2023 CQ WW Contest CW K5ZD
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023 Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SOAB HP QTH: MA Operating Time (hrs): 44 OpMode: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 156 15 60 80: 526 24 99 40: 1148 31 120 20: 1089 38 130 15: 1099 37 133 10: 1053 34 129 ------------------------------ Total: 5071 179 671 Total Score = 12,473,750 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Nothing like a high solar flux to bring out the fun. The best part was that it didn’t mess up the low bands. I never expected 60 countries on 160.
Bought a used C31xr to replace the TH7 the week before the contest. Was installed last weekend with help from KW1X and AA1ON. A great addition to the station.
Some intermittent problem on 40m. Transmit was ok, but on receive it would drop 10-20db in signal levels at times. I had to transmit to restore receiving. Very annoying. Seemed to get worse as I transmitted more. Probably one of my homemade hardline connectors.
Replaced one of the encoders in my K3 during the week. It had broken during the V4 trip. When I tried to make my first QSO of the contest I hit the key and the power went out. Quickly tracked it down to a loose connection at the power supply (another thing that made the trip to V4 and back). So started the contest 2 minutes late.
Surprise band the first night was 160. It was very quiet here. Must have been quiet in Europe as I was having no trouble calling stations and having them come right back. Even got some answers to CQs. The second night I could still hear Eu well, but they couldn’t hear me as easily.
Meant to take a short 20-minute nap on Sat morning. Woke up wide awake an hour later. The alarm on the iPad showed it was going, but I didn’t hear any sound. (It was playing into my earbuds sitting across the room.)
Immediately jumped on the radio and found 20 already going. Oversleeping would have been a disaster.
Conditions on Sat were okay, just one band lower than expected. And by the time 15m winds down, everyone in EU has left 20 to go to the low bands.
Took another 2 hour nap Sunday morning. More of a proactive measure since I didn’t really feel that tired. One of the ‘benefits’ of old age is that I don’t seem to need sleep as much. When I woke up Sunday morning and sat down on 40m, could not believe how loud the JA signals were. Several were 20 over with very little flutter.
I pushed down to 20m early on Sunday to bring the totals up. Which worked out well and meant I was ready when 15 opened to Asia.
The opening to Japan/Asia on Sunday evening was the best I have ever heard from here. The JA signals on 20 were great. Then got really good on 15. Even worked a few on 10.
Some nasty pileups. A few people seemed to be over-aggressive in their calling. By that I mean I kept hearing the same guys be annoying. Also noticed a lot of times when a guy would call and then not hear the DX come back to them. And not just once. You need to be able to recognize your own call coming back through the noise.
Did work 4W8X on 5 bands. Amazed to hear them on 80. Even more amazed they could hear me.
Loved watching the scoreboard. I use the mode where it shows all single ops regardless of Assisted or not. My goal on Saturday afternoon was to catch up with the multiplier total of K1ZZ. And to not let N5DX get more than 1000 QSOs ahead of me. I think I only finished 975 behind.
I am going to have to learn this 2BSIQ thing. Especially with multiple bands so open at the same time. I did manage to put together one 2BSIQ period of about 40 minutes on Sat morning that showed the potential.
Great fun. Thanks to everyone who gets on for the best weekend of DXing in the year.
