CQWW CQ - the story so far

Just a brief update about my participation on CQWW CW 2012. I am only taking part on 80 metres, with a view to increasing my DXCC worked/confirmed on that band. I am in the category 80m single op high power. I did search and pounce from midnight on Saturday morning for about two hours, and then a mixture of run station and search and pounce last night, on and off from about 5pm in the evening until 3.30am this morning.

My old Butternut, which is over 20 years old, was a bit grubby
so I cleaned around the capacitor assembly in advance of the
contest and it's working brilliantly.

At this moment in time, my totals are as follows (bearing in mind that I intend to return to the contest after dark this evening): QSOs: 329; Zones worked: 15; DXCC worked: 61. Total claimed score so far: 36,100.

The band is completely dead now. There's not a single signal to be heard on CW. That's how it was yesterday too, allowing me some time to do a bit of maintenance on the antenna. It is nicely resonant now, 1:1 where I need it, and I was able to get 1.2kW out yesterday with the Acom 1000 with only 1 watt returned!!

Some nice DXCC worked: P40F, PJ4A, HK1NA, J75Z, ZF1A, P40W, VP2V/AA7V, C5A, D4C. I may or may not enter a log. I didn't intend to enter the contest in a competitive capacity, rather just for enjoyment, and to get my DXCC count up on 80 metres. So we will see . . .