2015 ARRL DX Contest CW K5ZD

                   ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  110    47
   80:  502    59
   40:  848    77
   20:  849    92
   15:  714    79
   10:  667    74
-------------------
Total: 3690   428  Total Score = 4,737,960

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

My son was visiting for the weekend. We were all at a restaurant when the
contest started. Then came home and watched the WRTC2014 video. Didn’t start operating until almost 03z. Went to bed when I got tired.

When I got to 10 meters the first morning, I pressed F4 to call a station and RF got into the keyboard. It was like the F4 key was stuck on. Had to reboot a few times to diagnose the problem. Fixed by wrapping the keyboard cable through some Ferrite a few times.

I always forget how much it helps the rate when everyone in the world is
looking for USA. 🙂 Low bands were very good on Friday night. Even better on Saturday! Was actually able to call CQ and get answers on 160m.

Took plenty of breaks. Walked the dog both days. Took advantage of the warm weather to clean up some snow.

The predicted ice storm on Sat night never happened. Got a bit of rain and that quieted down all the line noise. Could hear a pin drop on 10m on Sunday.

Was having one of the my best hours of the weekend at 14z on Sunday when my son called to say he had rolled his car over on the trip home. An expensive life lesson for him. Luckily no injuries (except to the car!).

Worked 38 stations on 6 bands. That has to be a new record for me. And
another 81 on 5 bands!

Only complaint is the phase noise and side bands that some CW signals seem to have now. Had to abandon several nice run frequencies when a dirty signal would show up on a close frequency. One was from neighbor K1LZ.

This was my first real contest with the YCCC SO2R+ box. Thanks to W1UE for building it for me. Worked great!

Didn’t plan on operating this much, but conditions and rates were too good!
Didn’t spend much time on multipliers until Sunday afternoon.

Contests are way more enjoyable when you plan for fun instead of trying to win something. Was nice to take breaks and stop operating when I got tired of it. But, competing to win is fun too – afterwards.

Station:

Radio 1 – Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA
Radio 2 – Elecraft K3 + AL-1500

Tower 1 – 100? Rohn 45G
40m: 40-2CD @ 110?
20m: 205CA @ 100? / 50?
15m: 5-el 15 @70? / 35?
160m: 1/4-wave GP with 4 elevated radials

Tower 2 – 90? Rohn 25G
10m: 6-el 10 @90? with 4/4 @ 60’/30?
80m: Wire 4 square for 80m hung from tower
160m: Tower is shunt fed

Tower 3 – 40? Rohn 25G
TH7DXX at 40? to South

By Continent:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total      %

    NA       9     11     19     14     12     17      82     2.2
    AS       0      2     24     78     79      9     192     5.2
    EU      94    472    774    712    591    591    3234    87.6
    AF       2      8     11     13      6      9      49     1.3
    OC       0      3      5     10      8      8      34     0.9
    SA       5      6     15     22     18     33      99     2.7

Rates:

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0     60
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0     60
0200Z    -       -       -     14/14     -       -     14/14     14/14  
0300Z  22/13   50/20   54/21    8/5      -       -    134/59    148/73  
0400Z  11/3   131/12    7/2      -       -       -    149/17    297/90  
0500Z  22/11   63/4    19/6      -       -       -    104/21    401/111 
0600Z    -     12/2   132/11     -       -       -    144/13    545/124     7
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     545/124    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
1100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
1200Z    -       -       -       -    114/33    1/1   115/34    660/158    17
1300Z    -       -       -       -    115/9    52/22  167/31    827/189 
1400Z    -       -       -       -    100/4    56/19  156/23    983/212 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     74/4    82/6   156/10   1139/222     6
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1139/222    60
1700Z    -       -       -    157/27     -      4/2   161/29   1300/251     8
1800Z    -       -       -    102/6     7/3      -    109/9    1409/260    23
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1409/260    60
2000Z    -       -       -    111/5     3/1      -    114/6    1523/266    20
2100Z    -       -       -    138/10   12/6      -    150/16   1673/282 
2200Z    -       -     80/3    33/6    10/2    14/4   137/15   1810/297 
2300Z    -       -     63/1      -       -       -     63/1    1873/298    38
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   15/1    --+--   15/1    1888/299    48
0100Z    -     29/0    54/3    19/11    2/0      -    104/14   1992/313 
0200Z  10/6    41/5    26/8      -       -       -     77/19   2069/332 
0300Z  22/7     2/2    54/3      -       -       -     78/12   2147/344 
0400Z   6/0    16/2    67/3     5/2      -       -     94/7    2241/351 
0500Z  15/6    26/1     2/0     3/0      -       -     46/7    2287/358 
0600Z    -    107/3    30/1      -       -       -    137/4    2424/362 
0700Z   2/1     4/3   139/4      -       -       -    145/8    2569/370 
0800Z  --+--    8/4    52/5     2/0    --+--   --+--   62/9    2631/379    16
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2631/379    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2631/379    60
1100Z    -       -      2/1    12/0      -       -     14/1    2645/380    51
1200Z    -       -      6/4   134/3     9/2      -    149/9    2794/389 
1300Z    -       -       -     20/1    68/5     5/1    93/7    2887/396    31
1400Z    -       -       -       -       -    157/6   157/6    3044/402 
1500Z    -       -       -       -      4/2    72/1    76/3    3120/405    39
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   11/1   153/4   164/5    3284/410 
1700Z    -       -       -       -    135/3    40/0   175/3    3459/413 
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3459/413    60
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3459/413    60
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -     21/5    21/5    3480/418    37
2100Z    -       -      3/0    91/2     7/2     2/1   103/5    3583/423 
2200Z    -       -     58/1      -     24/1     8/2    90/4    3673/427 
2300Z    -     13/1      -       -      4/0      -     17/1    3690/428    40

Total: 110/47 502/59  848/77  849/92  714/79  667/74 

Best rate:
60 mins 218 QSOs at 21-Feb-2015 12:30

Worked on 6 bands:
9A1A DH8BQA DJ5AN DJ7UC DJ8OG DL1A DL2CC DP9Z EC2DX ED7P EF7T ES5Q HG1S HG6N HG7T II9P IR1Y IR4X IV3BCA LZ9W NP4Z OL4A OL5Y OL7M OZ5E PJ2T RT4F RU1A RW7K S54W SN3R SO9Q SP2LNW SP8R TI5W UX4U YL2KO YR8D

Worked 111 different entities.

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL      20     80    124    110     84     91     509
    UA       4     26     52     56     76     28     242
     I       3     26     55     56     37     52     229
    OK       9     40     44     40     35     39     207
    UR       3     30     57     39     51     26     206
    SP       5     30     34     38     30     33     170
     G       2     15     36     35     21     34     143
    PA       1     14     28     34     26     27     130
    S5       5     21     31     25     16     17     115
    EA       2     11     28     30     14     29     114
    HA       4     17     26     22     21     19     109
    SM       2     19     26     18     21     17     103
    JA                    10     31     48      8      97

Shows how good conditions were that JA made the list. Worked several JA stations on 4 bands!