2014 ARRL DX CW Contest
K5ZD, Single Operator Unlimited, All Bands
ARRL DX Contest, CW Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Class: SO Unlimited HP Operating Time (hrs): 32.5 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 160: 64 41 80: 376 70 40: 663 93 20: 1044 109 15: 1069 112 10: 913 105 ------------------- Total: 4129 530 Total Score = 6,565,110 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
I am little burned out on contesting. I am in the middle of CQWW results, made trip to Estonia for the Contest Club of Finland meeting 2 weeks ago, and WRTC2014. So couldn’t get up for a full effort, but as it seems each time, the great conditions lured me in for more operating than I planned.
It wasn’t without challenges. Spent the first 90 minutes on 40m with the amp tuned to 10m. I turned the amp on, but forgot to tune it. Still worked a bunch of guys but couldn’t figure out why I felt so weak. Duh!
Discovered the TH7 mult antenna would not turn and didn’t seem to be pointed exactly south. Something to work on when the snow melts.
Started getting the sniffles on Friday evening. It had turned into a full on cold with some fever by Sat morning. My whole station now needs to be disinfected from the occasional sneeze…
All bands were good. 160m to 10m. I made myself take a nap the first night and then took another off time at midday to go for a walk and get a haircut.
The rates during the morning were incredible. A personal best 60 minutes of 222! Personal best clock hour of 219. Could have been better, but the zero beat problem often caused some delay in getting a callsign.
Had just settled into a perfect run frequency on 40m Sat afternoon when the snow static started. Wiped out 40 and pushed me back to 20m. Then I got the dinner call and took a break.
With the cold, I figured it would be good to get some more sleep. Didn’t set the alarm and figured I would probably sleep 8 hours or so. I woke up at one point and saw the clock said 10:43. In my fog, I thought that was GMT and it was the perfect time to wake up. I was on the air making QSOs before I realized it was local time and had only slept 3 hours.
It exposed me to the most incredible conditions of the weekend. I happened to listen on 15m at 0400z. There were signals there! Lots of them from Asia and very loud. Worked a JT1, BG2, XW0, UA0s, JAs. Even wilder, I was alternating making QSOs on 15m and 160m. It was really noisy here on 160, but must have been very quiet in Europe because everyone came right back on the first call.
About 0730z I ended up on 20m. The band was open to everywhere over the pole. I had one beam NE and one NW. Started off with some Eu and then the JAs started calling. JAs don’t usually call me, much less have a real run. Signals had a polar sound, but were loud enough to get the whole call each time. Even worked some QRP JAs. This lasted until about 0930z. Must not have been much activity on the band because I had lots of callers.
Took a 90 minute nap and then came back on at 1130z. 15m was already rocking so I went there. More big hours. Kept waiting for 10m to open, but it didn’t sound as good at 15m. Heard K0DQ up in ME running guys before I could. Finally made the jump around 1445z.
Some studly QSOs during the day. Plenty of VU2s on 10-20m. Several HS0 called in on 15m over Europe. As did two VK6s. The amazing QSO was JA1BPA calling in on 15m LP at 1337z.
Using the cluster was fun because it allowed me to run like a maniac all the time without missing too much. Even with it, there weren’t many new mults on the second day. Mostly filling in band slots.
The ultimate proof of how good conditions were is the number of 5 and 6 band QSOs.
Worked 44 stations on 6 bands:
6Y2T 9A1A CN2AA CR3L CS2C DF3FS DL1A E7DX EA5RS EC2DX ED7P EF5F HG1S HK1NA IR1Y J38XX KH6LC KP2M LZ9W OE2S OL7M OM7RU OT2A P40W PI4TUE PJ2T PJ4X R22ALS S54W SO9Q SV1DPJ TI5W TM6M UR7GO UW1M UW2M UW3U V26M V31TP VP2EZZ VP5S YU0T YU5R ZF35A
Worked 86 on 5 bands.
It also means there isn’t as much pressure on any one band. With everyone spread out across 3+ bands at a time, it was never difficult to find a frequency. No frequency fights the whole weekend!
Thanks to everyone who called in. This was a great one for having fun running rate and chasing DX.
