2020 CQ WPX CW Contest AK1W (K5ZD)
Call: AK1W Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SOAB HP Class Overlay: Classic QTH: W1 Operating Time (hrs): 31.7 Summary: Band QSOs 160: 24 80: 484 40: 876 20: 2423 15: 164 10: 5 Total: 3976 Prefixes = 1247 Total Score = 12,412,638 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This event put the word test in contest!
Decided to do single op serious to chase some WRTC qualifying points and because there was nothing else to do. The qualifying points motivation went away when I saw my #1 competitor was WA1Z at KC1XX.
Also wanted to do actual 2BSIQ in a contest for real for the first time. It was interesting. I was a lid at times (most times). It also got harder as the serial numbers got longer and there were more requests for repeats. But, I learned a lot.
Everything was working in the station. Fixed all my rotator issues over the spring. 40m beam is still intermittent and really needs a new feedpoint. It is such a difficult antenna to get to that I keep procrastinating. Will need some help to get it fixed. Don’t think I can put it off any longer.
When I came into the shack at 2355z to do the contest, I found 15m was open to Europe. That sounded like fun so I started there. Worked 60 guys while also chasing some stations on 20. Didn’t get to 40m until 30 minutes in. I did dual CQ on 40 and 20 for a few hours and it was pretty cool. I am sure my accuracy rate will suffer…
This was the first contest where the online scoreboard added a challenge. After 6 hours I had made 835 QSOs and was already a million points behind KC1XX and AA3B. K1ZZ was also well ahead of me. With the way WPX scoring is exponential (mults just keep going up with QSOs), I knew there was no way I was going to catch those guys.
After feeling bad for awhile, I turned it around and decided to see if I could chase them down. Conditions on Sat morning were not the best. I went out for a walk late in the morning because there was nothing to do but work USA. No way to catch up at 1 point per QSO. Things got a lot better after 1900z and we were off to the races until I just couldn’t stay awake any more about 0530z.
There was a very cool 10 meter e-skip opening on Sat afternoon. I worked as far away as Arizona and as close as Delaware. Even a few Caribbean called in. Not great for points, but good for fun.
Pushed hard on the low bands the second night and made up some ground. 80 was as quiet and good as I have ever heard it in WPX CW. Even so, the low bands were tough to do much dual CQing.
On again at sunrise on Sunday morning and 20 was a little better, but still difficult to get much rate. There was a nice JA opening that didn’t produce many QSOs, but sure helped my prefix count. 15m did open, but not for long. Only heard a few signals on 10. So it was mostly 20m all day until the last 90 minutes when 40 opened.
I did catch K1ZZ for score Sunday morning. We had the same score and multiplier, but I had 500 more QSOs than he did. Those missed low band contacts the first few hours created a hole I could not fill. Dave then proceeded to work 100 mults that I could not match and it was over. Fun chasing him though.
Made a bonehead decision on Sunday afternoon when contemplating off time. I came back on only to realize I still had 25 minutes of off time remaining. That meant I would have to end a little early. Not normally a problem, but as that time approached, I was running 6 pointers on 40 meters. Gave up a few points because I couldn’t do basic clock management.
This contest alternated between a domestic contest and a DX contest. I have always loved chasing and working prefixes. Great to have so much activity to keep things hopping.
Congrats to WA1Z at KC1XX and to N5DX for breaking the existing USA record. And to AA3B and K1ZZ for also whipping up on me. Next year!
By continent:
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
EU 0 100 447 953 197 0 1697 44.4
NA 9 186 592 672 375 108 1942 50.8
AS 0 0 4 97 1 0 102 2.7
SA 0 5 15 5 9 1 35 0.9
OC 0 1 18 8 5 0 32 0.8
AF 0 1 3 6 1 0 11 0.3
Rates:
QSO/Pref by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- --+-- 52/48 13/13 60/51 --+-- 125/112 125/112 0100Z - - 87/65 67/46 1/0 - 155/111 280/223 0200Z - - 92/45 87/53 - - 179/98 459/321 0300Z - - 79/31 91/46 - - 170/77 629/398 0400Z 4/2 58/29 39/29 5/2 - - 106/62 735/460 0500Z - - 75/30 25/13 - - 100/43 835/503 0600Z - 34/10 46/14 - - - 80/24 915/527 23 0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 915/527 60 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 915/527 60 0900Z - 13/7 14/9 - - - 27/16 942/543 41 1000Z - 1/1 22/7 84/35 2/0 - 109/43 1051/586 1100Z - - 57/13 70/20 - - 127/33 1178/619 1200Z - - 2/1 87/29 3/2 11/3 103/35 1281/654 1300Z - - - 83/24 23/1 8/3 114/28 1395/682 1400Z - - - 48/8 76/7 - 124/15 1519/697 9 1500Z - - - - - - 0/0 1519/697 60 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1519/697 60 1700Z - - - 26/6 69/11 - 95/17 1614/714 10 1800Z - - - 73/13 48/8 - 121/21 1735/735 1900Z - - - 91/28 36/8 - 127/36 1862/771 2000Z - - - 59/16 53/8 33/5 145/29 2007/800 2100Z - - - 61/14 1/1 45/5 107/20 2114/820 2200Z - - - 116/33 14/3 - 130/36 2244/856 2300Z - - 32/6 75/18 13/5 - 120/29 2364/885 0000Z --+-- --+-- 112/23 5/4 --+-- --+-- 117/27 2481/912 0100Z - 6/2 77/12 10/4 - - 93/18 2574/930 0200Z - 97/12 21/4 - - - 118/16 2692/946 0300Z - 45/6 38/5 - - - 83/11 2775/957 0400Z 3/1 4/0 86/13 1/0 - - 94/14 2869/971 0500Z 2/0 15/0 35/7 - - - 52/7 2921/978 27 0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 2921/978 60 0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 2921/978 60 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2921/978 60 0900Z - 15/1 4/1 - - - 19/2 2940/980 42 1000Z - 5/0 13/2 63/21 - - 81/23 3021/1003 1100Z - - 4/0 65/37 1/1 - 70/38 3091/1041 1200Z - - - 40/11 46/6 - 86/17 3177/1058 1300Z - - - 2/1 81/5 11/1 94/7 3271/1065 1400Z - - - - 9/0 1/0 10/0 3281/1065 48 1500Z - - - 38/2 24/1 - 62/3 3343/1068 15 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 20/4 11/3 --+-- 31/7 3374/1075 1700Z - - - 24/3 8/1 - 32/4 3406/1079 60 1800Z - - - 54/4 6/2 - 60/6 3466/1085 1900Z - - - 62/8 3/1 - 65/9 3531/1094 2000Z - - 5/0 65/8 - - 70/8 3601/1102 2100Z - - 17/2 50/8 - - 67/10 3668/1112 2200Z - - 10/0 79/11 - - 89/11 3757/1123 2300Z - - 62/9 3/0 - - 65/9 3822/1132 Total: 9/3 293/68 1081/376 1742/543 588/125 109/17
Most worked countries:
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
K 5 163 530 615 351 104 1768
DL 26 79 164 35 304
UA 1 25 118 12 156
VE 4 20 46 44 16 2 132
UR 1 39 59 14 113
46% of QSOs were with USA!
Best 60 minutes:
182 at 30-May-2020 02:16 (dual CQ on 20/40)
Worked on 5 bands:
K9NW KC7V KE1J KM9P W9AV WO1N WW1X