2020 CQ WPX SSB 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 was the Corona virus self isolation contest. People around the world had no sports to watch, places to go, or partners to take on dates. Activity on the bands was very good. At the same time, there were very few multi-ops. That was a small help in alleviating the crowding on 40 and 20 meters!
Fun contest. Well, except for the QRM. And stations stacked on top of each other on 20 meters…
I decided to enter the new “CLASSIC” overlay so only used one radio. WPX is mostly a rate contest so didn’t figure that would be much of a problem.
Took my first mental health break at 04z after a furious run on 40m when I actually got 7132. Then slept some. Came back for a few minutes and then decided to get some sleep.
Set the alarm early for Saturday morning. Got to 20m and it was a zoo. One advantage of being in New England is that we get access to Europe before the rest of the country so I was able to get a frequency. This morning I was just above the SSTV channel. It worked out very well with some big hours.
Took a few breaks when the rate was still good on Saturday. Finally got serious on Sunday morning.
The low bands were great. 20 was pretty good, but only if you could get a frequency. 15m was a tease with a few loud signals but no volume. 10 was only open a few minutes.
20 meters turned out to be excellent on Saturday evening. It started with a very good JA opening and then was wide open across the USA. That produced some big rates and lots of new prefixes. I pushed through 0530z as I could see my score was doing ok on the scoreboard.
Set the alarm for early Sunday morning. It wasn’t as good as Saturday, but once I had carved out a spot, the stations (and new mults) kept coming. I started the morning more than a million points behind some of the stations I had been chasing on the board. By the end of the 20m run, I had caught and passed some of them. At this point, I was head down trying to make as much score as possible. Only took one break on Sunday to eat and clear my head.
Rates continued to the end of the contest. 20 meters kept producing more new prefixes. Then when I went to 40m, it was rocking as well. Couldn’t get a spot below 7200 so was happy to run W/VE and get more prefixes. Spent the last 20 minutes tuning 40 and 75 just to see what was out there.
Was a thrill to give out QSO #4001 at the end of the contest. I know I am going to look back and regret not operating more on Saturday!
I dedicate this contest to contestonlinescore.com. If not for the scoreboard, I would have quit several times.
I did record the full contest and will try to post to my web site after the log deadline.
Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun!
Rates:
QSO/Pref by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- 60/51 --+-- 49/43 --+-- --+-- 109/94 109/94 0100Z - 12/9 166/116 - - - 178/125 287/219 0200Z - - 176/95 - - - 176/95 463/314 0300Z 15/6 33/12 100/44 - - - 148/62 611/376 0400Z - 3/2 - - - - 3/2 614/378 58 0500Z - 101/48 - - - - 101/48 715/426 2 0600Z 2/0 29/11 36/18 - - - 67/29 782/455 16 0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 782/455 60 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 782/455 60 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 782/455 60 1000Z - - 15/5 61/34 - - 76/39 858/494 20 1100Z - - - 176/93 - - 176/93 1034/587 1200Z - - - 182/77 - - 182/77 1216/664 1300Z - - - 177/59 - - 177/59 1393/723 1400Z - - - - 53/16 - 53/16 1446/739 14 1500Z - - - - - - 0/0 1446/739 60 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1446/739 60 1700Z - - - 43/11 12/1 - 55/12 1501/751 18 1800Z - - - 140/34 - - 140/34 1641/785 1900Z - - - 2/1 12/6 - 14/7 1655/792 48 2000Z - - - - - - 0/0 1655/792 60 2100Z - - - - 24/11 5/3 29/14 1684/806 36 2200Z - - 24/5 58/24 3/0 - 85/29 1769/835 3 2300Z - - - - - - 0/0 1769/835 60 0000Z --+-- --+-- 90/21 45/12 --+-- --+-- 135/33 1904/868 4 0100Z - - - 153/40 - - 153/40 2057/908 0200Z - 40/6 69/9 7/0 - - 116/15 2173/923 0300Z 1/0 96/21 - - - - 97/21 2270/944 0400Z 4/1 67/15 - - - - 71/16 2341/960 0500Z 2/0 6/1 27/4 - - - 35/5 2376/965 20 0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 2376/965 60 0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 2376/965 60 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2376/965 60 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 2376/965 60 1000Z - 26/6 20/2 - - - 46/8 2422/973 21 1100Z - - 28/3 127/32 - - 155/35 2577/1008 1200Z - - - 130/31 - - 130/31 2707/1039 1300Z - - - 130/25 - - 130/25 2837/1064 1400Z - - - 124/35 - - 124/35 2961/1099 1500Z - - - 132/24 - - 132/24 3093/1123 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 42/8 41/2 --+-- 83/10 3176/1133 1700Z - - - 6/1 1/1 - 7/2 3183/1135 60 1800Z - - - 143/24 - - 143/24 3326/1159 1900Z - - - 129/11 - - 129/11 3455/1170 2000Z - - - 146/13 - - 146/13 3601/1183 2100Z - - - 167/27 - - 167/27 3768/1210 2200Z - - 15/2 54/13 18/5 - 87/20 3855/1230 2300Z - 11/1 110/16 - - - 121/17 3976/1247 Total: 24/7 484/183 876/340 2423/672 164/42 5/3
Best 60 minutes: 206
Worked on 6 bands: none
Worked on 5 bands: NP2P
Most worked countries:
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
DL 1 32 16 200 3 252
EA 17 17 70 18 122
F 14 10 87 6 117
G 7 6 138 151
I 16 25 198 24 263
K 11 254 587 738 20 1 1611
VE 4 28 46 75 5 158