Rates:
QSO/DX by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- --+-- 87/34 24/21 --+-- --+-- 111/55 111/55 0100Z - - 72/12 20/15 - - 92/27 203/82 0200Z 1/1 80/34 5/1 2/0 - - 88/36 291/118 0300Z 20/17 10/2 - 42/11 - - 72/30 363/148 0400Z 5/5 74/14 2/2 19/4 - - 100/25 463/173 0500Z 1/1 16/11 17/16 35/4 - - 69/32 532/205 0600Z 2/2 76/4 7/3 32/5 - - 117/14 649/219 0700Z 4/4 1/1 48/5 82/12 - - 135/22 784/241 0800Z 3/3 --+-- 54/2 3/0 --+-- --+-- 60/5 844/246 28 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 844/246 60 1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 844/246 60 1100Z - 2/2 9/4 - 109/33 - 120/39 964/285 9 1200Z - - - 11/5 169/11 28/19 208/35 1172/320 1300Z - - - - 8/4 211/23 219/27 1391/347 1400Z - - - - 14/9 175/9 189/18 1580/365 1500Z - - - - 4/4 21/18 25/22 1605/387 44 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1605/387 60 1700Z - - - - - - 0/0 1605/387 60 1800Z - - - - 70/3 21/12 91/15 1696/402 22 1900Z - - - 140/5 27/11 2/1 169/17 1865/419 2000Z - - 27/0 87/3 12/6 6/3 132/12 1997/431 2100Z - - - 78/2 16/3 13/6 107/11 2104/442 2200Z - - - 19/0 12/2 8/0 39/2 2143/444 35 2300Z - - - - - - 0/0 2143/444 60 0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2143/444 60 0100Z - - - - - - 0/0 2143/444 60 0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 2143/444 60 0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 2143/444 60 0400Z 15/4 2/0 68/4 8/3 8/3 - 101/14 2244/458 0500Z 11/2 68/1 10/1 6/5 - - 95/9 2339/467 0600Z 2/2 15/1 98/1 1/0 - - 116/4 2455/471 0700Z - 3/0 40/0 70/1 - - 113/1 2568/472 0800Z --+-- --+-- 4/1 129/4 --+-- --+-- 133/5 2701/477 0900Z - 3/0 1/1 46/0 - - 50/1 2751/478 12 1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 2751/478 60 1100Z - - 2/1 - 59/0 - 61/1 2812/479 36 1200Z - - - 3/2 173/5 6/3 182/10 2994/489 1300Z - - - 1/0 152/5 11/2 164/7 3158/496 1400Z - - - - 83/5 54/1 137/6 3295/502 1500Z - - - 4/1 5/2 147/3 156/6 3451/508 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 1/1 17/2 113/1 131/4 3582/512 1700Z - - - 6/0 77/1 61/2 144/3 3726/515 1800Z - - - 85/2 26/0 18/0 129/2 3855/517 1900Z - - - 60/0 1/1 12/1 73/2 3928/519 23 2000Z - - - - - - 0/0 3928/519 60 2100Z - - 4/1 1/1 - - 5/2 3933/521 54 2200Z - - 80/2 29/2 - 2/0 111/4 4044/525 2300Z - 26/0 28/2 - 27/2 4/1 85/5 4129/530 7 Total: 64/41 376/70 663/93 1044/109 1069/112 913/105
By continent:
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
EU 45 337 589 806 904 791 3472 84.1
AF 2 3 7 12 11 11 46 1.1
NA 12 22 26 25 25 27 137 3.3
SA 4 8 15 24 25 42 118 2.9
OC 1 5 7 15 13 9 50 1.2
AS 0 1 19 162 91 33 306 7.4
Station:
Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA
FT1000D + AL-1200
- 160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
- 80m: 4 square 40m: 2-el Yagi @ 110′
- 20m: 5-el/5-el @ 100’/50′
- 15m: 4-el/4-el @ 66’/33′
- 10m: 6-el/4-el/4-el @90’/60’/30′
- South: TH7DXX @40′
Dear Randy,
Thank you for commenting on our QSO on 15mb on 3830.
For the past few years, the long path to the East Coast has been there between 12 and 14 UTC. It works particularly well on 10/15mb when the normal short path around 22UTC is poor. Sometimes, it is the only path that I can work with New England for the whole contest period on 10mb.
Unfortunately, few stations turn their stacked antenna south around the time, since they are busy working with Europe.
For our QSO on 15mb, I listened to 10mb long path, but the propagation was poor. I was checking 15mb, and I heard many East Coast stations, when I found you.
Thank you for picking up my call. I lived in Boston between
2009 and 2010, and frequently operated from K1TTT station.
Hope to visit your place next time I visit Mass.
Thank you for your continuous service as CQ WW Contest Manager.
Best 73,
Icko, JA1BPA