Author: K5ZD

                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2025
 
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
 
Class: SOUAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 35
OpMode: SO2R
 
Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   59    40
   80:  193    63
   40:  349    83
   20:  907   104
   15: 1017   108
   10: 1312   120
-------------------
Total: 3837   518  Total Score = 5,962,698
 
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

My first contest from this location was in ARRL DX Phone 1993.  I had owned the house for 3 days and put a Hygain 18AVT all band vertical on the chain link fence.  I went to Dayton in May later that year and returned to walk the property and decide where the antennas would go.  Had two towers and a competitive station by CQ WW SSB in October.  Have exceeded every contesting expectation I ever had in the 32 years since.  It has been a good run. Nice to end on a weekend that had a little bit of everything.

Trying to win a contest is hard work.  Enjoying one is fun.  I used the cluster and decided to do whatever felt like fun all weekend. No pressure.

Started on 10m calling stations and then worked my way down the bands. 40m is always tough so just worked the big guys.  Signals on 75m were fantastically loud.  Felt like a sunspot low. Even 160 was quiet and produced some Europeans, including a short run in the 05z hour that produced many multipliers.

Things started to get quiet around 07z (2 am) so I decided on a sleep break. Back on at 10z (5 am) and 20m was just waking up.  Always fun to hear the band come to life.  Best was getting 14163 and was off to the races at 1025z. Made the jump to 15m at 1123z and the rate exploded! We are so lucky in New England to get first dibs on the bands.

I wasn’t sure about 10m, but there were lots of signals, so I threw out a CQ at 1214z.  Boom.  Another big hour, but not the rock-crushing signals there were on 15m. Rates were good, but I had time to listen on 20m. It was wide open to Asia. I chased spots on 20 and then chased more spots on 15m.  Then I lost focus and fell into DXer mode.  Could not get a good run going on 10 or 15 so just kept chasing spots.

Things slowed a bit so I decided to run to McDonalds for breakfast and take the recycling to the dump, then a quick stop at the grocery store. That was a 50-minute off time. But, the mental break was helpful.

Was able to generate some good runs on 10 and 15 over the next 3 hours. Went to 20m early around 1830z.  This is always a good time get some 20m QSOs without all the QRM, but it probably wasn’t the rate that staying on 10m would have delivered.

The weather looked nice outside so took a break to get in a 4-mile walk. Nothing wakes up the mind like some exercise in 50 degree weather.  Was worth the almost 2-hour break, but it enabled K1LZ to get way ahead of me.

Spent the rest of the day bouncing around the bands working whatever I could. The big difference between CW and SSB is that this would be prime time on 40m. But, it is impossible to get any rate out of 40m phone.  Not much room and too many loud signals.  Tried CQing above 7200 and listening below 7100.  Had some luck, but not enough to stay at it.

Found conditions on 15m to be very good to Japan (the bands were clearly improving).  I did get a small JA run, which is always a pleasant surprise.  One disadvantage of having a 5 in your call instead of a 1 is the JAs don’t get as excited…

Chased mults until 0030z.  Decided to do what I did on CW and catch some sleep. Took a 3-hour break and woke up to find things pretty quiet.  The low bands were not good at all the second night (no doubt due to the increasing MUFs).

At 07z I shut it down again for another sleep break.  I was just about to fall asleep when I heard something from the headphones (I had forgotten to turn down the volume). I got up and saw there were a couple of multipliers on the cluster so I had to chase those…

Back on at 10z. Worked a few mults on 40 and then established a run on 20m at 1015z. Almost a carbon copy of the first day.  I love that first 30 minutes when there are lots of stations calling and no QRM.  The jump to 15m was at 1115z. (Local sunrise is 1112z)

Lucked into a great frequency on 10m.  Had one of those amazing 45-minute periods where there was no QRM and I could hear all the way to the noise floor. Then a very very loud RW1F fired up 2 Khz below me and the splatter made it hard to hear the weak guys.  This was the first of many instances on Sunday where I would get a spot, and then have the frequency trashed by a loud and wide European.  There really is no way to fight back when using a K3. Asymmetrical warfare by the wide guys.

I started scoreboard watching and that kept me grinding away for Sunday.  Was trying to keep up with the QSO rate K1LZ was doing and also stay ahead of AA3B. Anything to keep the mind occupied and the motivation up.

At 20z I took a break to get in another 4-mile walk.  It was 30 degrees colder on Sunday than it had been on Saturday! Came back on for the last 2-1/2 hours and called CQ into the splatter on 20m and chased spots.

At 23z I found a very loud YE9BJM on 10m.  He was soooo loud but didn’t seem to work anything but stations in PA and NJ.  I wasted 10 minutes with no result. As I worked my way up the band I noticed the JAs were very loud.  Decided to call CQ around 28560 for the last 20 minutes and was rewarded with some responses from JA, HL, BY, and a YB!  This is one place where self-spotting helped attract attention.

Self-spotting is of benefit.  I didn’t do it a lot, but it was always a good way to announce the presence on a new run frequency.  It probably helped me on 160 and 80.  When I saw a spot of my call age off the band map I would put one out.  Usually resulted in a small bump of rate.

