CW

Fun contest.

I operated as much as I wanted, but little 40/80, where the points are. I never could do the 'night time shifts', very well.

Didn't spent enough time on working mults, as I really enjoy running stations. The score reflects that.

Personally, I think they should spend energy on getting more operators on, rather than cutting the time. If there were 40% more operators on, we'd be complaining about it being crowded.

Murphy is alive and well in central VA.

Hadn't messed with the station since WPX CW and found that most things were 'hosed up' Only two rotator controllers were working, two of the others were showing a 'counter out of range' error, one P/P had no voltage going to it and the 40 meter Moxon turned easily, but not past 340 degrees to the west!

"Mr Murphy" checked in at this QTH this weekend. Had equipment failures that really could not have been predicted. We were able to do 'work arounds', so all was not lost.

Too many stations with nasty key clicks.

Thanks for all the Q's

Thanks to K3LR and K1LZ, for giving us someone to 'chase'. It makes you perform better. 'Would-a, could-a, should-a' is a well known phrase here.
As many have already stated, you really couldn't ask for better conditions. Obviously, the high bands were the highlight of the weekend and it shows in everyone's scores.
Have never worked as many JA's as this weekend; they seemed to be everywhere. This was our highest QSO total EVER! And, I was very pleased that we kept up with the multipliers.

                    European Union DX Contest - 2024
 
Call: NR4M
Operator(s): NR4M
Station: NR4M
 
Class: SOABCW HP
QTH: FM18ch  VA
Operating Time (hrs): 10:28
 
Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Countries  EU Regions
-------------------------------------------
   160:    0     0         0           0
    80:   39     0        19          24
    40:  162     0        38          77
    20:  138     0        40          72
    15:  222     0        39          91

 
Started out with high hopes for a good time, but immediately found the transmit array had a 2.8:1 standing wave in the EU direction!  I found the bi-directional, NW/SE antenna position could hear EU better than the EU
position!   And, the EU Beverage was 'marginal'.  When a local buddy, running
only 100 watts, beat me in two pileups, I said 'Screw it'! and quit.
I was intending to give it up entirely, but got back on the second evening, but was still faced with mediocre antenna performance.
Still managed to work 45 10 pointers.
 

My high band antennas are just too high for a domestic contest. Just couldn't
get any 'traction'. Didn't start having fun till I got to the low bands.

Thanks for all the QSOs

Always nice to run into friends.

I only operated when I wanted, which made it very enjoyable.  Ate with my wife, did a bit of 'this and that', then operated some more.
The first night, I didn't have an EU Beverage, but managed to work 6 EU stations, as I recall.
Second night after I repaired the EU Beverage, I NEVER heard a European station at all.
Never really worked much out west and what there was, when I was on, was weak.
Heard lots of PVRC members and it's always nice to work them.  My 40 year of home brew 4-1000 amp continues to work without issue.  If all things were that reliable...

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023

Call: NR4M
Operator(s): NR4M KS7V K4QS KE3X KA4RRU K4MI WS6X N3AC N2YO N1RM K4GM K2WK KC4D W0IMD
Station: NR4M

Class: M/M HP
QTH: FM18 VA
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 270 19 63
80: 975 29 109
40: 1920 37 135
20: 1866 38 140
15: 2001 36 133
10: 1670 34 140
------------------------------
Total: 8702 193 720 Total Score = 21,795,136

I was busy keeping people fed and fixing things, so I operated very little.
Because of that, I can't really comment on propagation specifics.
But, I know that it sure would have been nice to have 10 meters be as open as 15 and 20.