2013 CQ WW CW Contest
K5ZD, Single Operator All Bands
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Class: SOAB HP Operating Time (hrs): 45 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 49 12 29 80: 504 21 80 40: 1305 33 107 20: 1145 33 112 15: 964 34 118 10: 1014 27 104 ------------------------------ Total: 4981 160 550 Total Score = 10,242,460 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This contest revealed that the station and the operator are starting to show some signs of aging. Multiple hardware issues and an inability to set the alarm clock were all part of the game.
Given the great conditions expected I decided at the last minute not to use the DX Cluster, but do it on my own. There was stiff competition, but perhaps a new record to be set.
Discovered Friday night that both of my 160m antennas were intermittent. Was having trouble working anyone and the other bands were so good that I didn’t try to spend much time there.
Felt good the first night and decided to skip taking a nap. It was a good move because 20m was open early at 0900z.
Fantastic rates on Sat morning. Had 3 consecutive hours over 190! Don’t think I have had more than 1 ever before. SH5 says the best 60 minutes was 204. Wow! And I sent my call after EVERY QSO.
Noticed that the signal levels were dropping on 10m. I assume a bad connection somewhere in the feedline or StackMatch. Something to work on.
Was on record pace at the 24 hour mark. 2908/147/453 at 5.03M. Potential to make 11 Meg! USA record was 10.2M.
Was running Sat evening around 0100z on 40m when the noise level suddenly went to 20 over 9. Looked outside and it was a very light snow flurry! Took a break for some food and a shower. When I got back 20 minutes later the noise was gone. Lucky! Added bonus – the 160 antennas seemed to be working.
Was feeling good on Sat evening so had thoughts of going the full 48 hours. Knew that might be the only way to beat the tough competition. Started getting loopy (i.e., falling asleep during QSOs) around 0800z. Decided to take a short nap at 0845z.
I set the alarm on my iPhone, but didn’t notice the phone was set to silent mode. Amazingly, I woke up on my own at 1100z. Surprised I didn’t sleep for more given how long I had been awake. Of course, 20m was already wide open so I probably gave up a big chunk of QSOs.
Conditions on Sunday were OK, but didn’t feel quite as good as Saturday. Rates collapsed around 1800z and I lost focus. Went into DXer mode and chased multipliers. Had given up on any chance for the record when I arrived on 40m at 2030z. Found a clear spot at 7004.7 and was rewarded with a steady stream of callers for the next 3 hours. Chased mults as I could on the second radio.
Another hardware problem appeared. Sometimes the Array Solutions SixPak would not switch the antennas. I had to get up, run into the other room, and give it a rap with my knuckles to unstick the relay. Time to install my spare.
Broke the record, but it will not survive the log checking. Sure wish I had just stayed awake or set the alarm correctly. All part of the game and why setting big records is not easy… Even more ironic since the reason I don’t hold the existing record is because I made myself go to sleep instead of operating on through.
One final comment (rant?). It has become almost a waste of time for an unassisted single op to tune across a band looking for mults. No one sends their call sign any more. If you aren’t in a rare zone, I have no way to know that I should stop. And if you don’t send your call I can’t tell how long it will be until you do. I worked VP2MMM once and had to wait more than 4 minutes before he sent his call to see who I had worked.
There was many other times on Sunday when a guy would sent dit-dit or TU and there were no callers. We would both wait for awhile and then he would call CQ. If he had just sent his call, he would have had a QSO with me in less than half of that time! It pays to advertise your call!!
Great to see CW so alive and well. Also to see the increase in activity from China and India.
As always, it is amazing to see the score reports and realize how many active multipliers I never heard. With activity spread out across hundreds of Khz across 3-4 bands at at time, it is impossible to find them all.
Thanks to everyone who found their way into my log. And congratulations to everyone who took advantage of the conditions to set a new score record.