At one point on Sunday, I was reduced to just clicking on spots to make some rate. I quickly realized the value of being in the spot window.  It is very nice to just click, listen, and then call or move on.  The rate wasn’t bad either.

Fun QSOs:

• 9N7AA called me on 15 the first day and 10 the second.
• Sunday morning on 10m a loud station just gave their last 3 letters. I was surprised that it turned out to be a VU!
• Worked UN4Q on 4 bands.
• Cool having a small run on UA0 stations on 10m over Europe.
• KH0/KC0W had big pileups on 15 and 10. He wasn’t that loud, but threw my call in just to see what would happen.  He came right back!  That’s always a morale booster.
• Worked HH2AA on a tail end.  He recorded it and put it on his YouTube channel.

Thanks to everyone around the world who chased W/VE stations all weekend.  You make the contest fun!

This was the final big contest from this station.  I am relocating to Ohio this summer.  Now the work of taking everything down begins. Do I pull all the cables and go instant QRT or do it tactically to maintain some ability to get on the air during the process?  It has been a great run and I will miss being loud from W1.  But, nothing is more hopeful than building a new station so I have plenty to look forward to.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′
10-20m: C31xr @ 40′

Rates

QSO/DX by hour and band
 
Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm   Off
 
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   12/7    69/17   25/13  106/37    106/37   
0100Z   9/8    19/14   25/19   35/24   18/8      -    106/73    212/110  
0200Z   3/2    35/14   32/17   16/14    7/6      -     93/53    305/163  
0300Z   9/9    26/9    24/8    12/3      -       -     71/29    376/192  
0400Z   8/5    35/10   21/8     2/0      -       -     66/23    442/215  
0500Z  19/8    27/13    6/3      -       -       -     52/24    494/239  
0600Z   6/6     4/0    70/6     5/3      -       -     85/15    579/254  
0700Z   1/0      -       -       -       -       -      1/0     580/254  59
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     580/254  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     580/254  60
1000Z    -      1/1     4/2   140/19     -       -    145/22    725/276   3
1100Z    -       -      3/3    66/4   182/35     -    251/42    976/318  
1200Z    -       -      1/1    19/7    80/5    89/29  189/42   1165/360  
1300Z    -       -       -     46/0    21/8    92/20  159/28   1324/388  
1400Z    -       -       -       -      3/1     8/3    11/4    1335/392  52
1500Z    -       -       -       -    135/6    27/9   162/15   1497/407  
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   26/3   156/12  182/15   1679/422  
1700Z    -       -       -       -     45/5   121/1   166/6    1845/428  
1800Z    -       -       -     79/1    16/2    54/0   149/3    1994/431  
1900Z    -       -       -     11/1    47/0    28/3    86/4    2080/435  22
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2080/435  60
2100Z    -       -       -     49/3     2/1    19/4    70/8    2150/443  22
2200Z    -       -       -     50/8    13/2    10/0    73/10   2223/453  
2300Z    -       -     11/1    14/0    53/1    10/1    88/3    2311/456  
0000Z  --+--    4/1    --+--    6/0    10/2     6/0    26/3    2337/459  28
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2337/459  60
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2337/459  60
0300Z    -      3/0     8/2     3/0      -       -     14/2    2351/461  35
0400Z   2/1     4/0    33/2     6/1      -       -     45/4    2396/465  
0500Z   1/0    26/1     4/2     3/1      -       -     34/4    2430/469  
0600Z   1/1     1/0    44/3    13/1      -       -     59/5    2489/474  
0700Z    -       -      3/2     3/0      -       -      6/2    2495/476  50
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2495/476  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2495/476  60
1000Z    -       -      4/1   105/2      -       -    109/3    2604/479   9
1100Z    -       -      2/1    31/0   100/2    32/2   165/5    2769/484  
1200Z    -       -       -       -      1/0   183/8   184/8    2953/492  
1300Z    -       -       -     15/2    48/0    64/3   127/5    3080/497  
1400Z    -       -       -       -      9/0   108/2   117/2    3197/499  
1500Z    -       -       -       -     60/0    51/1   111/1    3308/500  
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   30/2    55/1    85/3    3393/503  
1700Z    -       -       -       -      2/0    82/0    84/0    3477/503  
1800Z    -       -       -     31/2     6/1    16/1    53/4    3530/507  
1900Z    -       -       -     50/0    20/1    19/1    89/2    3619/509  
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      1/0     1/0    3620/509  59
2100Z    -       -       -     53/0      -      6/2    59/2    3679/511  30
2200Z    -       -     43/2    28/1    10/0     4/0    85/3    3764/514  
2300Z    -      8/0    11/0     4/0     4/0    46/4    73/4    3837/518  
 
       59/40          349/83         1017/108       
Totals:        193/63          907/104        1312/120       

Best 60 minutes: 288 at 01-Mar-2025 11:23

Worked on 6 bands (48):

4A7S 8P5A 9A1A 9A1P CQ8M CR3Z CR6K DA1TT DF6QV DM7XX ED8W EI7M HA6KG HC8M HK1T 
II2C II2S IO3F IO5O IP4X J62K J75A KP3J LY4A LZ9A MD4K NP2X NP4DX OK5Z OM0R
OM2ADM P49Y PJ2T PJ4G RL3A RW7K SO9I SP8R TI1K TO3Z TO4A UW1M V31MA VP5M YR8D
YU5R ZF1A ZF2VE

Worked on 5 bands: 71

Most worked entities

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
 
    DL       6     22     41    108    121    139     437
     I       5     13     37    108     99    137     399
     F             12     24     62     40     78     216
     G              5      9     45     39    109     207
    JA                     2     26     94     51     173
    SP       2      6     12     41     51     42     154
    PA              5      7     48     28     61     149
    EA              7     10     38     38     52     145
    UA       2      4     13     24     42     36     121

Most JAs ever!  Thank you, Italy!!

