2021 CQ WW Contest CW K5ZD
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021 Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SO(A)AB HP QTH: MA Operating Time (hrs): 41.8 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 124 16 58 80: 564 25 87 40: 1323 32 112 20: 1426 32 113 15: 1115 29 115 10: 77 19 38 ------------------------------ Total: 4629 153 523 Total Score = 9,082,736 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Another amazing CQ WW CW! So much activity from so many interesting places.
In the days leading up to the contest, I was not sure which category I wanted to enter. I considered SO, and SOA, even QRP. In the end, I decided that having fun was the most important so Single Op All Band Assisted was the way to go.
The bands did not sound good at the start. I actually began the contest doing S&P on 80m, then on 40m. I finally landed on 3535 as a run frequency while making second radio QSOs on 40.
I got to 160 at the end of the second hour and found plenty of European signals. As usual, they were mostly working each other, but I got lucky with a few. At 0230 I finally made my first QSOs on 20 – with South Americans – before returning to 80m.
I just kept cycling through the bands. Trying to call CQ as much as possible while also chasing multipliers that were spotted. 160 continued to provide QSOs. I heard the other single ops CQing on 80 and figured I was probably losing out, but just didn’t seem to be able to get much going there. Besides, the goal was to have fun and working mults was fun!
The 05z hour was great on 40m working Europeans. This continued until about 0630z when the rate really slowed down. I managed to stay in the chair until 0840z when I decided it was now or never for grabbing some sleep. I have learned that taking a 90-minute nap during these slow pre-sunrise hours pays off during the high rate times as the high bands are opening.
I came back on a little earlier than I had intended at 1035z. 40m was still open to northern Europe! Worked two JAs on 80 ( a rare treat)! Got to 20m around 1100z and it was open, but not great. Tuned up the band calling stations for 20 minutes until I found a hole at 14037. Then it was off to the races! The pileup was incredible. I barely had time to chase a few multiplier spots on the second radio.
20 just kept going deeper and deeper with European and Asiatic Russians calling in. It really helps the scores when we get access to all the Russian activity.
I was able to squeeze in some second radio QSOs and mults on 15 meters during the 12 and 13 Zulu hours. This is where the second radio really pays off because I could know the band was open, but not quite enough to abandon 20. I finally made the jump at 1334z and enjoyed another great pileup. I tried a few minutes of CQing on both 20 and 15, but the pileups were too much (and my skills too limited) to pull it off.
The rate was so good, and there were so many mults on 20, that I didn’t even think of listening to 10m until 1449z where I heard CR6K and some other southern Europeans. It wasn’t great, but spent some time with the second radio since I wasn’t sure 10 would open again on Sunday. In the meantime, 15m just kept producing QSOs.
I finally got back to running on 20m around 1719z. Lots of Europeans went in the log while I also chased cluster spots on 15m.
By 19z I was worn out and hungry. Took a break to grab some food and stretch my legs. On returning, I tried a few CQs on 40 meters and was rewarded with a nice run of Europeans. This is a great time to be a W1 as we seem to have the band to ourselves while the rest of the USA is still on the higher bands.
By 2120z I hit my usual dilemma of having 20 and 40 on the same mast and rotator. Do I stay with 40m to Europe, or turn the beam toward Japan and go to 20. Again, with fun in mind, I took the choice to go to 20 and see what kind of Asian QSOs I could find. With the low beam to Europe and the top antenna to Japan, it resulted in a nice mix of QSOs. Plus the odd VK/ZL on LP calling in.
By 2300z things had slowed down and I was back to 40m. That didn’t produce so was forced down to 80. The contest halfway mark is always a low point. The rate slows down, you are tired, and you face the realization that there are still 24 more hours to go! Ugh. Time for some dinner.
The rates are slow and packet spots are starting to get a bit unruly. I decided some sleep would be good so took a nap during the 03z hour. It costs a few QSOs, but is well worth it in the mental health department. I came back on at 0400z and chased what I could find on the low bands.
I like to watch the contestonlinescores.com scoreboard during the contest. It has a mode where you can mix the SO and SOA scores together. Gives me more people to chase. I selected K1ZZ as the guy I wanted to use as my standard. I could see I was doing well, but not sure it was enough to win. Back to focusing on fun! Luckily, 80 and 40m kept producing some rate. 40m was amazingly good with Russians calling in well after their sunrise (sometimes 2.5-3 hours after). After a long run on 7022, I finally called it quits at 0745z to get some sleep.
Back on at 1105z my first contact was LA1MFA on 80m. Whoa. That was followed by VR2KW on 40m long path. He seemed to be the only one that could hear me in that direction. Then found ZM4T on 160. Great ears on his end. Those 3 QSOs are the way to wake up and get back in the game!
20m seemed a bit slower to open than it had on Saturday. Got a good run going around 1130z. Lots of Russians again. Second radio mult chasing on 15m during the 12z hour. I often like to stay on 20 a bit longer Sunday morning. Gives a chance to work more deep Russians while the QRM is down with most of Western Eu headed to 15m. I made the jump to run on 15m at 1303z. Big pileup!
10 meters opened earlier and better on Sunday morning. No rate, but different big guns from each country would show up and go in the log. All while still running on 15m. This continued until 1550z when I made the jump back down to 20m. The rate was excellent and gave me some time to “relax” a bit. <F1>, type call, <insert>, <+>. Repeat.
Around 1800z 20m started to lose its mojo. Band was open, but you run out of people to work. This provided lots of time to engage in some hard-core cluster pileups on Africans, South Americans, and the Caribbean. It’s like being locked in a cage match with the same dozen hyper-aggressive guys pileup after pileup.
