the night, while on 40 I was called by loud stations from East Asia and VK. I mostly ran 20 and 40 while pushing hard on the second radio. Finished of the party running on 80 and picking up a few more contacts on 160.

The score is much better than last year due to the significant improvement in mults and DX worked. If conditions had improved 5 to 6 hours earlier a new personal best would have been within reach. Well, there is always next year.

I am deeply grateful to Wolf, DF2PY, for all the work he puts into providing a competitive setup and his family for taking care of me over the weekend. Thanks to Axel, DK4US, for solving all the IT-glitches I have managed to include into the set-up, as well as to Suad, DK6XZ, for a fun race. And last but not least thanks to my XYL and the boys for excluding me from their plans for the weekend. 



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