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2025

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 41.4
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  109    46
   80:  540    77
   40: 1114    96
   20: 1161   114
   15: 1283   115
   10: 1071   114
-------------------
Total: 5278   562  Total Score = 8,898,708

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

This was my final ARRL DX CW from this QTH. It has been a great 32-year run, and it is nice to end on a high note. With nothing to prove, I opted for the fun factor and decided to work assisted.

Got off to a good start. I made it to 160 about 0310z and found some loud European signals that were easy to work. About 10 minutes later, some electronic noise began. This has been occurring for several years.  I suspect it is something related to a neighbor’s heating system. The electronic buzz/hash is S7 across 160. Doesn’t affect the other bands.  That kind of broke my mental lock on the contest.  I returned to the high bands and hoped it might go away later.

Plenty of good rates on 40 and 80. 40 was excellent in the hours after Europe sunrise.  I finally decided to take a short sleep break when things began to slow down. Back on at 10z and 20m was already open.

Rates were fast and furious the next few hours. I had seen predictions that things might be disturbed on Saturday and improve on Sunday so I was not surprised to see 10m open slowly.

Signals on 10m were workable beaming south or east from the normal opening time, but didn’t feel runnable.  And certainly not as good as 15m was doing. I decided to stay committed to 15m since the rate was so good. I did get two good hours on 10m starting around 15z.

First mental health and food break at 20z. I really needed that after the mental drain of high rate zero beat non-stop calling Europe pileups. Came back from that on to 40 meters.  It was a bit early, but Eu signals were good, and being early meant getting a good frequency. Was able to stay on 40 until almost 00z.

Line score at the halfway point:

53/37  375/68  853/90  623/95  822/99  502/93     3228/482 = 4,667,688 points

At 00z I did something I had never done before.  I stopped operating, grabbed a bite to eat, and then went to sleep for 3 hours. I woke up with a much better mental attitude and chased the sunrise across Europe.

Started calling CQ on 160m at 0520z. The electronic hash was off so I could hear well (except for the static crashes). Had a nice “run” of Europeans until 0615z. Even worked some 5W stations!

80 and 40 were very open to Europe, but not much rate.  I think the activity was limited so we just ran out of stations to work. Noticed the multi-multi stations couldn’t get much over 2000 QSOs on any band so that is probably a good indication of the available population of stations to work.

About this time the snow changed over to rain and there was some rain static. It was especially noticeable on 40 and 20. Even though I was awake, I decided 90 more minutes of sleep wouldn’t hurt. Back on at 10z to find a wide open 20 meters. I was low on 20m QSOs so stayed on the band a bit longer while listening to 15 open. Made the jump at 1120z (my sunrise is 1154z!). Started CQing on 10m at 1213z and there was an instant pileup.

Propagation was strange.  Some big signals from Russia.  Weak from OH/SM. Loud from Italy. Mid to weak from Germany and Poland. Then it would reverse that.

During the morning I would check 20m. The band was incredibly open to Japan and Asia. I have never heard KH0W so loud! But, not much volume so mostly second radio work. Back to 15m around 1545z. That enabled me to do some S&P on 10m with the second radio.

I usually have the spot window set to only show multipliers.  At this point, it just had a few and the game was to balance chasing pileups without losing the run frequency. Got lucky on a bunch of them. It helps to call a bit off frequency…

It got slow enough that I started trying to CQ on two bands. Almost every time I did it, I turned into a total lid within a few minutes. I finally started to figure it out, but I still don’t see how these guys do it for hours at a time.

It was nice to be called by HS0ZLN on 20m during the afternoon.  Even more surprising to have him call me a few minutes later on 15m.

The rest of the contest was just a matter of waiting for Europeans to turn on their radio and call in. When I saw a spot for V85RH on 40m, I almost skipped it.  But, things were slow so I checked it out.  Wow!  He was 20 over 9 on long path.  Easy QSO!

The last hour was just chasing anything that moved.  I had some decent rate on 80m. The band was good, just not much activity.  But, it was a band with new people.

I watched the online scoreboard all weekend.  I set it in the mode that combines all single ops (assisted and unassisted) into one list. I spent a lot of the weekend chasing AA3B and K1ZZ for multipliers and N2NT for QSOs. N2NT gained a lead during my sleep breaks and I could never close it down. I knew K1ZZ was doing his DXer thing so it provided a good indication of what was possible. With a lot of luck (like UN9L calling in on 80m) I was able to almost catch up.

