2022 ARRL DX Contest CW K5ZD
ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2022 Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Class: SOAB HP Operating Time (hrs): 37 OpMode: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 160: 129 44 80: 401 60 40: 941 86 20: 1410 93 15: 1303 95 10: 81 32 ------------------- Total: 4265 410 Total Score = 5,245,950 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
This was intended to be a casual fun effort. I started the contest calling JAs on 15m rather than running on 40. Once I did get to the low bands and started running, I was blown away by the rates.
Got to 160 at 0305z and called CQ. Could not believe how loud the Europeans were. It was a continuous run for the next 40 mins.
40 did its usual thing of staying open to Europe well past Eu sunrise. As a result, I stayed awake too long. So only got 90 minutes of sleep before I was up again. A quick sweep of the low bands and then arrived at a wide-open 20m at 1109z. Three straight hours over 200!
I was watching the scoreboard and keeping tabs on AA1K and K1ZZ along with AA3B. I seemed to be keeping up with them so that doubled my motivation. I had intended to stop around 1700z but had such a pileup on 20 that I couldn’t leave. Then was going to stop at 2000 QSOs, but still, guys were calling. Finally, took a break at 1849z with over 2300 QSOs. I guess you could call contesting an addiction for me…
Cooked dinner and had intended to go for a walk, but a snow squall came through. Looked nasty outside so got back on the radio. (Of course!) CQing on 20 with a steady rate and finally some time to use the second radio to tune for mults.
It is frustrating to tune around because no one seems to send their call anymore. It is just a steady stream of stations sending “TU”. Not a problem when operating with the cluster/RBN, but definitely a challenge without. I would work stations and try to get them to send their call. Sometimes I would have to wait several minutes to figure out who I had worked. Argh. (I have to confess that there were times when I had big pileups that I just sent TU at the end. It is a time-saver, but once rates slow down there really is no advantage.)
I was looking forward to getting going on 40, but another snow squall was generating so much static that I couldn’t hear anything. Spent 20 minutes watching the Olympics while waiting for it to end.
Was feeling pretty tired since I had not really planned my life around a full-out effort. Took a 3-hour break at 0200z. Came back on at 0500z to find 160 again in very good shape. Gave me another good run of stations including a lot of 100W guys and even a few QRP. 80 was good late with some Eu stations calling in almost an hour after their sunrise. 40m seemed a bit muffled, but still had stations to work until I finally stopped at 0830z.
Another short sleep and back on at 1030z. Worked two JA on 80 straight away. That woke me up! Got to 20m at 1043z and it was already packed with signals. By this point, I was looking competitive on the scoreboard so I focused on running as much as possible. 20m was open deep into Asia. Made the jump to 15m at 1224z and it was off to the races again.
10m had been open on Saturday morning. Mostly for calling the few south Europeans that showed up. Sunday seemed a little better. EF7N was loud and calling lots of unanswered CQs. I tried CQing with the second radio but not much luck. Did have HB0A call in so that was a good one. Since it didn’t seem like it was going to produce any rate, I turned my focus to running on 15 and 20.
Took a break at 1815z to make lunch and go for a walk. Nothing clears the cobwebs like 4 miles in 30-degree weather! Back on at 1955z to chase mults and eek out a slow run on 20m. One last break at 2130z and then it was a push to the end.
40m started out well, but then I just ran out of stations to work. Many unanswered CQs. Not much going on 80 either. Discovered the JAs were loud on 15m so used the second radio to chase them.
What had started out as a part-time effort with a goal of maybe 3000 QSOs ended up a pretty intense effort with over 4200! Much of it is thanks to the incredible activity from Europe. Especially the high number of QRP (5W) callers. And the ability to track the competition on https://contestonlinescore.com/
I did record the contest and have posted the log and audio on my website.
