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9A CW contest 2017

I don’t decline some casual CW contesting. Not anymore! This Croatian CW Contest is just the thing. I made about 970 QSO which is 100 less than my best in this one. Of course it’s not easy with ten meters completely dead and fifteen only so-so. Actually less than so-so.

I tried 28 MHz now and then but even the RBN didn’t cooperate. That’s with 1200 Watt and five elements at more than twenty meters high. I heard short bursts of 9A1A but too light to give it a shot. But of course I gave it a shot. I didn’t even get a question mark. So much for ten meters.

Along the way I could feel (rather hear) the K index going up from one to two to three. That’s not good. But when it peaks to K=5, you know what time it is.

Conditions on 80 and 160 weren’t good. On eighty I had to repeat the exchange more than I normally do. That can mean two things. Either the propagation sucks, or people aren’t as good in copying serial numbers compared to a computer generated CQ zone. On 160 I worked five USA stations. That’s unquestionably the highlight of the time spent on 160. No strong signals but not a PITA either. Me thinks Top Band propagation was absent.

I wasn’t very tired but the rate and participation was too low to make it through the night without sleeping so I took a four hour break. I had worked everything I could hear and what got spotted and my CQ didn’t truly cause an earthquake on the lower HF bands.

My position on the online scoreboard was just the same as when I left the shack. The guys above me just took a big leap ahead. Yes I’m a fan of the online score board. It makes me push harder in the contest, in all grades of intensity of ‘pushing hard’.

The last eight hours of the contest were slow. Very slow. Not much happening on the bands. No exotic multipliers. A pity. But it was fun and I had a great time.

Oh yeah. One more thing. I don’t even have the ON mult on 10m nor on 160m. Go figure. What a great contesting nation we are, My Lord!

What’s next? RAEM?

 

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