I can’t imagine I would have put in this much operating time if not for the fun of chasing on the scoreboard.

ARRL DX SSB is the one more contest left from here. Not sure I can devote this much energy to SSB but have to do it.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′
10-20m: C31xr @ 40′

Rates

QSO/DX by hour and band

Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total      Cumm   Off
                                                                         
0000Z  --+--   --+--  161/37   21/16   --+--   --+--  182/53    182/53   
0100Z    -     90/25   57/4     4/3    13/13     -    164/45    346/98   
0200Z  12/9    78/15   32/11     -       -       -    122/35    468/133  
0300Z  13/11    3/2    23/14   38/21     -       -     77/48    545/181  
0400Z   7/2    41/14   54/5      -       -       -    102/21    647/202  
0500Z  10/7    42/2    97/3     4/1      -       -    153/13    800/215  
0600Z   8/5    83/7    14/3      -       -       -    105/15    905/230  
0700Z   1/1     5/1    90/5    15/3      -       -    111/10   1016/240  
0800Z   1/1    --+--   49/2     1/1    --+--   --+--   51/4    1067/244   26
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1067/244   60
1000Z   1/1      -      1/1   146/22     -       -    148/24   1215/268    5
1100Z    -       -       -     63/4   140/32     -    203/36   1418/304  
1200Z    -       -       -      7/4   205/15    9/8   221/27   1639/331  
1300Z    -       -       -     10/3   187/6    19/15  216/24   1855/355  
1400Z    -       -       -       -    138/1    60/30  198/31   2053/386  
1500Z    -       -       -       -      8/8   204/7   212/15   2265/401  
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   22/4   153/12  175/16   2440/417  
1700Z    -       -       -     77/3    52/5     8/5   137/13   2577/430  
1800Z    -       -       -    123/5     5/2    12/8   140/15   2717/445  
1900Z    -       -       -     96/1     9/5    10/3   115/9    2832/454  
2000Z    -       -     50/1     2/1     7/3      -     59/5    2891/459   29
2100Z    -       -    108/3     5/1     9/1    15/2   137/7    3028/466  
2200Z    -       -     71/1     4/3    25/3    12/3   112/10   3140/476  
2300Z    -     33/2    46/0     7/3     1/1      -     87/6    3227/482  
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    1/0    --+--    1/0    3228/482   59
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3228/482   60
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3228/482   60
0300Z    -     32/5     7/1     8/3     1/0      -     48/9    3276/491   27
0400Z   3/1    33/1    38/2      -       -       -     74/4    3350/495  
0500Z  33/5      -     43/1     2/0      -       -     78/6    3428/501  
0600Z  16/0    43/0     5/0     1/0      -       -     65/0    3493/501  
0700Z   3/2     2/1    63/1     8/0      -       -     76/4    3569/505  
0800Z  --+--   --+--    1/0    15/0    --+--   --+--   16/0    3585/505   46
0900Z    -      1/1     2/0      -       -       -      3/1    3588/506   57
1000Z    -       -      1/0   159/2      -       -    160/2    3748/508  
1100Z    -       -       -     65/2   110/0      -    175/2    3923/510  
1200Z    -       -       -       -     29/1   141/7   170/8    4093/518  
1300Z    -       -       -     17/2     3/2   145/5   165/9    4258/527  
1400Z    -       -       -      3/2     7/2   155/4   165/8    4423/535  
1500Z    -       -       -     15/2    42/1    54/2   111/5    4534/540  
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   95/2    39/1   134/3    4668/543  
1700Z    -       -       -     56/0    94/1     7/1   157/2    4825/545  
1800Z    -       -       -     74/2    13/0     7/1    94/3    4919/548  
1900Z    -       -       -     65/1    18/1      -     83/2    5002/550  
2000Z    -       -     24/0    29/0     4/0     1/0    58/0    5060/550   18
2100Z    -       -     59/0      -     17/3     9/0    85/3    5145/553  
2200Z    -       -     17/1     6/1    27/2     1/0    51/4    5196/557  
2300Z   1/1    54/1     1/0    15/2     1/1    10/0    82/5    5278/562  

         109/46         1114/96         1283/115       
Totals:          540/77         1161/114        1071/114       

Best 60 minutes: 228 starting 15-Feb-2025 12:15   

Worked on 6 bands: (72)

4A7S 9A1A 9A3XV 9A5Y CR2X CR3DX CR3W DD1A DD2D DK1KC DK5PD DK9IP DL3DXX DL6WT DL7YS DM2M DR5X ED1R ED7W ED8X EF6T F6KOP F8KCF G3P G6XX HA3NU HB0WR HC8M HG6N II2Q IK2YCW IK3ORD IO3F IO4X IO5O IP2A KP2M KP4AA LN8W LY4A LZ9W OK7O OL3A OL3Z OM2VL OQ5M OR2F OZ5W P40L PA5KT PC0A PI4DX PJ2T PJ4A S53M S57AL SN2B SN7Q SP8R T48K TM2Y TM7A TO4A UW5Y V3T VP5K VP9I WH7T WP3Z YR8D ZF1A ZF5T