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′/50′
15m: 155ca @66′/33′
10m: 6-el @ 90’
South: Th7DXX @ 40′
WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box
Rate
QSO/DX by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- --+-- 92/24 8/8 12/4 --+-- 112/36 112/36 0100Z - 44/22 64/8 16/6 - - 124/36 236/72 0200Z - 62/7 39/13 - - - 101/20 337/92 0300Z 55/30 33/4 6/1 - - - 94/35 431/127 0400Z 6/3 50/4 45/3 - - - 101/10 532/137 0500Z 5/1 37/3 18/2 - - - 60/6 592/143 10 0600Z - 18/6 97/6 - - - 115/12 707/155 0700Z - 11/3 84/2 - - - 95/5 802/160 0800Z 2/2 5/2 60/5 1/0 --+-- --+-- 68/9 870/169 10 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 870/169 60 1000Z 1/1 1/0 - 42/16 - - 44/17 914/186 35 1100Z - - 7/3 163/15 - - 170/18 1084/204 1200Z - - - 92/6 125/29 - 217/35 1301/239 1300Z - - - 11/2 200/17 - 211/19 1512/258 1400Z - - - 28/0 166/7 8/6 202/13 1714/271 1500Z - - - - 151/3 12/7 163/10 1877/281 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 55/1 89/3 11/3 155/7 2032/288 1700Z - - - 158/7 6/2 - 164/9 2196/297 1800Z - - - 103/2 11/0 - 114/2 2310/299 10 1900Z - - - - - - 0/0 2310/299 60 2000Z - - - 30/2 13/5 - 43/7 2353/306 28 2100Z - - - 59/4 11/6 11/4 81/14 2434/320 2200Z - - 54/2 5/3 2/0 - 61/5 2495/325 26 2300Z - - 86/4 10/4 3/0 - 99/8 2594/333 0000Z 1/0 37/1 21/3 8/2 --+-- --+-- 67/6 2661/339 0100Z 11/3 18/1 12/3 - - - 41/7 2702/346 5 0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 2702/346 60 0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 2702/346 60 0400Z - - - - - - 0/0 2702/346 60 0500Z 45/4 - 53/1 - - - 98/5 2800/351 1 0600Z - 52/1 53/3 - - - 105/4 2905/355 0700Z 1/0 19/3 46/0 - - - 66/3 2971/358 0800Z 2/0 1/0 19/0 --+-- --+-- --+-- 22/0 2993/358 31 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 2993/358 60 1000Z - 3/1 1/0 50/0 - - 54/1 3047/359 29 1100Z - - 1/0 182/5 - - 183/5 3230/364 1200Z - - - 69/0 112/1 3/2 184/3 3414/367 1300Z - - - - 165/4 8/3 173/7 3587/374 1400Z - - - 7/0 113/2 6/3 126/5 3713/379 1500Z - - - 113/1 21/1 - 134/2 3847/381 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 70/1 46/2 --+-- 116/3 3963/384 1700Z - - - 62/1 24/3 6/1 92/5 4055/389 1800Z - - - - - 8/2 8/2 4063/391 47 1900Z - - - - - 5/0 5/0 4068/391 55 2000Z - - - 53/2 11/6 2/0 66/8 4134/399 2100Z - - 5/0 12/5 - - 17/5 4151/404 19 2200Z - - 60/3 - 17/0 1/1 78/4 4229/408 2300Z - 10/2 18/0 3/0 5/0 - 36/2 4265/410 Total: 129/44 401/60 941/86 1410/93 1303/95 81/32
Best 60 minutes:
228 @19-Feb-2022 12:11
Worked on 6 bands (16):
CR3W DJ5AN ED1R ED7W EF7N IR2Q KH6LC KP4/KO1A LZ5R NP4DX PJ2T TM2Y TM6M TO4A ZF1A ZF5T
Worked on 5 bands: 69
Most worked countries
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
DL 10 50 104 178 200 2 544
I 12 30 91 115 121 3 372
UA 2 20 46 106 81 255
F 6 20 59 61 64 6 216
UR 3 24 42 72 61 202
OK 10 18 49 57 53 187
SP 7 23 38 65 48 181
EA 5 16 43 51 46 7 168
...
JA 2 3 50 28 83