Station
K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′
10-20m: C31xr @ 40′
By continent
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
EU 99 435 977 821 908 873 4113 81.1
AF 5 9 13 16 18 17 78 1.5
NA 47 59 93 90 56 52 397 7.8
SA 3 10 17 33 32 71 166 3.3
AS 2 8 33 104 67 25 239 4.7
OC 0 5 15 25 17 15 77 1.5
Rates
QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- --+-- 119/44 12/17 7/10 2/4 140/75 140/75 0100Z - 16/16 89/12 19/24 5/5 - 129/57 269/132 0200Z - 118/34 40/6 - - - 158/40 427/172 0300Z 2/4 90/11 25/19 - - - 117/34 544/206 0400Z 51/35 13/12 12/7 - - - 76/54 620/260 0500Z 34/17 18/14 17/18 5/5 - - 74/54 694/314 0600Z 25/5 39/3 8/8 - - - 72/16 766/330 0700Z - 20/6 87/7 20/11 - - 127/24 893/354 0800Z 6/2 1/0 104/1 21/12 --+-- --+-- 132/15 1025/369 0900Z - 3/0 57/9 13/4 - - 73/13 1098/382 1000Z - - 6/0 5/2 - - 11/2 1109/384 5 1100Z - - 5/3 61/10 33/23 - 99/36 1208/420 60 1200Z - - - 8/6 187/22 3/5 198/33 1406/453 1300Z - - - - 172/11 24/24 196/35 1602/488 1400Z - - - - 108/3 101/39 209/42 1811/530 1500Z - - - - 94/8 120/15 214/23 2025/553 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 44/17 115/4 159/21 2184/574 1700Z - - - 112/18 7/8 16/12 135/38 2319/612 1800Z - - - 96/13 14/13 8/10 118/36 2437/648 1900Z - - 1/2 3/3 12/10 9/6 25/21 2462/669 20 2000Z - - 10/0 23/9 6/5 19/5 58/19 2520/688 2100Z - - 45/1 27/4 7/3 13/0 92/8 2612/696 2200Z - 8/1 6/2 46/2 1/2 8/1 69/8 2681/704 2300Z - 34/7 2/3 7/6 11/4 9/4 63/24 2744/728 0000Z --+-- 2/0 48/2 12/3 1/0 --+-- 63/5 2807/733 20 0100Z 1/1 10/1 54/1 4/2 2/1 - 71/6 2878/739 0200Z 2/1 10/3 6/2 3/1 1/0 - 22/7 2900/746 20 0300Z 10/1 23/5 30/0 - - - 63/6 2963/752 0400Z 10/4 4/0 78/1 1/1 - - 93/6 3056/758 0500Z 8/4 4/6 70/0 3/0 - - 85/10 3141/768 0600Z 4/0 69/0 25/1 - - - 98/1 3239/769 0700Z 1/0 37/1 58/0 - - - 96/1 3335/770 0800Z --+-- --+-- 8/0 1/0 --+-- --+-- 9/0 3344/770 52 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 3344/770 60 1000Z 2/1 6/2 11/2 11/1 - - 30/6 3374/776 8 1100Z - - 1/0 104/2 26/4 - 131/6 3505/782 1200Z - - - - 125/0 49/11 174/11 3679/793 1300Z - - - 5/5 7/8 155/3 167/16 3846/809 1400Z - - - 2/0 4/4 142/3 148/7 3994/816 1500Z - - - 6/3 2/1 139/2 147/6 4141/822 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 79/0 67/3 146/3 4287/825 1700Z - - - 35/1 72/2 13/2 120/5 4407/830 1800Z - - - 144/2 7/0 4/0 155/2 4562/832 1900Z - - - 122/1 - 12/3 134/4 4696/836 2000Z - - - 72/0 18/0 8/1 98/1 4794/837 2100Z - - - 62/0 14/1 12/3 88/4 4882/841 2200Z - - 73/0 17/0 15/1 5/3 110/4 4992/845 2300Z - 1/1 53/0 7/0 18/4 - 79/5 5071/850 Total:156/75 526/123 1148/151 1089/168 1099/170 1053/163
Best 60 minutes: 254 starting 25-Nov-2023 14:27
Worked on 6 bands (53):
8P5A 9A1A C37N C6AQQ CN3A CR3A CR3W CR6K D4C DF0HQ DF6QV DK1AX DK1KC DK5TX DL1EFW DP9A DR4A ED1R ED8M EF6T EI7M EW5A HB9CA HG3N HG7T HQ9X II2S IO3F LA8OM LN8W M6T M6W MI5I OM7M OT7T OX7AM P33W PJ2T PJ4K SN7O TI7W TK4W TM1A TM6M TO7A V47T VC7M VO2AC VP5M XM3A YR8D YT5A ZF1A
Most worked entities:
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
DL 18 91 163 156 192 188 808
SP 6 29 54 50 66 50 255
I 5 23 56 61 45 63 253
F 5 20 48 48 41 45 207
UA 1 13 63 40 54 24 195
G 5 19 47 39 32 52 194
OK 6 27 42 32 47 39 193
EA 2 15 45 40 30 43 175
VE 22 28 42 41 17 14 164
PA 1 13 33 30 32 39 148
HA 3 14 41 32 31 26 147
JA 13 76 41 10 140
UR 5 10 37 20 41 25 138
S5 4 12 25 27 20 25 113
SM 2 14 34 19 18 15 102
YO 2 11 30 12 29 15 99