Worked on 5 bands: 172

By continent

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total      %

    EU      86    495   1034   1003   1103    921    4642    87.9
    SA       5      9     12     31     34     54     145     2.7
    NA      13     23     25     29     30     30     150     2.8
    AS       0      3     21     71     92     31     218     4.1
    AF       3      5     11     10     13     18      60     1.1
    OC       2      5     11     17     11     17      63     1.2

Most worked entities

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL      15    100    178    178    178    162     811
     I       8     35     95     89     96     90     413
    UA             16     55     63     97     61     292
    OK       8     32     60     48     49     41     238
     F       6     28     56     51     43     45     229
    SP       3     33     45     49     56     43     229
     G       4     26     53     39     61     38     221
    PA       5     16     47     47     49     43     207
    EA       3     18     43     43     40     35     182
    HA       3     19     45     35     40     37     179
    S5       3     21     38     33     28     30     153
    UR       1     16     26     26     49     33     151
...
    JA                     4     22     49     14      89
    UN              1      3      6     10      1      21

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2024
 
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
 
Class: SO(A)AB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 44
OpMode: SO2R
 
Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  131    15       53
   80:  376    20       81
   40: 1484    36      126
   20: 1195    38      128
   15: 1086    37      138
   10: 1482    34      131
------------------------------
Total: 5754   180      657  Total Score = 14,002,173
 
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

My last CQ WW from this QTH may have been the best one!  Non-stop action across all bands.

Spent the week doing a business trip to Salt Lake City. Flight home on Thu night was delayed due to weather. Arrived home and fell asleep at 3am on Friday morning. Slept 8 full hours and woke up feeling great at 11am. Never had that much sleep before a big contest.

Rates were amazing all weekend.  I was in traditional SO2R mode – running on one band and tuning or chasing spots on the other.

First surprise of the weekend was when I went to 80m. The SWR on the four square was high. NE and SW were 1.8.  NW and SE were 2.5. Europe was about the same on that or the dipole.  Dark and raining so nothing I could do.  People still answered me, but I did not feel loud.  During a break on Sat afternoon, I ran up the hill expecting to find a broken rope or wire, but there was no visible issue.

I saw some European spots on 160m. Signals were good and I was having no trouble working stations so decided to try calling CQ.  This resulted in a very good run of weak but easily copied Europeans. Even a few extra mults.

Even though there were stations to work, I wanted to grab a nap to be ready for the morning high band rates.  Slept 60 minutes and had a bowl of cereal.  Bands took another 45 minutes to wake up before the rates exploded.  They never slowed down!

Ended the first 24 hours with an incredible 3-hour run on 40 meters.

The line score at 24 hours for 7.0M points was:

Total             160M      80M       40M        20M        15M        10M     
 
3414/154/553  106/12/39 223/17/66 1039/28/110 523/33/105 641/34/125 882/30/108

I am not used to seeing 20m be the low one!

The second day I meant to sleep early, but conditions were just too good.  I kept finding more multipliers to work.  Finally made myself stop at 0730z and sleep for 2 hours.  It breaks My rule of always sleeping in 90-minute intervals, but it felt like the bands were improving so wanted to be on and ready.

Even though the rates were good, it took a while for the bands to sound normal. Signals on 15 and 10 were a bit weak and watery at the start.

I went back down to 20 early to try to improve the totals on that band.  It worked out well as the European signals were loud and the band was not crowded. Later in the opening the JAs started calling and were very loud. Nice to have 4 HS stations, 2 BY, and 9M8 call in!

Moved to 40 to try and capture the luck of the first day.  With over 1300 QSOs on the band, I think I had worked most of Europe already. Did snag VK6, E2X, and B0A.

The last hour was a mashup of tuning around calling people. I did get lucky and work 3B8M on 80. That was one of the few moments the 4 square SWR returned to normal. Called JAs on 15m and then it was done.  The last QSO ticked the score over the 14 million mark.

The old SOA USA record was 12.7M set in 2014. It had a higher multiplier, but less QSOs.

This was a personal best for contacts.  I had only had one other year over 5000. The difference maker seemed to be 40m. I felt like the king of the band for some reason.  Having 10m open didn’t hurt either!

Amazing activity.  Thanks to all the expeditioners who traveled to give us those rare multipliers.  Much appreciated!

Thanks to everyone who posted to the scoreboard. Always a motivator for me. At one point K1ZZ was over 100 multipliers ahead of me. I made it my Sat night mission to try to catch up.

I need to get a solid-state amp.  There were multipliers I would have chased but I didn’t want to have to retune!

Postscript: The 80m 4 square problem was a broken wire at the feed point of the NE vertical. Can’t believe the antenna worked at all. I was probably dumping most of my power into the dummy load!

