I don’t normally operate the WPX contests, but several friends (e.g., KB9UWU and SM2WMV/SJ2W) were planning efforts and I thought it would be worthwhile to spend some time working them. The high bands have been in good shape lately. And, WPX CW was the first CW contest I ever operated (in 1997…my call was AA8UP then if you want to look up my stellar performance). Why not have a little fun?!
The 30-meter open-wire fed dipole at 40 feet worked great as two half-waves in-phase on 15 meters into Europe (and the Pacific). Now, I can move the lackluster 15-meter dipole high into the back tree for N/S operation. In fact, it might actually be smart to just put a second 30-meter open-wire fed dipole there. Interesting thought. Probably have the parts to build another tuner in the junkbox(es).
I paid basically no attention to strategy and just did whatever I pleased working interesting stuff and running a little bit later on. I didn’t spend much time on 40 and I didn’t work the 2nd radio very hard until the last 1.5 hours between 2114 and 2249 on Sunday when I made 124 QSOs…not big rates, but a nice pace for using the second radio to fill in dead space. Here is the damage:
Call: K8GU Operator(s): K8GU Station: K8GU Class: SOAB LP QTH: MD Operating Time (hrs): 6 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 160: 0 80: 0 40: 52 20: 206 15: 97 10: 12 ------------ Total: 367 Prefixes = 256 Total Score = 266,496 Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
“Sleep when the baby sleeps,” new parents are told. All six hours of operating were with Evan asleep and about four were with Sarah asleep. So, guess who’s behind now!
