2021 CQ WW RTTY Contest K5ZD
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2021 Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SOAB HP QTH: MA Operating Time (hrs): 36.3 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones ------------------------------------ 80: 404 46 49 13 40: 784 50 63 21 20: 1173 47 85 30 15: 849 24 77 25 10: 14 2 5 4 ------------------------------------ Total: 3224 169 279 93 Total Score = 4,177,061 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Needed a contest fix and this one is always fun. Conditions were even better than expected which was a nice bonus.
SO2R is the way to go for RTTY. Especially if you can handle CQing on two bands. The rhythm is easy to match and it keeps things interesting.
The first night was ok, but nothing special. Fun chasing AA3B on the scoreboard as he ran away from me.
Saturday morning I went to 20m a bit early and the band was already rocking. Signals up to 14140. I found a spot and got a great run going. Band was open deep with UA9 calling in. In high sunspot years that is a sign to check 15m. Sure enough, there were some loud Eu there. Called CQ and it was off to the races.
15m was good both days. The band was long and it was clear the Europeans were not hearing each other. That means less QRM. Signals levels were great from F to LA to UA3. Loud signals from 21080 to 21150.
Was getting a bit bored and discouraged as time wore on. Was doing great on the online scoreboard, but didn’t think I had the mental energy to get through the full contest. Took a break to cook lunch and go for a 3 mile walk. That helped my mood a lot and I was re-energized to get back into the fray.
The JA opening on 20 was very good. When that happens, it reveals a weakness in my station. The 20 and 40m are on the same mast so if I beam Japan, it is not good for 40 to Europe. Working Asia is more fun so focused on that while tuning around on 40.
Decided to take a nap from 0220z to 0400z while the Europeans were asleep. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but looks like I gave up 170 QSOs to AA3B during that period. Whoops. Took a second nap during the wee hours. Felt great when I got up. Nice to see 20 was also opening just as it had on Saturday. With 650 QSOs already in the log on that band, the rate was slower. 15m also opened so dual CQing helped keep things interesting.
I had intended to push through to the end of the contest. Was running stations on 20m when I looked up and saw the AL-1200 grid meter was hitting the pin. There was no output from the amp and no HV. That bummed me out so I took some time to cook dinner.
I had a nice score and it seemed a shame to quit when I still had one working radio. Decided to give up on mult chasing and just focus on pressing F1 over and over. Rates held up better than expected and was able to cross over the 3K QSO barrier. Then passed 4 meg. Wow. A new personal best in WW RTTY by far.
Most surprising QSO: Having UA0AGI call in on 15m at 1923z. That seems kind of late, but I thank him for checking the band at that time of night.
Other 15m fun: Lots of YBs calling in. And two HS, plus a VU. And a bunch of UA9.
Weird stuff: Not much USA on 15m. Band was just too long and no one seemed to focus on backscatter.
Studly QSOs: Working JA on 40m. Then calling a loud YD9VE and having him come right back. DU1UGZ was also very loud but could not hear me.
WriteLog is fantastic for RTTY contesting. The integration with the decoders is top notch. I ran with 2Tone as my primary decoder and MMTTY as the clone.
Always fun to see how one decoder will read perfectly while the other just has gibberish. Two decoders were especially helpful when running as it reduced the need for repeats.
A fun way to spend a weekend. Had the Ryder Cup on TV all day Saturday and the NFL on Sunday. https://contestonlinescore.com/ was a big motivator as always. Great to chase AA3B and AC0C.
With the high bands open it was fun to work a lot of new calls. DX contests are so much more fun for everyone when there are good conditions for working DX. And we can spread out on the high bands.
Never heard or worked VT, MT, or ND. Only one QSO with NM. Very few stations from Indiana.
Now on to WW SSB!
Postscript on the amp failure. One of the fuses had blown. The AL-1200 will continue to run with one fuse missing, which is very confusing when you are sleep-deprived. If I had only known, could have fixed it in 2 minutes and been back to full SO2R. The fuse holder had experienced some heat so need to find a replacement.
