2024 CQ WPX RTTY Contest AK1W
CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2024 Call: AK1W Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SOAB LP QTH: W1 Operating Time (hrs): 24.1 OpMode: 2BSIQ Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 80: 200 40: 398 20: 389 15: 602 10: 486 ------------ Total: 2075 Prefixes = 826 Total Score = 5,029,514 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
I was not planning to make a real effort in this contest. I wanted to save my BIC time for next weekend in ARRL CW (a WRTC qualifying event). Since I blew up an amp in CQ WW RTTY last fall, I thought it might be good just to do low power. That would also keep me from operating too much.
Started the contest 15 minutes late. Was CQing on 40 while trying to work the other bands. It did not start out great but was having fun. Hard not to have fun when you combine contesting, DX, and some great sunspot numbers. 40 was great all evening. Even 80 had louEUEu signals. But, I couldn’t stay awake and decided sleep was more valuable.
Woke up before the alarm on Saturday morning so got on the air. I was messing around on 20m and when I went to 15m (well before sunrise) it was already hopping. Great rates doing 2 bands on Saturday morning.
The weather on Saturday was great outside. Hated to spend it on the radio. Ran some errands, then got back on. Ran some new hardline out to the tower, then got back on. Went for my daily walk, then got back on. Watched a movie, then got back on.
Sunday conditions seemed slightly less good and the rates were down. While activity was good, it wasn’t infinite. I took some more breaks to do stuff. Then ended early to set up for Super Bowl watching.
Never imagined the score could get over 5 million. Amazing how points start to accelerate as the mult total grows.
Low power was way more fun than I expected. Didn’t seem to have much trouble being heard (except for polar paths to Japan and UA9/0).
Did an experiment by turning off the AGC on the K3. Tough on the ears at times, but it sure improved the copying of stations. The combination of Writelog along with 2 Tone and MMTTY was a winner. Almost always one of the two decoders would be clean copy.
The level of operating proficiency was the best ever. Calling stations sent their call the right amount of times. The exchanges were snappy. People seemed to be copying the numbers well. Really added to the fun! Running on 2 bands is like a fast paced video game as you switch focus back and forth.
Thanks to everyone who handed out QSOs. Gotta enjoy these high sunspot years!
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′
By Continent
80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
NA 133 207 123 150 70 683 32.9
EU 66 179 252 419 375 1291 62.2
SA 0 2 6 20 25 53 2.6
AS 0 3 3 8 6 20 1.0
AF 1 3 2 5 7 18 0.9
OC 0 4 3 0 3 10 0.5
Hourly Rates
QSO/Pref by hour and band Hour 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm OffTime D1-0000Z --+-- 34/33 1/1 13/12 7/7 55/53 55/53 15 D1-0100Z - 63/49 46/33 - - 109/82 164/135 D1-0200Z 35/18 36/24 5/5 3/3 - 79/50 243/185 D1-0300Z 30/15 47/31 3/3 - - 80/49 323/234 D1-0400Z 5/3 26/15 8/5 - - 39/23 362/257 32 D1-0500Z - - - - - 0/0 362/257 60 D1-0600Z - - - - - 0/0 362/257 60 D1-0700Z - - - - - 0/0 362/257 60 D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 362/257 60 D1-0900Z - - - - - 0/0 362/257 60 D1-1000Z 3/2 4/1 1/1 - - 8/4 370/261 52 D1-1100Z - 1/0 41/23 62/44 - 104/67 474/328 D1-1200Z - - - 55/33 86/48 141/81 615/409 D1-1300Z - - - 39/15 56/20 95/35 710/444 D1-1400Z - - - 39/9 49/17 88/26 798/470 D1-1500Z - - - 29/9 29/9 58/18 856/488 25 D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 856/488 60 D1-1700Z - - - 3/0 1/1 4/1 860/489 55 D1-1800Z - - 29/6 40/15 29/10 98/31 958/520 D1-1900Z - - 51/13 28/11 - 79/24 1037/544 6 D1-2000Z - - - - - 0/0 1037/544 60 D1-2100Z - - 30/9 31/12 - 61/21 1098/565 14 D1-2200Z - - - - - 0/0 1098/565 60 D1-2300Z - 7/2 10/4 26/9 5/3 48/18 1146/583 12 D2-0000Z 1/1 33/10 --+-- 8/4 --+-- 42/15 1188/598 36 D2-0100Z - - - - - 0/0 1188/598 60 D2-0200Z 12/3 6/0 - - - 18/3 1206/601 45 D2-0300Z 45/10 23/4 6/2 - - 74/16 1280/617 D2-0400Z 33/8 46/11 - - - 79/19 1359/636 D2-0500Z 24/7 45/11 - - - 69/18 1428/654 D2-0600Z - - - - - 0/0 1428/654 60 D2-0700Z - - - - - 0/0 1428/654 60 D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1428/654 60 D2-0900Z - - - - - 0/0 1428/654 60 D2-1000Z - - - - - 0/0 1428/654 60 D2-1100Z 12/3 21/4 21/7 16/4 - 70/18 1498/672 5 D2-1200Z - - 40/16 44/15 15/3 99/34 1597/706 D2-1300Z - - - 42/11 61/12 103/23 1700/729 D2-1400Z - - - 29/10 52/14 81/24 1781/753 D2-1500Z - - - 26/8 27/8 53/16 1834/769 16 D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1834/769 60 D2-1700Z - - 3/1 27/6 27/14 57/21 1891/790 19 D2-1800Z - - 53/4 15/1 19/4 87/9 1978/799 D2-1900Z - - 26/2 12/3 10/1 48/6 2026/805 20 D2-2000Z - - - 2/2 1/0 3/2 2029/807 60 D2-2100Z - 6/4 15/3 13/4 12/8 46/19 2075/826 Total: 200/70 398/199 389/138 602/240 486/179
Best 60 minutes: 144 starting at 10-Feb-2024 11:55
Worked on 5 bands:
9A1A 9A5Y CR3DX CR6K DB100FK DP6A DP7D OH5Z WQ5OO
Most worked entities:
80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
K 123 187 111 124 52 597
DL 20 35 26 82 66 229
I 7 22 34 38 40 141
G 1 8 17 27 22 75
SP 4 8 16 16 23 67
UR 2 10 10 28 13 63
EA 1 5 22 18 11 57
F 3 8 10 17 18 56
UA 6 4 20 25 55