2024 ARRL DX Contest SSB K5ZD
ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2024 Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SOUAB HP QTH: MA Operating Time (hrs): 40.8 OpMode: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 160: 64 40 80: 231 70 40: 446 86 20: 1185 115 15: 1140 113 10: 1493 121 ------------------- Total: 4559 545 Total Score = 7,453,965 <<- Possible new W/VE record Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
My third major contest effort in 4 weeks (WPX RTTY, ARRL CW, ARRL SSB). All fun with top-of-the-cycle conditions, but this one was probably the hardest.
Decent start. Even got a run frequency in the mosh pit on 40 for a while. Low bands were not as good as CW, but good enough. 160 was way down from the weekend before.
I was watching the scoreboard and seeing N5DX and N3RD disappearing into the distance. N3RD was killing it for mults and also had the QSOs.
About 0600z I started to wonder if this was fun. 20m was open. But I could hear K5GN and K5TR running Europe that I could not hear. I decided that 4 hours of sleep might be more useful. It was not a great decision as the competition used that time to put another 300+ QSOs in their logs (mostly on 40). The sleep meant I was in chase mode the rest of the way, but with a better mental attitude.
I woke up to find 20m ready to go. Then quickly to 15 for an hour before making the jump to 10. I never really felt like I was in control Saturday morning.
Always seemed to searching for a good run frequency. Finally ended up above 28.8 and got to have some enjoyable rate.
15m stayed open so late that I didn’t get much time on 20 Sat afternoon.
Managed to wedge in on 40m and ran some more stations. Not fun, but the only way to get some of the multipliers. Then went back up to 10m to find it open to JA and South America. No luck with CQs, but plenty of spots to chase.
That got me to the 24-hour point. The score was good, but I was way behind N3RD. Every year I get to this point and wish these contests were only 24 hours… Took a food break and got back on the radio.
The 0100z hour had a great opening to JA. Even got some to answer my CQs! That was fun.
Decided I should take a short nap while the Europeans were sleeping. Had trouble falling asleep, but no problem waking up when the alarm went off. Jumped around the bands chasing spots and working on the 160 multiplier. Self-spotting definitely helped get attention on 80 and 160.
I had an incredible run on 20m during the 0700z hour. Imagine being on 20m with a clear frequency, no splatter at all, and just having one or two loud Europeans at a time answer CQs. It was a dream. Even so, I knew I need another 90 minute nap so walked away from a pretty good rate (although I think it was slowing down).
I saw N3RD had stopped increasing on the scoreboard around 06z. So all those 20m QSOs enabled me to catch up. 20m was still good when I woke up so I managed to pull at 200 QSO lead. Now it was time for me to be chased. N5DX was 800 QSOs ahead so I made it a goal to not let him get to 1000 ahead. Yeah, that is a weird goal, but whatever works.
The morning was OK. Bands weren’t bad (lots of Russians in the log), but not as great as they were the day before. There is a finite amount of DX activity so you run out of people to work. Even worse when everyone goes to 10m. I felt for the single band guys on 20 and 15. They had no one to work.
Tried to run as much as I could. 20m is best around 1700z while most people are still on 10 and 15m. It was just us an Europe. And some surprise callers from new multipliers.
After a short run on 40m during the 22z hour I was left with nothing to do but chase spots in the last hour.
Other thoughts…
The weather on Friday was great. I played my first golf of the season. The weather on Saturday was rain. All the line noise disappeared. Sunday was warm and windy so line noise was back. And I kept wishing I could go play golf.
Having so many bands open does ease some of the crowding. It was still very hard to find a frequency on 20 and 15, but possible.
Being south was an advantage. You could see it in the range of signal strengths from Europe. Northern Germany was weak and the HB/I stations were very loud.
Many package pileups were won by stations in the middle and south. None of this is a bad thing, just interesting to see how propagation varies year to year and when a disturbance happens. It is disappointing that ARRL permits self-spotting, but I did it and it does help at times.
Congrats to the UK contesters and their new 1000 watt limit. And those new 2×1 calls from Italy were interesting. You never knew who was hiding behind them.
The scoreboard is awesome. Had a blast chasing N3RD and N5DX, watching K1RX coming up, and the incredible score from N6MJ at ND7K. I needed the bands to break on Sunday morning in order to catch him.
Thanks to everyone around the world who chased W/VE stations all weekend. It certainly makes it more fun for us.
