CQ WW DX contest 2012 : debriefing

First of all : I qualify my station as a sturdy "Little Pistol".
I've more power, antenna height and ground quality than a normal little pistol.

The difference between my station and  a small "Big Gun" is the absence of a 4th element on the 3 higher bands, the absence of directivity on 40m and too small antennas for 80m and 160m.
Furthermore I need a receiving system.
My goal for the coming years is to upgrade my setup to a small big gun...

With this in mind, I'm very happy with the result in the contest.  Over 3000 contacts and nearby the 4M points limit. For the first time I can live with the number of multipliers.  Normally this is always my weakest point (I like running too much and dislike S&P).

For the first time I participated the online scoring system, with a special focus on the OQ5M score.  I experienced this as a very stressy subcontest in the contest.  I prefer to exchange scores at the end of a contest in stead of realtime scoring.

I've read the very thoroughgoing analysis of my friend Franki OQ5M about the difference in our results.   
Here is my humble opinion : I'm just a better SSB operator.

Since the day I started to participate in contests, I've had always this sickness : the search for new bandslots for my DXCC/WAZ/WAS program.  Also this year I worked new slots and I even got my 40th zone on 10 meters (zone 23).  
I didn't yet analyse the log for new country slots, but there are certainly new adds.  Yessss !

My hour record has been broken.  During the 2001 ARRL contest on 10m I was able to make 186 Q's in one hour.  This weekend I did better : 188 Q's, also on 10m and also the the States.

This was my best long run : 14h42 - 17h40 on  28596 kHz : 455 Qs, (average 153,3/hr )
The complete log analysis can be found here.

Per band :
160m : I made some contacts on dummy-load style.  Just enough to have some multipliers.  Difficult without antenna.
80m : good job, I didn't expect more on SSB on that band.  Zone 2 added to my WAZ (I hope that VE2IM confirms).
40m : nice runs but at a certain moment I had a heavy arc.  I suspect the 90 degrees PL block at the balun.  To be reviewed and repaired !
20m : super FB.  Although I had expect more about the rate direction USA.
15m : super on Saterday, difficult on Sunday due to Russian QRM stations
10m.  superb.  I worked a 10m DXCC.

140 countries and 39 zones were contacted. 

On Sunday afternoon I had to lower power on all bands to 700 W.  This due to a very demotivation letter that was put under the door : a neighbour couldn't view TV anymore...
This message took away all motivation for the last hours of the contest.


More about this contest, EMI problems and the behaviour of the MJF-998RT autotuner in the coming days...