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
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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