Station
2 x Elecraft K3
80: 4-square, dipole
40: 2/2 @110’/70′
20: 5/5 @100’/50′
15: 5/5 @66’/33′
10: 6/4/4 @ 100’/60’/30′
South: C31XR @40′
WriteLog + RigSelect PRO SO2R controller
Rates
QSO/DX by hour and band Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- --+-- 73/28 70/31 --+-- --+-- 143/59 143/59 0100Z - 38/23 4/3 30/12 36/22 19/9 127/69 270/128 0200Z 1/1 34/11 11/10 38/19 10/8 - 94/49 364/177 0300Z 5/3 24/6 15/11 18/8 3/2 - 65/30 429/207 0400Z 10/8 21/12 20/7 10/5 - - 61/32 490/239 0500Z 11/10 15/4 16/7 13/3 - - 55/24 545/263 0600Z 5/4 8/2 6/2 - - - 19/8 564/271 39 0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 564/271 60 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 564/271 60 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 564/271 60 1000Z - 1/1 11/3 129/5 - - 141/9 705/280 5 1100Z - - 1/1 78/2 129/35 - 208/38 913/318 1200Z - - - - 43/11 156/42 199/53 1112/371 1300Z - - - 4/3 21/2 111/25 136/30 1248/401 1400Z - - - - 165/7 10/5 175/12 1423/413 1500Z - - - - 21/2 147/3 168/5 1591/418 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 3/3 125/6 128/9 1719/427 1700Z - - - - 14/1 109/6 123/7 1842/434 1800Z - - - - 56/5 42/1 98/6 1940/440 1900Z - - - - 83/4 26/3 109/7 2049/447 15 2000Z - - - 93/5 29/1 - 122/6 2171/453 2100Z - - 12/1 89/3 - 6/3 107/7 2278/460 2200Z - - 75/6 - 16/1 31/1 122/8 2400/468 2300Z - - - 10/1 14/0 44/4 68/5 2468/473 0000Z --+-- 9/1 4/1 3/2 32/2 2/0 50/6 2518/479 24 0100Z - 3/1 2/0 8/0 63/0 - 76/1 2594/480 0200Z 1/1 19/3 6/0 - - - 26/4 2620/484 44 0300Z 3/2 - - - - - 3/2 2623/486 57 0400Z 12/8 5/2 9/0 15/0 - - 41/10 2664/496 0500Z 15/3 28/1 39/0 4/1 - - 86/5 2750/501 0600Z 1/0 9/0 65/3 15/3 - - 90/6 2840/507 0700Z - 4/1 18/1 137/2 - - 159/4 2999/511 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 78/0 --+-- --+-- 78/0 3077/511 30 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 3077/511 60 1000Z - 1/1 1/0 123/1 - - 125/2 3202/513 10 1100Z - - 2/0 12/0 125/2 1/0 140/2 3342/515 1200Z - - - 5/1 2/0 177/4 184/5 3526/520 1300Z - - - - 9/1 135/4 144/5 3670/525 1400Z - - - - 12/1 111/1 123/2 3793/527 1500Z - - - - 24/0 81/2 105/2 3898/529 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 82/1 27/1 109/2 4007/531 1700Z - - - 28/3 65/2 17/0 110/5 4117/536 1800Z - - - - 28/0 56/0 84/0 4201/536 1900Z - - - 57/1 29/0 9/1 95/2 4296/538 2000Z - - - 64/2 - 16/0 80/2 4376/540 2100Z - - - 35/1 10/0 18/0 63/1 4439/541 10 2200Z - 8/1 55/2 2/0 4/0 - 69/3 4508/544 2300Z - 4/0 1/0 17/1 12/0 17/0 51/1 4559/545 Total: 64/40 231/70 446/86 1185/115 1140/113 1493/121
Best 60 minutes: 222 starting 02-Mar-2024 11:20
Worked on 6 bands (50):
8P5A 9A1A 9A3XV 9A5Y CN3A CQ8M CR6K DF8XC DM7XX DR4A DR4W E7DX EB5A ED8M ED8W EI7M EI9E EW5A G4PVM HA3DX II2S IO5O IO6T J62K LY4A LZ9W MW4R NP4Z OK5Z OK6Y OM2VL OM7M P40L PA4VHF PJ2T PJ4G RL3A RW7K SP8R T42T TM6M TO3Z TO5M UA2FZ UW5Y V31XX V3O VP5M WP3C ZF1A
Most worked entities
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
DL 10 27 41 129 124 157 488
I 3 15 48 155 119 121 461
G 2 9 15 68 56 141 291
F 1 17 33 69 41 78 239
PA 2 6 18 71 43 86 226
SP 1 12 22 57 54 56 202
EA 1 11 17 51 43 66 189
UA 2 6 13 37 54 62 174
JA 8 19 98 47 172