2023 ARRL DX Contest SSB K5ZD
ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2023 Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SOUAB HP QTH: MA Operating Time (hrs): 28.5 OpMode: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 160: 33 25 80: 159 54 40: 182 69 20: 763 106 15: 943 105 10: 1162 103 ------------------- Total: 3242 462 Total Score = 4,493,412 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Considered going unassisted, but didn’t want to spend the weekend listening to people not send their calls…
All bands were open at the start, but I didn’t want to mess with 40. Ended up calling CQ on 20. Amazing where the band is open to at 00z. A71KK called in at 59+20 and said he was running 80w. Same with HZ1DS who was 59+ running 100w. Then a ZS.
I did have one good run on 40m. I was transmitting on 7205 and listening on 7089. RW9USA called in and he was 40 over S9. Amazing! That was my only real success working split. Don’t know why people don’t do that anymore.
Snow static started around 0130z. By 0230z it was so bad I could not hear any signals on any band. Went off to watch TV for a while. Came back and the static was still bad. The only band with no snow static (160m) had some kind of electronic noise that was S6 across the band (probably from a neighbor). Went to bed and hoped for better in the morning.
Saturday was fun. Went straight to 15m at 1145z and it was off to the races. Jumped to 10m at 1246z and it got even wilder. After several hours took a break to do some errands, then took my wife out to dinner later that afternoon. Watched the Formula 1 qualifying in the evening. Got back on for Eu sunrise and caught up on the low band multipliers that I missed the first night. I did more CQing on 20m and was rewarded with a 3DA0 station calling in and asking what I needed for the contest.
Took a short sleep and got up to catch some of the Asia and Pacific mults on 40. The JAs were S9 on 40.
More running on Sunday morning. Really struggled to get or keep a frequency on both 15 and 10.
The bands were slow to open. I spent all day Sunday getting beat out by stations in PA, MD, and VA. This makes sense since the bands were great to Italy and southern Europe all day but marginal to northern Eu.
As sunset passed to Western Eu the conditions improved. Had a great run on 10m of stations that were solid S9 and yet many were running less than 50W.
I noticed something interesting this weekend. On Saturday morning my 10m stack at 60’/30′ was the best antenna for Europe. On Sunday, it seemed like the 6-ele at 90′ was always better. All this contest season the stack has been the winner, but not on Sunday.
I noticed something similar on 20m on both days. Normally the stack in phase (BIP) is ALWAYS the best antenna. I try out of phase (BOP) sometimes, just for fun, but it is never an improvement. Not this weekend. The BOP configuration was an S-unit louder to Europe. I guess it is true that you can never have too many antenna options.
20m was finally good for running when I went there early around 1900z. That meant I could get a frequency. Definitely helped boost the score since I was missing some easy mults there.
Spent the last part of the contest chasing multipliers. Learned more humility. Had some great tail-end wins with HH2AA and 9V1YC. The last hour did have a good run to JA on 15m which was a pleasant surprise. Then jumped across all bands the last hour looking for anything I could work. Nice to have so many PY stations available.
TM6M once again wins the award for widest signal. There were lots of other wide and splattering signals from Europe. The good propagation makes the splatter even more noticeable. It is great for them to help keep the frequency clear, but not so good for the rest of us. Very poor sportsmanship.
Overall a fun contest. Thanks to those around the world that chase us across the bands.
Station
K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt-fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2-el @110′. 2/2 @ 110’/65′
20m: 5/5 @100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @66’/33′
10m: 6-el @100′, 4/4 @62’/32′
TH7DXX @40′ (south)
Rates
QSO/DX by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- --+-- 57/28 26/18 16/12 --+-- 99/58 99/58 0100Z 1/1 27/16 5/1 30/24 12/4 10/5 85/51 184/109 0200Z - 2/1 4/4 29/10 7/5 - 42/20 226/129 33 0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 226/129 60 0400Z - - - - - - 0/0 226/129 60 0500Z 12/8 24/11 16/13 1/1 - - 53/33 279/162 15 0600Z 3/3 19/7 - 2/1 - - 24/11 303/173 17 0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 303/173 60 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 303/173 60 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 303/173 60 1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 303/173 60 1100Z - - 1/0 - 55/23 - 56/23 359/196 41 1200Z - - - 5/1 147/18 35/17 187/36 546/232 1300Z - - - - - 224/29 224/29 770/261 1400Z - - - - 128/6 58/10 186/16 956/277 1500Z - - - - 12/4 41/7 53/11 1009/288 26 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 2/2 27/5 29/7 1038/295 43 1700Z - - - 21/4 10/4 135/5 166/13 1204/308 1800Z - - - 122/19 10/3 15/3 147/25 1351/333 1900Z - - - - 145/5 9/6 154/11 1505/344 2000Z - - - 14/1 - - 14/1 1519/345 50 2100Z - - - - - - 0/0 1519/345 60 2200Z - - - 12/2 7/2 19/1 38/5 1557/350 42 2300Z - - 7/0 11/2 7/3 49/4 74/9 1631/359 13 0000Z --+-- 3/1 15/3 1/1 9/1 --+-- 28/6 1659/365 29 0100Z - - - - - - 0/0 1659/365 60 0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 1659/365 60 0300Z 9/7 20/7 10/8 12/4 3/1 - 54/27 1713/392 3 0400Z 2/1 17/3 4/2 2/0 - - 25/6 1738/398 22 0500Z 3/2 41/6 14/3 4/1 - - 62/12 1800/410 0600Z 2/2 1/0 29/2 32/3 - - 64/7 1864/417 0700Z - 2/1 2/1 1/0 - - 5/2 1869/419 49 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1869/419 60 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 1869/419 60 1000Z - 1/1 7/2 - - - 8/3 1877/422 46 1100Z - - 3/1 167/3 1/0 - 171/4 2048/426 1200Z - - - 42/2 95/1 6/0 143/3 2191/429 1300Z - - - - 117/2 14/2 131/4 2322/433 1400Z - - - - 66/2 26/2 92/4 2414/437 1500Z - - - 3/0 8/2 138/2 149/4 2563/441 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 2/1 115/0 117/1 2680/442 1700Z - - - - 6/0 120/1 126/1 2806/443 1800Z - - - 6/1 9/1 73/2 88/4 2894/447 1900Z - - - 132/3 8/0 1/0 141/3 3035/450 2000Z - - - 60/1 4/1 26/2 90/4 3125/454 9 2100Z - - - - - - 0/0 3125/454 60 2200Z - - 1/1 19/3 15/1 14/0 49/5 3174/459 21 2300Z 1/1 2/0 7/0 9/1 42/1 7/0 68/3 3242/462 Total: 33/25 159/54 182/69 763/106 943/105 1162/103
Best 60 mins: 234 starting at 04-Mar-2023 13:13
Worked on 6 bands: 25
8P5A 9A1A 9A1P CQ8M CU2AA E7DX ED5R ED8W EI9E IO8V IR4X J68HZ KP2M NP4Z PJ2T PJ4G SP8R TI1K TM0R TM6M TM7A TO3Z VP5M ZF1A ZF5T
Worked on 5 bands: 43
Most worked entities:
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
I 2 19 21 88 99 145 374
DL 15 9 65 101 145 335
F 5 20 11 50 46 84 216
G 6 8 48 60 85 207
PA 1 3 3 55 45 91 198
EA 1 8 8 40 36 52 145
SP 1 7 9 34 44 30 125
JA 7 18 42 52 119
UA 4 20 40 23 87
PY 2 17 22 38 79