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′
10-20m: C31xr @ 40′

Rates

Hour    160M     80M    40M      20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm   Off
 
0000Z  --+--   --+--  141/54   --+--   23/24   --+--  164/78    164/78 
0100Z    -       -    102/7    39/39    6/3      -    147/49    311/127
0200Z    -      3/5   101/8    52/37     -       -    156/50    467/177
0300Z   4/7    56/35   85/8      -       -       -    145/50    612/227
0400Z    -     80/27   48/20     -       -       -    128/47    740/274
0500Z  74/35     -     29/8      -       -       -    103/43    843/317
0600Z  20/1    69/4    19/11     -       -       -    108/16    951/333
0700Z   8/8     5/7    49/8     8/9      -       -     70/32   1021/365   6
0800Z  --+--   --+--  101/2    17/4    --+--   --+--  118/6    1139/371
0900Z    -       -      2/0     1/0      -       -      3/0    1142/371  12
1000Z    -      3/4     7/4    64/9    10/13     -     84/30   1226/401  60
1100Z    -       -       -     59/6   139/36    9/11  207/53   1433/454
1200Z    -       -       -       -     12/9   199/34  211/43   1644/497
1300Z    -       -       -       -     13/13  197/6   210/19   1854/516
1400Z    -       -       -       -     12/10  177/7   189/17   2043/533
1500Z    -       -       -       -     18/13  174/6   192/19   2235/552
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  111/8    59/35  170/43   2405/595
1700Z    -       -       -     12/7   139/4    14/15  165/26   2570/621
1800Z    -       -       -     11/8   128/8     4/3   143/19   2713/640  14
1900Z    -       -       -    151/7     6/5      -    157/12   2870/652
2000Z    -       -      3/2   102/6     3/1    17/11  125/20   2995/672
2100Z    -       -    136/1     2/2     3/4    13/4   154/11   3149/683
2200Z    -       -    131/2      -      2/2    19/6   152/10   3301/693
2300Z    -      7/1    84/3     5/4    15/5      -    111/13   3412/706
0000Z  --+--    7/3    65/5     7/4    20/2    --+--   99/14   3511/720
0100Z   1/0     8/0    14/1     8/1     2/2      -     33/4    3544/724  32
0200Z   8/2    12/2     7/5    38/3     1/1      -     66/13   3610/737
0300Z  11/11   41/2     3/1     5/0      -       -     60/14   3670/751
0400Z   5/4    43/4     3/0     2/3      -       -     53/11   3723/762
0500Z    -      4/4   107/0     1/1      -       -    112/5    3835/767
0600Z    -     18/1    90/2      -       -       -    108/3    3943/770
0700Z    -       -      2/0    24/2      -       -     26/2    3969/772  33
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    3969/772  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3969/772  60
1000Z    -       -     11/5    26/1     5/0      -     42/6    4011/778  11
1100Z    -       -       -     97/4    72/2      -    169/6    4180/784
1200Z    -       -       -       -    102/0    50/14  152/14   4332/798
1300Z    -       -       -      4/4    22/2   139/3   165/9    4497/807
1400Z    -       -       -       -     17/4   123/1   140/5    4637/812
1500Z    -       -       -       -      8/0   141/2   149/2    4786/814
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   33/0   109/3   142/3    4928/817
1700Z    -       -       -      9/1   115/1     7/0   131/2    5059/819
1800Z    -       -       -    119/0    16/0     3/1   138/1    5197/820
1900Z    -       -       -    150/2     1/0    11/2   162/4    5359/824
2000Z    -       -       -    107/1     1/0    14/0   122/1    5481/825
2100Z    -       -      7/4    72/1     6/1     1/1    86/7    5567/832   8
2200Z    -      2/2    89/1     2/0     8/1     2/0   103/4    5670/836
2300Z    -     18/0    48/0     1/0    17/1      -     84/1    5754/837

      131/68         1484/162        1086/175       
Totals:       376/101        1195/166        1482/165       

Best 60 minutes: 238 starting 33-Nov-2024 11:26

Worked on 6 bands (45):

8P5A 9A1A CN3A CR3A CR3W D4DX DA0RR DF0HQ DJ1SL DL5JS DM2M DP9A DR4A EF6T ES9C
G6T KH6J KP2B LN8W LY5W LZ9W M6T M6W MD4K OK1PI OL3Z OT7T OX7AM OZ5W PA9M PJ2T
PJ4A PJ4K SM6LJU SN7O SP2LNW TK0C TM2Y TM6M TO4A V47T VP5M VP9I YT5A ZF1A

Most worked entities

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
 
    DL      24     67    240    177    161    243     912
    UA             14    100     58     65    123     360
     I       1     14     93     62     66     79     315
    SP       5     18     68     58     67     82     298
     G       4     14     71     40     43     82     254
    OK       4     12     65     37     44     66     228
     F       2     15     49     48     38     50     202
    PA       4     11     45     44     22     53     179
    EA       1      8     43     43     39     38     172
    UR       1      7     53     24     35     51     171
    VE      16     21     48     29     17     15     146
    HA       1     11     45     31     20     24     132
    SM       3      8     31     26     31     31     130
    JA                     6     63     38     14     121
    S5       3      8     31     24     17     33     116
    YO       1      5     37     15     22     31     111
    OH       2      5     17     23     18     36     101

                    WAE DX Contest, RTTY - 2024

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 11.2

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:   37    39    72
   40:  194   260   144
   20:  154    90   104
   15:  183   260   112
   10:  158   430    88
-------------------------
Total:  726  1070   520  Total Score = 933,920

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Not much time on Saturday. Conditions better on Sunday.

