I'm late on the debrief but here goes.
The 2008 ARRL International DX CW contest delivered a weekend worth of contesting fun. I was determined to give my best effort; after all, it was the weekend for DX. The thrill of working far-flung countries using Morse code did not disappoint and there was plenty of DX to keep my 50-watts into a doublet busy enough.
My operating goals included as much DX as possible, a few new counters for my on-going DXCC pursuit, and contesting fun. Contesting anticipation filled my thoughts through the work week. Would I contact Europe or Africa for the first time? Do I call CQ more times than not or search and pounce (SP)? Would I work those needed Caribbean multipliers like last year and improve my score?
Friday afternoon finally arrived and I deployed my doublet on its 30-foot push-up mast then connected the 450-ohm ladder line to the feed point. Everything was ready and it was time to contest.
Hawaii was first in the log and I continued to SP from 0000Z till 0326Z on the first night. I was thrilled to work a pair of Asiatic Russians on 20-Meters followed by several JA-stations. Twenty meters faded shortly after sunset and I moved to 40-Meters for the remainder of the evening. Again, I worked big guns like KH7X, KH6NF, and KH7B before calling it an evening.
Saturday is a tough day and I was up early at 1100Z searching for DX on 40-Meters. The band was long and I worked New Zealand (ZM), Japan (JA), and Ducie Island (VP6). I went back to bed before resuming at 1900Z on 15-Meters. Conditions favored South American for example Brazil (PT5), Argentina (LR1), as well as the Pacific most notably working Ducie Island (VP6) and Eastern Kiribati (T32) on fifteen. I checked 20-Meters an hour or so before sunset and enjoyed an opening into Asia.
On the other hand, Sunday is a different story as operators listen deeper into their headphones. I concentrated my effort on this day however; my log is about evenly split for both days of the contest. Nevertheless, the bulk of my 33 multipliers fell on Sunday and I changed bands 9-times as well. In comparison, I changed bands 4-times on Saturday spending the most time on 20-Meters.
Plenty of DX populated the log through Sunday especially Mexico (XE2) on 40, Ducie (VP6) on 20 as well as Dominica (J7), Curacao (PJ2), Antigua & Barbuda (V26), several Alaskan stations (KL7) and (AL1), respectively. The strong Alaskan signals took me by surprise late Sunday afternoon.
Further, I doggedly pursued one Caribbean station (PJ4) through the day on 20-Meters and this operator was my last QSO. Lastly, there was a surge of strong JA stations in the last hour of the contest making for a lot fun. One heard the packet swarm of signals from east to south while I battled in the pile-ups before the finish line.
The result of 30-hours of butt in the chair operation yielded 93 Qs and 33 multipliers for 9,108 points. I changed bands 4-times on Saturday versus 9-times on Sunday. The bulk of my Qs centered on 20-Meters with 44 whereas 15-Meters produced twenty-seven.
Both 20- and 15-Meters tied for multipliers at 12 each with 40-Meters providing eight. In addition, I added four new DXCC counters to my on-going DXCC pursuit while working the Ducie Island DXpedition on three bands (40, 20, and 15). My best hour in the contest was 0100-0159Z on the first night with 13 Qs in the log. My rate meter indicated 9 Qs for the last hour; 9 Qs for the last ten minutes; and an overall rate of seventeen.
I beat my QSO count from last year by 19 however my score fell 468 points. Multipliers were difficult this year and I missed several like China (BY1) or the Canary Island (EA8). I spent 99.9% of my contest time budget in the SP mode while quickly identifying familiar signals on each respective band. Additionally, I worked 17 stations out of 93 running 100-watts and zero QRP stations this year. One hundred watt stations comprised 18.2% of my total.
Overall, I had a whole lot of contesting fun packed into the 48-hour ARRL DX CW contest.
