2017 CQ WPX RTTY AK1W (K5ZD)
CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest Call: AK1W Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: SOAB HP QTH: W1 Operating Time (hrs): 30 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 80: 365 40: 826 20: 756 15: 490 10: 0 ------------ Total: 2437 Prefixes = 872 Total Score = 6,607,144 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
I needed some contest therapy to escape the snow storms and work stress. Planned to do about 20 hours, but got hooked watching the online scoreboard and chasing AA3B all weekend.
Several hours into the contest, the active radio was locked in transmit. Had to reboot the computer to clear the problem. This happened every 90 minutes or so until 18z Sat when I finally figured it out. Was costing me about 10 minutes each outage as I tried to unplug things in case it was RF. Finally I figured out that it was the footswitch that was plugged into the YCCC SO2R box!
Unplugged that and all the problems went away.
I missed an hour of operating time in the first evening. Plus enough frustration that I stopped to watch TV for awhile. By then AA3B was way ahead, but half of the fun of the scoreboard is to see if I could make up some ground. Tough in WPX with the exponential score increase due to mults!
I noticed that Bud had jumped way ahead of me on mults. About 20z Sat, I realized that WPX RTTY allowed single ops to use the cluster. Turned it on and enjoyed seeing the RTTY RBN spots go scrolling by. Couldn’t make up the gap, but it was fun to have another element in the mix in addition to running two radios.
Best DX QSO was having a JA call me on 40m.
Never heard a signal on 10m (only listened once).
RTTY is a great test of the station. Discovered that my 20m stack switchbox up on the tower has a relay problem.
30 hours of op time is just right. Slept 4-5 hours each night. Took a walk both days. Took my family out to dinner on Sat. Didn’t try to manage my off times to any strategy, but was good to see Bud and I were off about the same hours.
Almost quit with an hour to go due to snow static. 40m was in great condition, but the snow static was S9+10. Wanted to get to the full 30 hours so kept grinding it out.
Thanks to everyone who got in the log. RTTY operating just keeps getting better and better. Less guys who feel the need to send their call or exchange
20 times.
Station:
Station 1 Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA
Station 2 Elecraft K3 + Ameritron AL-1500 Logging software WriteLog by W5XD HamPlus AS-82 for antenna selection
Tower 1 100? Rohn 45G
Cushcraft 40-2CD at 110?
Hygain 205CA at 100’/50? in upper/lower/both stack Hygain 155CA at 66’/33? in upper/lower/both stack
Tower 2 90? Rohn 25G
10m 5/5/5 @ 90’/60’/30? (only used the top antenna) 80m wire 4 square hanging from ropes off tower Tower
Tower 3 38? Rohn 25G
Hygain TH7DXX at 40? rotary
Rates:
QSO/Pref by hour and band
Hour 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off D1-0000Z --+-- 30/26 53/42 --+-- --+-- 83/68 83/68 D1-0100Z - 52/39 39/23 - - 91/62 174/130 D1-0200Z 23/15 65/39 8/4 - - 96/58 270/188 D1-0300Z 47/19 60/28 - - - 107/47 377/235 D1-0400Z 1/0 1/0 - - - 2/0 379/235 59 D1-0500Z 36/21 37/24 - - - 73/45 452/280 18 D1-0600Z 38/19 46/16 - - - 84/35 536/315 D1-0700Z 25/13 28/14 - - - 53/27 589/342 D1-0800Z 5/2 14/5 --+-- --+-- --+-- 19/7 608/349 45 D1-0900Z - - - - - 0/0 608/349 60 D1-1000Z - - - - - 0/0 608/349 60 D1-1100Z - - - - - 0/0 608/349 60 D1-1200Z 6/3 19/4 5/5 - - 30/12 638/361 41 D1-1300Z - 12/3 58/33 15/4 - 85/40 723/401 D1-1400Z - - 59/24 69/33 - 128/57 851/458 D1-1500Z - - 36/12 76/27 - 112/39 963/497 D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- 47/11 52/14 --+-- 99/25 1062/522 D1-1700Z - - 75/23 21/6 - 96/29 1158/551 D1-1800Z - - 35/10 11/5 - 46/15 1204/566 21 D1-1900Z - - - - - 0/0 1204/566 60 D1-2000Z - - - - - 0/0 1204/566 60 D1-2100Z - - 25/9 16/6 - 41/15 1245/581 10 D1-2200Z - 11/2 36/18 4/2 - 51/22 1296/603 D1-2300Z - 51/21 9/7 - - 60/28 1356/631 D2-0000Z 8/1 69/18 6/3 --+-- --+-- 83/22 1439/653 D2-0100Z - 21/3 - - - 21/3 1460/656 48 D2-0200Z - - - - - 0/0 1460/656 60 D2-0300Z 3/1 10/2 - - - 13/3 1473/659 50 D2-0400Z 49/10 61/19 - - - 110/29 1583/688 D2-0500Z 50/8 21/6 - - - 71/14 1654/702 D2-0600Z 29/3 23/7 - - - 52/10 1706/712 D2-0700Z 13/2 8/2 - - - 21/4 1727/716 33 D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1727/716 60 D2-0900Z - - - - - 0/0 1727/716 60 D2-1000Z - - - - - 0/0 1727/716 60 D2-1100Z 7/1 10/3 - - - 17/4 1744/720 43 D2-1200Z 4/2 47/6 34/12 - - 85/20 1829/740 D2-1300Z - 15/2 41/12 52/14 - 108/28 1937/768 D2-1400Z - - 40/10 64/11 - 104/21 2041/789 D2-1500Z - - 14/6 73/14 - 87/20 2128/809 D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- 29/6 18/4 --+-- 47/10 2175/819 24 D2-1700Z - - - - - 0/0 2175/819 60 D2-1800Z - - 26/4 10/4 - 36/8 2211/827 36 D2-1900Z - - 31/3 5/2 - 36/5 2247/832 2 D2-2000Z - - 3/1 4/4 - 7/5 2254/837 60 D2-2100Z - 56/10 29/4 - - 85/14 2339/851 D2-2200Z 2/0 19/1 18/8 - - 39/9 2378/860 D2-2300Z 19/3 40/9 - - - 59/12 2437/872 Total: 365/123 826/309 756/290 490/150 0/0
Best 60 mins: 132 QSOs @ 11-Feb-2017 13:57-14:57
Most worked countries:
80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
K 216 425 253 34 928
DL 34 51 68 115 268
I 5 43 46 38 132
EA 6 27 30 22 85
G 4 16 22 28 70
SP 10 15 13 28 66
VE 19 17 16 3 55
28 stations worked on 4 bands
9A1A CR3A DH0GHU DJ6TK DK0EE DK1IP DL1DTL DL1DVO DL6NDW DL70DSH DP7D DP9A HF9M HG17EYOF K7TQ KB1EFS LX7I LY2W M0P N1FF NO6F P49X S51A S55W SZ1A UV5U WK7S YL4U