CQWW 2013 - CW

Wow !!!!  28MHz is still humming.  I decided to do a 10m single band entry as the band is only open from 7am (ish) until 1800 (ish) and it doesn't trash the entire weekend.

After the SSB leg, I decided to put the end fed vertical up again.  However I got deflected on the Friday and ran out of daylight.  So the antenna wasn't up until 10am on Saturday morning and I lost about three hours there.  I managed to get the vertical somewhat higher this time and the base was above the house ridge line with the top at around 45 feet.

Well in about 12 hours of operation I worked 374 QSOs in 91 countries and 28 zones for circa 108k points.  I never did decide whether I was country hunting, trying to achieve maximum rate or maximising the score.  So I probably failed on all counts.  All operation was search and pounce so an overall rate of 32Qs per hour isn't too bad.  Only one all time new country was worked - Honduras, but my 10m country score benefited considerably and now stands at 148.  Another 21 countries were heard and called but not worked due to pile-ups and conditions.  These were CT, DU, GI, GW (!!!!), EL, EU, FJ, J8, OA, OH0, OM, OY, OZ, PJ7, TF, TI, YN, ZF, 3V, 9M2 and 9M8.  So had I had a strategy it could have been a 100 country weekend.

And it gets better!!  I got up early on Monday morning prior to taking the antenna down and managed to bag the XZ1J expedition for another all time new country.