2004 ARRL DX CW Contest (W4PA opr)

K5ZD (W4PA opr.), Single Op All Band, High Power

                     ARRL DX Contest, CW
 
 Call: K5ZD
 Operator(s): W4PA
 Station: K5ZD
 
 Class: SOAB HP
 QTH: MA
 Operating Time (hrs): 48
 Radios: SO2R
 
 Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Mults
 -------------------
   160:   98    58
    80:  515    83
    40: 1127    98
    20: 1081   105
    15: 1073    97
    10:  407    79
 -------------------
 Total: 4301   520  Total Score = 6,706,440
 
 Club: Tennessee Contest Group

Comments

 New W/VE single op, high power record.   The question is, am I the only one? Haven’t seen too many SOABHP scores yet on the 3830 ‘net.  

Let me be the first (or third, or 20th) to say what a class thing it was for the guys in Dominica to use J7OJ as the callsign this weekend. I thought that was really cool, a great way to pay tribute to Jim.

Contest:  Well…after getting the high claimed score for CQ WW CW this year, and having been disappointed in how I did in ARRL DX CW in 2003 I decided I was going ALL OUT for this one.  Randy helped the cause immensely by getting a 4 square up on 80 meters and a second 160m transmit antenna that is definitely improving the K5ZD signal to the Caribbean.  K5ZD has gone from calling…and calling…Carib mults on 160 to pounding the pileup first or second call almost every time. 

I decided to be extra aggressive in gathering multipliers and made a couple of changes in mult technique that really paid off this weekend.

I started the contest CQing on 40m and was able to pull off working 11 mults on 160 in the first hour in between running on 40.  I had 40 multipliers on 160 when the sun came up Saturday morning.

My plans were simple, operate all 48 hours without a break, maximize band openings, aggressively hunt down/move multipliers and manage the radios the way I wanted…meaning the Orion was the run radio 99% of the time and Randy’s FT1000D was the mult radio.  The only exception to this was using the Orion to hunt multipliers on 160, and I would just use the 1000D on 40 or 80 to CQ while doing.  Except for 160, hunting mults is generally not a weak signal affair – so having the radio that was going to allow me to best copy weak signals complete callsign the first time, every time as the run radio was most important to maximizing the score totals.  With the BW set at 400 Hz or so the whole weekend, I never heard anyone or anything else in my passband but callers on my run frequency the entire 48 hours.  Man, did I ever work a lot of 5 watters on 80 and 40 meters this weekend!

I went the first 33 hours without getting out of the chair except to run (literally) to the bathroom in the next room.  I pre-planned a break for when I usually get to be losing it a little bit from sleep deprivation, around 4 a.m. local Sunday.  0908Z Sunday I got up for a 15 minute break, ate some food, made coffee, changed my clothes, and then was at the radio non-stop to the end.

So that’s the story.  I regret 10 meters didn’t pull a strong opening to EU on Sunday or I think 7,000,000 would have been realistic this weekend.  Thanks for all the Q’s – I am again doing the writeup for QST magazine to appear in the fall for this contest.  Your anecdotes and pics always welcome.

73

Scott W4PA

Rate Sheet

QSO/DX by hour and band

 Hour     160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime

D1-0000Z  11/11    5/5   106/34   --+--   --+--   --+--  122/50    122/50  
D1-0100Z   4/3     7/7    86/6    10/10     -       -    107/26    229/76  
D1-0200Z   4/4    46/15   31/4     6/2      -       -     87/25    316/101 
D1-0300Z   5/4    91/12   14/9      -       -       -    110/25    426/126 
D1-0400Z   1/1    18/5    38/7      -       -       -     57/13    483/139 
D1-0500Z  10/8     8/5    84/3      -       -       -    102/16    585/155 
D1-0600Z   1/1    32/3    33/5      -       -       -     66/9     651/164 
D1-0700Z   7/6     7/6    88/3      -       -       -    102/15    753/179 
D1-0800Z   2/2     5/3    83/2    --+--   --+--   --+--   90/7     843/186 
D1-0900Z    -      4/4    48/10     -       -       -     52/14    895/200 
D1-1000Z   2/0     5/3     8/2      -       -       -     15/5     910/205 
D1-1100Z    -       -       -    127/34   34/18     -    161/52   1071/257 
D1-1200Z    -       -       -       -    154/20    7/7   161/27   1232/284 
D1-1300Z    -       -       -       -     73/9    68/19  141/28   1373/312 
D1-1400Z    -       -       -       -     38/6    73/9   111/15   1484/327 
D1-1500Z    -       -       -       -     16/6   127/9   143/15   1627/342 
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   57/2    67/5   124/7    1751/349 
D1-1700Z    -       -       -       -    111/1    24/13  135/14   1886/363 
D1-1800Z    -       -       -    110/4    16/7     4/2   130/13   2016/376 
D1-1900Z    -       -       -    138/7     4/4     2/2   144/13   2160/389 
D1-2000Z    -       -       -     81/6     8/3     2/1    91/10   2251/399 
D1-2100Z    -       -      2/2    66/7     8/5     5/5    81/19   2332/418 
D1-2200Z  20/5      -      7/0    29/5      -      1/1    57/11   2389/429 
D1-2300Z   1/1   103/1      -      5/3     3/0      -    112/5    2501/434 
D2-0000Z  --+--   42/1    36/1     4/1    --+--   --+--   82/3    2583/437 
D2-0100Z   8/3     5/1    19/2     7/4      -       -     39/10   2622/447 
D2-0200Z   1/0    22/1    20/0     1/0      -       -     44/1    2666/448 
D2-0300Z   3/2    57/1     8/2      -       -       -     68/5    2734/453 
D2-0400Z   4/1    12/2    39/1      -       -       -     55/4    2789/457 
D2-0500Z   5/1     3/0    49/0      -       -       -     57/1    2846/458 
D2-0600Z   4/1     2/1    52/2      -       -       -     58/4    2904/462 
D2-0700Z   2/1     8/2    54/0      -       -       -     64/3    2968/465 
D2-0800Z   1/1     1/1    68/1    --+--   --+--   --+--   70/3    3038/468 
D2-0900Z    -       -      6/0    13/0      -       -     19/0    3057/468 
D2-1000Z   1/1      -       -     92/1      -       -     93/2    3150/470 
D2-1100Z    -       -       -    111/2     3/0      -    114/2    3264/472 
D2-1200Z    -       -       -     98/7    31/1      -    129/8    3393/480 
D2-1300Z    -       -       -       -    118/5     2/1   120/6    3513/486 
D2-1400Z    -       -       -      3/2   115/1     1/1   119/4    3632/490 
D2-1500Z    -       -       -      1/0    94/1     6/1   101/2    3733/492 
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    5/2    78/4     7/1    90/7    3823/499 
D2-1700Z    -       -       -      6/0    77/2     9/2    92/4    3915/503 
D2-1800Z    -       -       -     52/0    22/1     2/0    76/1    3991/504 
D2-1900Z    -       -       -     60/1     7/1      -     67/2    4058/506 
D2-2000Z    -       -       -     43/1     4/0      -     47/1    4105/507 
D2-2100Z    -       -     84/1     4/0      -       -     88/1    4193/508 
D2-2200Z    -       -     54/1     5/3     2/0      -     61/4    4254/512 
D2-2300Z   1/1    32/4     9/0     4/3      -       -     46/8    4300/520 

Total:    98/58  515/83 1126/98 1081/1051073/97  407/79