W7BRS Amateur Radio Station: WPX CW Re-cap 2023

Every time I work a SST or MST contest I think "why is it only an hour long"? They are just so much fun.

Before I put the scores on 3830 I had a re-cap of my op during WPX CW

It was S/P all the way through -- I couldn't (with 90W) really get a hold of a frequency without being nudged around. So, S/P was the main operation.

15, 20 and 40m were all fairly in decent shape, even until pausing 4am and then resumed in morning around 8 am. 15m was really doing well this morning. 10m (which I would have liked to work more today ) was actually in good shape. Re-worked some other stations I had on 15/20/40. But even until 3-4 am today, the bands were still quite active and productive.

Blazing fast CW though. It's remarkable. By comparison my 19 wpm seems quaint in the WPX CW Contest setting. Crawl, Walk, Run. I'm going to focus on MST level speed as a goal prior to Salmon Run.

I saw and missed several WWDXC people whom I wanted to log, but they were here and gone.
By comparison the SST contest is like riding in the back of an Uber while the WPX CW contest is like being on the F-1 circuit.

When I flipped the switch off:

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: WA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Location: USA

There's a few things that I need to fix and repair -- the way in which I sent SN was based on what I heard -- and what I heard was the use of cut-symbols like "T" rather than "0" and I misunderstood this. I thought it was a marker BEFORE the number like SN 134 would be sent as "T134" So early in the contest I was getting plenty of "huh?" questions and so that slowed me (and the DX down, and I am sorry about that).
I worked stations that had small pile-ups or no pile-ups. When the pile-up was 3-4 deep, I moved on knowing I could come back (and did many times to get those that were popular 5 minutes earlier).
I did have to adjust my speed to re-send numbers and my call sign -- is that usual? The DX would be CQ'ing at 30 wpm and I sent my call at 21 and band conditions I suppose (or QRM) made me have to re-send a few times. And I am also sorry about that because it slows other people down who just want to QSO after me.
About 1/4 of the QSO there was no way I could copy the SN. 30+ wpm and with cut-symbols to abbreviate -- it was pure noise on my end. I could hear the calls and recognize precisely when to drop mine, but the SN reports were also at 30+ wpm which was blazing fast.

I am looking forward to the next big thing. In the mean time, SST, MST.

W7BRS Amateur Radio Station