1995 ARRL DX CW Contest

K5ZD, Single Op All Band, High Power

By Randy Thompson, K5ZD
k5zd@contesting.com

Summary Sheet

       ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1995

      Call: K5ZD                     Country:  United States
      Mode: CW                       Category: Single Operator, High Power

      BAND     QSO    QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES

      160       70      210   3.0       35
       80      230      690   3.0       64
       40      816     2448   3.0       83
       20      986     2958   3.0       92
       15      942     2826   3.0       81
       10       43      129   3.0       23
     --------------------------------------

     Totals   3087     9261   3.0      378  =   3,500,658

Equipment Description

  • IC-765 + Alpha 76CA, TS-930S + Drake L-4B
  • 160: elevated 1/4-wave GP with 4 radials
  • 80: Inverted Vee at 95′
  • 40: 40-2CD at 110′
  • 20: Stacked 205-CA at 100’/50′
  • 15: 5el at 70′
  • 10: 6el at 75′ fixed South
  • TH7DXX at 70′

Commentary

Finally! A DX contest that happened when conditions were at their best.

Rates were great. It was kind of fun to be ahead of last year’s rate sheet right from the start. Had my usual problems on 80, but they were quickly forgotten at sunrise when 20 came to life.

15m actually opened at 12Z both days, but stayed on 20 while waiting for activity to build. The first morning on 15, I switched to 21021 and was able to stay there for about 430 QSOs. The frequency was so clear, I felt like IQ4A (big and loud)!

Moved with the MUF through the bands. Having only one band open at a time really packs the activity and is the main reason for the big rates. Lot of multi-band QSOs in the log.

Great JA opening on Saturday evening on 20. Signals were loud but not much quantity. Some good mults too!

Saturday evening after 01Z was frustrating. Could not get anything going so just had to tune around. Kept falling asleep between QSOs! Managed to stay awake until 09Z when I slept for 90 minutes.

Sunday conditions were almost the same as Saturday. Actually had some Europeans on 10m scatter (worked 7 Eu countries). Cost me about 20 minutes of 80-100/hour rate though.

Almost no multipliers to go with all the QSOs on Sunday. Finally at the end, managed to find enough to make the multiplier total respectable. Was great to find 9 new ones in the last hour. Best was being called by ST2AA with 30 seconds left in the contest. Thought someone was pulling my leg, but we had a little QSO after the contest. Turns out he is an American and mentioned that he had forgotten about the contest. He was on 30 meters all weekend!!!

Congratulations to KQ2M at KM1H. A quick comparison showed that I was ahead of him after 24 hours, but he beat me by almost 200 QSOs on Sunday! Will need to do some head scratching on how that happened.

Have now finished 2nd in four major DX contests in a row (behind K1AR in 94 ARRL Phone and 94 CQ WW Phone, then behind KM1H in 94 CQ WW CW and 95 ARRL CW). I don’t think even KC1F had a streak this frustrating!

WANTED: Antenna ideas for 80 meters. Need something that will improve my signal to Europe. Plenty of room, but lots of trees. Limited tower height to work with and antenna suggestion must not degrade my magic 160 vertical! Money is becoming less of an object with each loss!

The Numbers

                              Continent Statistics
                 160   80   40   20   15   10  ALL   percent

North America     13   21   20   17   23   11  105     3.4
South America      3    7   10   17   18   23   78     2.5
Europe            52  194  756  831  863    6 2702    87.2
Asia               1    1   16  109   24    0  151     4.9
Africa             1    5   10   11   10    3   40     1.3
Oceania            0    2    9    6    6    0   23     0.7

You just have to love those Europeans. Worked over 200 Russian/Ukraine stations.