After grinding it out for a few hours, it was time for one last push on 40m. The band produced more QSOs than expected and I was able to run almost to the end of the contest. One of the things I like about using the cluster is seeing JW7QIA spotted on 160m at 2300z and being able to work him! Then a few minutes later GM3POI for another 160 mult.
It is always fun to race to the end of the contest and see what the final score will be. My goal in the morning had been to get to 8 million. I then raised that to 8.5, By the end, I was pushing to see if I could clear the 9 million mark. And I did it! Amazing how quickly you forget all the pain and suffering of the early morning hours when you reach the end of the contest.
The CQWW is always an amazing experience. The activity levels and variety of DX are unmatched. Thanks to all that traveled to activate countries and improve all of our scores.
See you next year!
Recording
Audio recordings of the full operation are available here.
Station
K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 40-2CD @110′
20m: 205CA @100′/50′
15m: 155ca @66′/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 90’/60’/30′
WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box
Rate Sheet
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off 0000Z --+-- 81/42 38/34 --+-- --+-- --+-- 119/76 119/76 0100Z 10/13 36/13 55/35 - - - 101/61 220/137 0200Z 19/13 46/1 14/5 7/8 - - 86/27 306/164 0300Z 27/16 46/11 29/8 - - - 102/35 408/199 0400Z 17/8 21/10 54/10 - - - 92/28 500/227 0500Z 14/6 8/2 111/5 - - - 133/13 633/240 0600Z 4/3 22/8 73/9 - - - 99/20 732/260 0700Z 2/0 51/4 30/10 3/6 - - 86/20 818/280 0800Z 1/1 12/5 8/4 --+-- --+-- --+-- 21/10 839/290 18 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 839/290 60 1000Z - 8/4 15/2 - - - 23/6 862/296 36 1100Z - 3/1 2/2 155/39 - - 160/42 1022/338 1200Z - - - 182/9 17/23 - 199/32 1221/370 1300Z - - - 96/4 109/32 - 205/36 1426/406 1400Z - - - 13/14 175/5 4/8 192/27 1618/433 1500Z - - - 5/3 158/8 9/11 172/22 1790/455 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 13/7 84/27 18/11 115/45 1905/500 1700Z - - - 135/7 26/7 1/1 162/15 2067/515 1800Z - - - 49/3 19/11 - 68/14 2135/529 25 1900Z - - 3/2 22/15 5/4 5/6 35/27 2170/556 12 2000Z - - 98/2 6/3 10/5 - 114/10 2284/566 2100Z - - 18/2 39/9 9/3 - 66/14 2350/580 2200Z - - 8/2 39/5 4/0 - 51/7 2401/587 2300Z - 31/0 35/4 - - - 66/4 2467/591 0000Z 2/1 7/5 --+-- 1/1 --+-- --+-- 10/7 2477/598 30 0100Z 6/2 31/2 25/4 - - - 62/8 2539/606 0200Z 9/4 1/1 69/1 - - - 79/6 2618/612 3 0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 2618/612 60 0400Z - 75/2 18/0 - - - 93/2 2711/614 2 0500Z 6/0 40/0 80/0 - - - 126/0 2837/614 0600Z 1/1 9/0 131/0 - - - 141/1 2978/615 0700Z 3/2 8/1 51/0 - - - 62/3 3040/618 13 0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 3040/618 60 0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 3040/618 60 1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 3040/618 60 1100Z 1/2 1/0 2/2 111/0 - - 115/4 3155/622 5 1200Z - - - 170/0 17/2 - 187/2 3342/624 1300Z - - - 11/4 176/3 5/4 192/11 3534/635 1400Z - - - 6/4 153/4 10/5 169/13 3703/648 1500Z - - - 34/0 112/1 10/3 156/4 3859/652 1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 159/0 3/2 3/2 165/4 4024/656 1700Z - - - 75/1 9/4 6/2 90/7 4114/663 1800Z - - - 24/0 6/0 - 30/0 4144/663 34 1900Z - - - 47/0 7/0 4/2 58/2 4202/665 2000Z - - 87/0 8/1 6/0 - 101/1 4303/666 2100Z - - 105/0 1/0 10/3 2/2 118/5 4421/671 2200Z - - 73/0 14/1 - - 87/1 4508/672 2300Z 2/2 27/0 91/1 1/1 - - 121/4 4629/676 Total:124/74 564/112 1323/144 1426/145 1115/144 77/57
Best 60 minutes: 216 @ 27-Nov-2021 13:11 to 14:11
Worked on 6 bands (16 stations):
3B8M CR3W CR6K EA5RS EA6FO FY5KE M6T NP4Z P44W PJ2T PJ4A PJ4K TI7W TK0C TO7A XE2X
Worked on 5 bands (42 stations):
9G5FI CR3DX DH0GHU DR4A E7DX EA8RM ED7R ES9C EW5A F5FDC F6KOP G4BUO HA5PP HG6N HQ9X II9P IO3F KH7M LA8OM LN8W LT1F LZ9W NH7T OH0V OL3Z OQ5M PT4A PZ5CO RT4F RU1A SK3W TM2Y TM3R TM6M UF5D UT4U V26K VA2UR VE2IM VE6SV VP9I ZF1A
Most Worked Entities
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total DL 6 76 202 220 182 686 UA 4 36 109 133 34 316 I 1 26 85 90 65 267 G 4 16 45 55 83 2 205 SP 5 30 59 60 45 199 PA 2 16 48 70 60 1 197 F 2 18 47 54 56 6 183 UR 4 18 64 56 38 180 EA 1 12 45 60 38 9 165 OK 3 26 48 50 35 162 VE 20 35 39 29 17 2 142 HA 2 17 41 32 30 1 123