Always fun to be able to receive QTCs.

Rates

QSO/DXCC by hour and band

 Hour      80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total       Cumm      OffTime

D1-0700Z    -     58/60     -       -       -     58/60     58/60      
D1-0800Z  --+--    2/3    40/38   --+--   --+--   42/41    100/101        14
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     100/101        60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     100/101        60
D1-1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     100/101        60
D1-1200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     100/101        60
D1-1300Z    -       -       -     12/10    8/16   20/26    120/127        31
D1-1400Z    -       -       -     20/20     -     20/20    140/147        41
D1-1500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     140/147        60
D1-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D1-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D1-1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D1-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D1-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D1-2200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D1-2300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     140/147        60
D2-0100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D2-0200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D2-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/147        60
D2-0400Z  36/68    7/6      -       -       -     43/74    183/221         2
D2-0500Z    -     16/15     -       -       -     16/15    199/236        43
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     199/236        60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     199/236        60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     199/236        60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     199/236        60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     199/236        60
D2-1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     199/236        60
D2-1200Z    -       -       -       -     18/20   18/20    217/256        43
D2-1300Z    -       -       -       -     68/32   68/32    285/288     
D2-1400Z    -       -       -       -     59/16   59/16    344/304     
D2-1500Z    -       -       -     67/40     -     67/40    411/344     
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   37/8     5/4    42/12    453/356        26
D2-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     453/356        60
D2-1800Z    -       -     61/24    3/2      -     64/26    517/382        14
D2-1900Z    -       -     10/6      -       -     10/6     527/388        51
D2-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     527/388        60
D2-2100Z    -     23/15   43/36     -       -     66/51    593/439        14
D2-2200Z    -     56/21     -     11/12     -     67/33    660/472     
D2-2300Z   1/4    32/24     -     33/20     -     66/48    726/520     

Totals:   37/72  194/144 154/104  183/112 158/88        

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2024

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 32.3
OpMode: 2BSIQ

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------
   80:  280       40      32    11
   40:  717       50      63    22
   20:  832       51      72    27
   15: 1077       46      74    29
   10:  729       34      81    28
------------------------------------
Total: 3635      221     322   117  Total Score = 5,963,100

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Wow.  These are the conditions that make us dream about sunspot maximums. No solar belches to mess things up.  All bands were open. 10 meters was open well past dark.

Europeans on 40m over 2 hours after their sunrise. Beat the USA record from last year operating 8 fewer hours. Worked 51 stations on all 5 bands.

Activity was great as well.  I never felt like there wasn’t someone new to work.

I was looking forward to the contest but didn’t think I had the mental fortitude to pull off a full-time effort. Over the previous three weekends, I had done all-Asia phone and WAE phone and then a week of travel. I had a great start, but at 0200z, I wasn’t feeling it, so I took a break to watch a movie. I came back on and then got hooked. I stayed up most of the night with just a short sleep break.

I started on 80m before sunrise and then moved up the bands. The activity was okay, but nothing great. Finally, I got to 15m—and wow—this is where everyone has been hanging out! Then 10 opened, so I had some great hours running on 2 bands.

Took a break to do some errands around town.  Then worked some more guys. Then a break to take a walk (a great way to clear your head and make the contest fun again).  Worked more guys. Stopped to cook dinner.  Then worked more guys and finally took two short sleep breaks.

Sunday morning I went right to the high bands.  More running on 2 bands.  Not as crazy as Saturday, but the QSOs kept coming.

I was watching the scoreboard.  My breaks saw K1LZ catch up and pass me on Saturday.  Manu at K1LZ did a great job all weekend and destroyed the USA record I had set last year.  Congrats to him!

I was low on multipliers on Sunday so tried to do more tuning around. Missed some easy ones. Such as New Hampshire on 80 and Connecticut on 10m.  Only worked a few stations from Georgia.  Only one station from NM and one from WV.  Nothing from WY.

The most interesting DX was working YB stations on 15 and 10 meters at the same time in the late morning.  It was the middle of the night for them.

Everything in the station worked great. Even with the windows open the shack was extra warm from all the RTTY action on 2 radios.

The operating proficiency of the RTTY ops continues to improve.  Guys were sending their calls less often and the exchanges were very short.  That helped make the high rates possible.

Thanks for all the QSOs.  This is probably the last CQ WW RTTY for me from this location. I will be moving to Ohio next year.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

80m: 4 square, dipole @ 90′
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′
10-20m: C31xr @ 40′

By Continent

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total      %

    EU     108    400    565    704    513    2290    63.0
    NA     170    300    189    235    115    1009    27.8
    SA       0      8     13     23     40      84     2.3
    AS       0      4     51    100     48     203     5.6
    AF       2      3      4      4      7      20     0.6
    OC       0      2     10     11      6      29     0.8