Rate Sheet

BREAKDOWN QSO/mults  K5ZD  ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST  Single Operator

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

   0    .....    .....   120/27     9/4     .....    .....   129/31  129/31 
   1      .      17/12    58/5      7/6       .        .      82/23  211/54 
   2      .      65/14      .       6/4       .        .      71/18  282/72 
   3    12/9     10/0     26/4      3/1       .        .      51/14  333/86 
   4     2/2     34/7     17/3      1/1       .        .      54/13  387/99 
   5    11/6     15/4       .       3/3       .        .      29/13  416/112
   6     8/5     13/2      1/0       .        .        .      22/7   438/119
   7      .       3/2     62/7       .        .        .      65/9   503/128
   8    .....     7/6     69/7     .....    .....    .....    76/13  579/141
   9      .       2/1     51/4       .        .        .      53/5   632/146
  10     1/1      2/1      7/3     19/12      .        .      29/17  661/163
  11      .        .        .     141/18     2/2       .     143/20  804/183
  12      .        .        .     100/9     46/21      .     146/30  950/213
  13      .        .        .       3/0    121/14      .     124/14 1074/227
  14      .        .        .       7/0    116/7       .     123/7  1197/234
  15      .        .        .       6/2     86/6      6/4     98/12 1295/246
  16    .....    .....    .....    .....    84/1      6/3     90/4  1385/250
  17      .        .        .      85/4     12/0      2/2     99/6  1484/256
  18      .        .        .     103/6      4/4       .     107/10 1591/266
  19      .        .        .      75/2      7/4       .      82/6  1673/272
  20      .        .        .      72/3      1/1      7/2     80/6  1753/278
  21      .        .      45/3     17/6      4/3       .      66/12 1819/290
  22      .        .      60/3      1/0      9/5       .      70/8  1889/298
  23      .        .      55/2     17/2      4/0       .      76/4  1965/302
   0    .....     2/1     .....    57/1     .....    .....    59/2  2024/304
   1     6/3     17/1      6/0     11/2       .        .      40/6  2064/310
   2     8/1      3/1     18/2       .        .        .      29/4  2093/314
   3     4/0      6/3      2/0       .        .        .      12/3  2105/317
   4     8/4     11/1       .        .        .        .      19/5  2124/322
   5     1/1      4/0     28/1       .        .        .      33/2  2157/324
   6     9/3      4/1     20/1       .        .        .      33/5  2190/329
   7      .      10/3     28/2       .        .        .      38/5  2228/334
   8    .....     1/1     31/0     .....    .....    .....    32/1  2260/335
   9      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   2260/335
  10      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   2260/335
  11      .       1/0      4/4     37/0       .        .      42/4  2302/339
  12      .        .        .      42/1     55/0       .      97/1  2399/340
  13      .        .        .       1/0    102/1       .     103/1  2502/341
  14      .        .        .        .      55/2      7/7     62/9  2564/350
  15      .        .        .       1/1     75/0      3/3     79/4  2643/354
  16    .....    .....    .....     5/0     58/1      2/1     65/2  2708/356
  17      .        .        .       1/0     60/0      2/0     63/0  2771/356
  18      .        .        .      38/0     15/4      2/0     55/4  2826/360
  19      .        .        .      63/2      3/1       .      66/3  2892/363
  20      .        .        .      42/0      5/2      1/1     48/3  2940/366
  21      .        .      36/1      8/0      5/2      5/0     54/3  2994/369
  22      .        .      41/0      1/0     13/0       .      55/0  3049/369
  23      .       3/3     31/4      4/2       .        .      38/9  3087/378
DAY1    34/23   168/49   571/68   675/83   496/68    21/11    ..... 1965/302
DAY2    36/12    62/15   245/15   311/9    446/13    22/12      .   1122/76 
TOT     70/35   230/64   816/83   986/92   942/81    43/23      .   3087/378

DAY1  1.3/27   3.1/54   7.6/75   6.5/103  4.7/106  0.2/95    .....  23.5/84 
DAY2  1.7/21   2.2/29   5.3/46   5.1/61   6.1/73   0.6/37      .    21.0/54 
TOT   3.0/23   5.3/43  13.0/63  11.6/85  10.8/87   0.8/53      .    44.5/69