Station Description:
- Radio 1 Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA
- Radio 2 Yeasu FT-1000D + Ameritron AL-1200
Tower 1 100′ Rohn 45G
- 40-2CD @ 110′
- 2x 205CA @ 100′ / 50′
- 2x 105CA @70′ / 35′
- 160m 1/4-wave GP with 4 elevated radials
Tower 2 90′ Rohn 25G
- 6-el 10 @90′ with 4/4 @ 60’/30′
- 80m wire 4 square hanging from tower with 16 radials per vertical
- 160m shunt feed tower with 32 radials
Tower 3 40′ Rohn 25G
- TH7DXX at 40′
WriteLog v11.17B + W5XD keyer for SO2R
Continental Breakdown
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total % EU 18 398 1115 930 778 890 4129 82.9 SA 5 16 23 31 29 51 155 3.1 NA 19 70 105 52 49 40 335 6.7 AS 2 8 31 98 83 7 229 4.6 AF 4 6 21 20 13 14 78 1.6 OC 1 6 9 14 12 11 53 1.1
Rate
QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- --+-- 124/61 15/26 --+-- --+-- 139/87 139/87 0100Z 2/4 - 80/10 22/19 - - 104/33 243/120 0200Z 4/6 54/41 37/5 - - - 95/52 338/172 0300Z - 31/10 73/8 - - - 104/18 442/190 0400Z 13/12 15/8 34/1 - - - 62/21 504/211 0500Z - 60/6 22/8 - - - 82/14 586/225 0600Z 10/7 46/5 33/3 - - - 89/15 675/240 0700Z - 8/4 146/7 - - - 154/11 829/251 0800Z 1/1 12/5 77/7 4/5 --+-- --+-- 94/18 923/269 0900Z 1/2 8/8 14/8 50/20 - - 73/38 996/307 1000Z - - 11/6 69/12 - - 80/18 1076/325 1100Z - - 4/2 69/16 10/9 - 83/27 1159/352 1200Z - - - - 187/35 3/4 190/39 1349/391 1300Z - - - - 85/10 112/37 197/47 1546/438 1400Z - - - - 9/4 186/11 195/15 1741/453 1500Z - - - - 15/5 158/6 173/11 1914/464 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 46/13 95/8 141/21 2055/485 1700Z - - - - 116/2 35/16 151/18 2206/503 1800Z - - - 87/2 42/5 7/3 136/10 2342/513 1900Z - - - 147/9 9/7 - 156/16 2498/529 2000Z - - - 96/3 20/16 2/3 118/22 2616/551 2100Z - - - 82/3 10/7 20/15 112/25 2728/576 2200Z - - - 73/8 34/2 - 107/10 2835/586 2300Z - - 46/0 3/2 23/12 - 72/14 2907/600 0000Z --+-- --+-- 97/0 6/1 --+-- --+-- 103/1 3010/601 0100Z - 35/3 15/1 2/0 - - 52/4 3062/605 20 0200Z - 49/5 14/2 - - - 63/7 3125/612 0300Z 7/4 22/2 8/1 - - - 37/7 3162/619 0400Z 9/5 2/1 44/1 1/0 - - 56/7 3218/626 0500Z 2/0 50/0 - - - - 52/0 3270/626 0600Z - 75/0 2/0 - - - 77/0 3347/626 0700Z - 15/1 74/4 - - - 89/5 3436/631 0800Z --+-- 4/0 29/0 5/1 --+-- --+-- 38/1 3474/632 15 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 3474/632 60 1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 3474/632 60 1100Z - 1/2 - 98/1 15/4 - 114/7 3588/639 7 1200Z - - - 30/2 136/2 7/3 173/7 3761/646 1300Z - - - - 132/3 16/5 148/8 3909/654 1400Z - - - - 21/3 134/7 155/10 4064/664 1500Z - - - - 11/1 113/0 124/1 4188/665 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 12/0 13/1 79/1 104/2 4292/667 1700Z - - - 165/3 - 6/1 171/4 4463/671 1800Z - - - 68/2 11/4 17/5 96/11 4559/682 1900Z - - - 16/2 4/1 22/3 42/6 4601/688 2000Z - - 42/0 4/1 14/5 - 60/6 4661/694 2100Z - - 121/1 - 1/1 1/1 123/3 4784/697 2200Z - - 93/3 6/3 - 1/2 100/8 4884/705 2300Z - 17/0 65/1 15/4 - - 97/5 4981/710 Total: 49/41 504/101 1305/140 1145/145 964/152 1014/131
Most worked countries:
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total DL 4 77 214 175 131 162 763 EA 14 43 37 27 25 146 F 2 18 42 41 27 45 175 G 1 23 67 53 36 60 240 HA 1 12 30 24 20 24 111 I 13 61 54 37 52 217 OK 2 23 68 56 49 40 238 S5 1 9 35 22 17 23 107 SM 14 27 21 26 27 115 SP 1 28 60 44 51 41 225 UA 17 97 79 91 68 352 UR 28 68 38 37 47 218 VE 13 37 29 15 16 7 117
Best rate:
60 mins 204 23-Nov-2013 12:26 – 23-Nov-2013 13:26
6 Banders:
8P5A 9A1P CN2AA CR3L D4C DM5TI DR1A HK1NA LZ9W OL4A P3N P40L PJ2T PJ4Q
5 Banders: 74