RDXC: one of my favourite contests. In the past there have been years (2007 and 2009) where I closed the shack after the contest with a great feeling of achievement. Top Score! Until the other scores are posted. I always end up questioning “How do they do that?”. The more I contest, the more I see that I will never win because of various reasons (location, setup, and maybe operator skills?). I’ve almost come to terms with that so I can focus on the fun factor. So time for another SOAB CW HP entry. I will keep it short: it was fun.
I had only one real numeric goal: make 2000 QSO in 24h. I only did that once, namely in IARU 2007. I managed to make 2000 QSO this time but it was NOT easy. The first hours are always great and when you extrapolate the rate after 5 hours over the whole 24 hours, you can make 2500 QSO. But as soon as the sun sets the rates goes down often dragging motivation along in the abyss, and you end up with a much lower average.
Things were not looking good towards the end but there was a short and weak opening on 10m at 1000 UTC so the rate got a modest boost. Then I needed about 50 QSO in the last hour to get to 2000. Sounds easy? I tried running 15m but that didn’t go fast enough. S&P 15m, then try running 20m fort the last 30 QSO or so. With half an hour left, I did not want to rely on running so I S&P’d away on 20m focusing on UA stations. That went fast and smooth so I could finish the contest with a short run on 20m making 2027 valid QSO. There were about 15 dupes calling me in the last hours for some reason, very annoying.
I kept away from packet pile ups on exotic mults. My motto is: run and mults will come. YW4D to name one. I saw him spotted on 80m and went to work him as an exception to my ‘keep away from packet pile up’ rule. I think he got enough of the unruly mob and went QRT, with EU still calling not realizing they scared him away. My idea was: if I run now he might come along S&P work me like he did on other bands. And so he did. There were numerous other nice mults calling me, most surprising VK6AA on 80m.
Very happy with the result. I just broke my own ON record for SOAB CW HP. With the massive competition from Belgium, this qualifies for Achievement of the Year – NOT.