Station
K3 + AL-1200 K3 + AL-1500 160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower 80m: 4 square, dipole 40m: 40-2CD @110′ 20m: 205CA @100′ 15m: 155ca @66′ 10m: 6-ele @90′ TH7DXX @ 40′ WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box, MMTTY and 2Tone decoders
QSOs By continent
80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
NA 251 395 313 86 3 1048 32.5
EU 150 359 740 698 0 1947 60.4
AS 0 6 72 18 0 96 3.0
SA 1 7 20 36 11 75 2.3
AF 2 6 5 4 0 17 0.5
OC 0 10 22 6 0 38 1.2
Rates
QSO/Zn+Dx+St by hour and band Hour 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 00Z --+-- 21/25 51/38 --+-- --+-- 72/63 72/63 10 01Z - 45/28 62/13 1/3 - 108/44 180/107 02Z 34/28 73/22 18/6 - - 125/56 305/163 03Z 41/26 28/6 - - - 69/32 374/195 13 04Z 52/13 63/15 - - - 115/28 489/223 05Z 28/13 57/2 2/0 - - 87/15 576/238 06Z 27/7 46/14 - - - 73/21 649/259 4 07Z - - - - - 0/0 649/259 60 08Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 649/259 60 09Z 11/1 7/1 - - - 18/2 667/261 46 10Z 14/1 16/0 52/23 - - 82/24 749/285 11Z - 1/0 81/11 88/28 - 170/39 919/324 12Z - - 35/10 104/14 - 139/24 1058/348 13Z - - 61/8 99/8 - 160/16 1218/364 14Z - - 39/3 78/10 1/3 118/16 1336/380 15Z - - 23/3 47/6 - 70/9 1406/389 15 16Z --+-- --+-- 19/1 45/12 --+-- 64/13 1470/402 17Z - - 49/2 14/3 8/5 71/10 1541/412 18Z - - 63/6 - 2/0 65/6 1606/418 19Z - - 35/3 31/16 1/1 67/20 1673/438 10 20Z - - - - - 0/0 1673/438 60 21Z - - - - - 0/0 1673/438 60 22Z - - 41/6 21/7 - 62/13 1735/451 16 23Z - 63/5 31/9 3/1 - 97/15 1832/466 00Z --+-- 32/1 10/4 --+-- --+-- 42/5 1874/471 23 01Z 45/8 56/4 1/1 - - 102/13 1976/484 02Z 9/1 18/0 - - - 27/1 2003/485 38 03Z - - - - - 0/0 2003/485 60 04Z 50/5 23/2 - - - 73/7 2076/492 4 05Z 25/3 64/1 - - - 89/4 2165/496 06Z 25/1 56/1 1/2 - - 82/4 2247/500 07Z - 2/0 - - - 2/0 2249/500 58 08Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2249/500 60 09Z - - - - - 0/0 2249/500 60 10Z 25/1 15/6 12/0 - - 52/7 2301/507 7 11Z - 1/0 64/2 39/2 - 104/4 2405/511 12Z - - 55/0 66/0 - 121/0 2526/511 13Z - - 51/2 74/4 - 125/6 2651/517 14Z - - 53/0 44/2 - 97/2 2748/519 15Z - - 52/1 37/5 - 89/6 2837/525 16Z --+-- --+-- 28/0 31/1 --+-- 59/1 2896/526 17Z - - 32/3 7/0 - 39/3 2935/529 13 18Z - - - - - 0/0 2935/529 60 19Z - - 49/0 - - 49/0 2984/529 13 20Z - - 58/2 - - 58/2 3042/531 21Z - - 39/1 10/1 2/2 51/4 3093/535 22Z - 65/1 - 10/3 - 75/4 3168/539 23Z 18/0 32/0 6/2 - - 56/2 3224/541 Tot: 404/108 784/134 1173/162 849/126 14/11
Best 60 minutes: 180 starting Sep 25 at 1106z
Worked on 5 bands: K1SFA PV2K
Worked on 4 bands: 81
Most worked countries
80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
K 214 343 276 62 2 897
DL 30 54 124 136 344
I 14 47 86 83 230
UR 4 28 48 51 131
SP 9 22 49 41 121
UA 1 13 50 42 106
G 7 16 46 35 104
PA 6 16 43 33 98
EA 10 14 30 36 90
VE 29 33 16 8 86
Also nice to see
JA 4 45 49
YB 1 12 6 19
UA9 1 15 4 20