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Author Topic: 2021 WPX CW Contest  (Read 327 times)

KC0W

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2021 WPX CW Contest
« on: May 30, 2021, 09:56:29 PM »

 Hope all participants had an enjoyable time!!! I had to work 12 hour days all weekend. Managed to work a paltry 623 Q's on 15/20/40. Used the clubs callsign of KH0W which seems to generate some interest. Lots of HUGE signals on 40 meters from the US mainland. Congrats to the lunatic fringe guys who grow 150' towers & large beams. Heavy QSB on both EU/NA for the rest. Probably 90%+ of my Q's were with JA...........Don't worry Japan, no other countries will knock you off your "best operators in the world" throne anytime soon.
 

                                               Tom KH0/KC0W             
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ZL1BBW

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Re: 2021 WPX CW Contest
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2021, 01:36:45 AM »

Conditions here were weird, deep qsb reported at times from Eu, sometimes you could point the beam anywhere and it did not seem to make signals any better or worse.

yep, JA stns are just so polite, no bunfight, JA2? and they all stnd by, makes life so much easier.

Managed to wk, thanks for the mult.

Gavin
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ex MN Radio Officer, Portishead Radio GKA, BT Radio Amateur Morse Tester.  Licensed as G3YCP ZL1DAB, now taken over my father (sk) call as ZL1BBW.

K3TN

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Re: 2021 WPX CW Contest
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2021, 02:53:04 AM »

A rainy weekend here, thought I'd spend more time but wasn't home most of the weekend.

Mix of high absorption on EU path in the am with booming JA signals, booming EU in the evening and weaker JA signals from here (Maryland US). Was never around for a decent 15m opening. But great activity level!

Forgot to set up N1MM with my WPX KK3TN call, so just used boring K3TN but had a few good runs in my 430 or so QSOs. Part of helping the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC) win the large club category again.

Heard KH0W on 40 one morning but pretty close to ESP level here.

73 John K3TN
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John K3TN

KF4ZGZ

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Re: 2021 WPX CW Contest
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2021, 03:43:11 AM »

Amazing how many 35wpm+ ops there are.
 :P ::)
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Matt

NO9E

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Re: 2021 WPX CW Contest
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2021, 06:11:36 AM »

It was weird to hear strong VK and JA on Sunday morning on 20m with stack pointing to EU. Decent conditions on 15 and even 10m. Strong signals on 80m but lots of static. WPX does not have band specific multipliers so there is less incentive to work marginal bands.

This was my first serious WPX from new vacation QTH with 2 stacked beams on 10-20, 2 el on 40 @ 100', 4 sq on 80, and 7 beverages.  I found the hard way that operator skill is a limit.  When many stations call, the rate increases for a good operator, and drops for a mediocre one (me). Another limit is weak RFI (S2-S3) that makes copying weak signals hard. In rural areas, tracing RFI that can travel a mile on power lines via private land is a full-time business.   

A good side was that unlike in previous contests Flex 6600 never crashed. So a recent firmware update that initially caused frequent crashes and blocked remote access eventually worked. But a few days lost due to that update could have been used for better contest preparation. 

Ignacy NO9E
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K3TN

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Re: 2021 WPX CW Contest
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2021, 02:49:36 AM »

Ignacy - have you played with MorseRunner? Great way to build up pileup skills in between contests.

73 John K3TN
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John K3TN
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