2021 ARRL DX Contest SSB K5ZD

                ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2021
 Call: K5ZD
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Station: K5ZD
 Class: SO Unlimited HP
 Operating Time (hrs): 24
 Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Mults
 160:     35    25
  80:    181    59
  40:    297    80
  20:   1513   106
  15:    143    42
  10:     26     3
 Total: 2195   315  Total Score = 2,074,275

 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

One year ago I was in V4 for this contest.  What a year it has been since!

This was a just for fun effort.  Started late.  Watched some TV. Chased cluster pileups. Only used one radio.

Got on Sat morning and found 20m just opening around 1015z.  By 1030 it was off to the races.  Three consecutive hours over 200/hour!!  Wow.

Started scoreboard watching and it was quite the race between AA3B, K1KI, N3RD, and AA1K. I would go away, see they had pushed ahead, and then I would chase. Provided some motivation to keep plugging away.

Chased spots when I wasn’t trying to run.  Missed a few mults I might have gotten if I had the second rig on.

Only a few skew path Europe on 15m.  It was not good.  That left everyone on 20m shoulder to shoulder.

40m was weird.  Never heard it really open until the last 2 hours.  But, I did miss the pre-darkness hours on Saturday. I may have been avoiding it because the beam is intermittent on receive.  Got really annoying at times.  It does improve the longer RF is injected, but takes longer to clear the intermittent on SSB than CW or RTTY.  Definitely a project for this summer!

75m and 160m weren’t bad, but there just didn’t seem to be much activity.  I.e., lots of unanswered CQs.

In a way, it was nice not having all the big multi-ops.  Made it more possible to find a frequency – especially on 20 and 40.  We definitely miss the expeditions…

Best DX was VK6APZ on 75m LP Sunday evening.  Thanks to K1RX for the spot.  Also good to have UA9BA call in on 40m during the last hour for a new mult. Was also cool to have 3 YB and an HS call in on 20m in the morning.

Spent a lot of time in cluster pileups this weekend listening to whatever DX station it was essentially reading (working) the FRC and PVRC rosters while I waited my turn.

Thanks to all the DX stations that got on the air and gave us contacts – even dealing with some gnarly pileups to do so.

Special thanks to VA2WA and contestonlinescore.com for making the game much more fun.

Station

 K3 + AL-1200
 80m: 4 square, dipole
 40m: 40-2CD @110′
 20m: 205CA @100′
 15m: 155ca @66′
 10m: 6-ele @90′
 TH7DXX @ 40′
 WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box 

Rate Sheet

QSO/DX by hour and band
 Hour     160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime
 D1-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   22/9     6/1    --+--   28/10     28/10     35
 D1-0100Z   2/2    26/20   52/29    3/0      -       -     83/51    111/61 
 D1-0200Z   1/1    14/6    13/6      -       -       -     28/13    139/74     31
 D1-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     139/74     60
 D1-0400Z   8/7      -       -       -       -       -      8/7     147/81     52
 D1-0500Z   8/5    26/11    4/2      -       -       -     38/18    185/99  
 D1-0600Z   3/2    29/4    11/6      -       -       -     43/12    228/111    18
 D1-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     228/111    60
 D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     228/111    60
 D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     228/111    60
 D1-1000Z    -      2/1     3/2    63/16     -       -     68/19    296/130    24
 D1-1100Z    -       -       -    207/20     -       -    207/20    503/150 
 D1-1200Z    -       -       -    220/14     -       -    220/14    723/164 
 D1-1300Z    -       -       -    221/8      -       -    221/8     944/172 
 D1-1400Z    -       -       -     50/9    20/14     -     70/23   1014/195 
 D1-1500Z    -       -       -      1/1     2/2      -      3/3    1017/198    56
 D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   30/0    26/14    3/2    59/16   1076/214     4
 D1-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1076/214    60
 D1-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1076/214    60
 D1-1900Z    -       -     17/3    18/5    27/3      -     62/11   1138/225    16
 D1-2000Z    -       -     12/2    27/10     -      6/1    45/13   1183/238    13
 D1-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1183/238    60
 D1-2200Z    -       -       -     16/5    11/2      -     27/7    1210/245    38
 D1-2300Z    -       -     14/2    10/1     5/0      -     29/3    1239/248    35
 D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   15/3    --+--   --+--   --+--   15/3    1254/251    47
 D2-0100Z    -     19/1    13/3     2/1      -       -     34/5    1288/256    28
 D2-0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1288/256    60
 D2-0300Z   3/3    15/6    16/5      -       -       -     34/14   1322/270     6
 D2-0400Z   5/1    20/5     3/1      -       -       -     28/7    1350/277 
 D2-0500Z   5/4     3/0      -       -       -       -      8/4    1358/281    35
 D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-1000Z    -       -      7/2    23/0      -       -     30/2    1388/283    22
 D2-1100Z    -       -       -    159/2      -       -    159/2    1547/285 
 D2-1200Z    -       -       -    123/1      -       -    123/1    1670/286 
 D2-1300Z    -       -       -    104/2      -       -    104/2    1774/288 
 D2-1400Z    -       -       -     27/0     4/1      -     31/1    1805/289    34
 D2-1500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1805/289    60
 D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    4/1     3/1    --+--    7/2    1812/291    53
 D2-1700Z    -       -       -     74/0      -       -     74/0    1886/291 
 D2-1800Z    -       -       -     32/0    16/1    16/0    64/1    1950/292 
 D2-1900Z    -       -       -      9/1    16/2     1/0    26/3    1976/295 
 D2-2000Z    -       -      6/1    31/0     7/1      -     44/2    2020/297     8
 D2-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2020/297    60
 D2-2200Z    -      1/1    51/6    28/0      -       -     80/7    2100/304    10
 D2-2300Z    -     26/4    60/7     9/0      -       -     95/11   2195/315 
 Total:    35/25  181/59  297/80 1513/106 143/42   26/3  

Best 60 mins: 228 @ 06-Mar-2021 11:41

Worked on 6 bands: NONE!

Worked on 5 bands: CQ8M ED8W FM5BH HH2AA II9P IR6T J68HZ NP4DX PJ2T V31MA WP3R ZF1A ZF5T ZW5B

Most worked countries

      160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total  
I        3     11     35    215      3            267
DL       1     26     22    134                   183
G        1      6     14    133                   154
F              13     16     91                   120
PY              3     12     31     52     20     118
EA       3      8     12     83      1            107
PA              2      7     98                   107

Great to see so much activity from South America!