Rates

QSO/Zn+Dx+St by hour and band

Hour    80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    Off

0000Z  --+--   --+--   50/42   61/30    4/5   115/77    115/77   
0100Z  12/16   75/47   27/10    7/0      -    121/73    236/150  
0200Z    -     34/17   35/12     -       -     69/29    305/179   32
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     305/179   60
0400Z   2/3    52/13   30/9      -       -     84/25    389/204   18
0500Z  66/27   74/10     -       -       -    140/37    529/241  
0600Z   8/5    56/14   46/8      -       -    110/27    639/268  
0700Z   1/0    46/8    46/5      -       -     93/13    732/281  
0800Z   2/1     2/0    --+--   --+--   --+--    4/1     736/282   57
0900Z  18/3    14/3      -       -       -     32/6     768/288   36
1000Z  17/6    29/3    30/4    10/11     -     86/24    854/312  
1100Z    -       -     51/6   110/26    6/8   167/40   1021/352  
1200Z    -       -       -     92/9   100/29  192/38   1213/390  
1300Z    -       -       -     75/4    70/18  145/22   1358/412  
1400Z    -       -       -     29/1    18/10   47/11   1405/423   36
1500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1405/423   60
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   38/7    80/12  118/19   1523/442    5
1700Z    -       -       -     55/8    68/4   123/12   1646/454  
1800Z    -       -     11/3    15/0    12/5    38/8    1684/462   30
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1684/462   60
2000Z    -       -     66/5    36/10     -    102/15   1786/477   14
2100Z    -       -     63/1    56/1     7/7   126/9    1912/486  
2200Z    -       -       -     46/5    25/7    71/12   1983/498    9
2300Z    -       -       -      5/3     5/3    10/6    1993/504   60
0000Z  --+--    6/0    14/3    34/15   36/4    90/22   2083/526  
0100Z  29/6    78/4    17/12     -       -    124/22   2207/548  
0200Z  51/8    22/5      -       -       -     73/13   2280/561   19
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2280/561   60
0400Z  24/3    34/1      -       -       -     58/4    2338/565   24
0500Z  27/4    56/6    10/0      -       -     93/10   2431/575  
0600Z    -     63/0    79/3      -       -    142/3    2573/578  
0700Z    -      9/0    20/0      -       -     29/0    2602/578   44
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2602/578   60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2602/578   60
1000Z   5/0     5/1    15/2    42/2      -     67/5    2669/583   14
1100Z  10/0    15/0      -     75/2    25/1   125/3    2794/586  
1200Z    -       -       -     59/2    76/3   135/5    2929/591  
1300Z    -       -       -     35/4    77/6   112/10   3041/601  
1400Z    -       -       -      6/0     5/0    11/0    3052/601   52
1500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3052/601   60
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    3052/601   60
1700Z    -       -       -     29/2    34/9    63/11   3115/612   12
1800Z    -       -       -     41/0    41/3    82/3    3197/615  
1900Z    -       -     16/2    32/2    36/8    84/12   3281/627  
2000Z    -       -     61/5    32/1     4/1    97/7    3378/634  
2100Z    -       -     47/3    48/2      -     95/5    3473/639  
2200Z    -     30/2    54/5     9/2      -     93/9    3566/648  
2300Z   8/1    17/1    44/10     -       -     69/12   3635/660  
                                 
Total: 280/83 717/135 832/150 1077/149 729/143  

Best 60 minutes: 196 starting at 28-Sep-2024 11:56                        

Worked on 5 bands: (51)

9A1A CR3DX CR3W DG8M DJ1XT DJ5AN DK4VW DK5PD DL3YM DL5JS DL5NAV DL9GTB DM4X DP6A DP9A DR3W EI7M I2DJX IO3F IP4M IP4X IQ6AN IQ9RG K9CT LA3BPA LA5LJA LY2F MW9W N6WM N7UVH NJ4P NT5V OH5Z OK1KKI OK1PI OK5Z ON6NL OR3A PA4O PC0A PI4CC PI4COM RG2Y S50W SP6JZP TM3Z UB7K W0LSD WJ0W YO9HP ZF2SS

Most worked entities

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total

     K     146    261    162    203     89     861
    DL      31     85    108    165    114     503
     I      13     55     86     97     57     308
    JA              1     30     81     37     149
    SP       3     19     39     47     32     140
    PA       4     19     29     35     36     123
     G       4     14     23     40     31     112

So many JAs!

                    WAE DX Contest, CW - 2024

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 31
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:  149    10   124
   40:  337   250   123
   20:  713   881    90
   15:  650   725    88
   10:    8     0    12
-------------------------
Total: 1857  1866   437  Total Score = 1,626,951

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

We had a very nice summer weekend outside, but I chose to chase WRTC qualifying points.  You can do that when your wife is out of town.

The contest started OK on 40m. But, when I started making QSOs on the second radio, I was getting reports about a rough note or not good tone. I listened on a remote SDR and could hear a bit of roughness on the signal. It was not there without the amplifier. I swapped in my backup amp (Alpha 76-CA) and there were no more complaints about the signal.

Good conditions on all bands except 10m where only the biggest guns could be worked on scatter.

I operated the first 12 hours without a break.  Then things slowed down as the sun came up and only 15m was open.

Took short sleep breaks the second night.  I knew there would be few new mults, but also not much activity on the low bands.

I think this contest is too long for the amount of activity.  This was the most I have ever operated WAE CW.  Much more fun when you only do the 20-24 good hours.

Excellent work by many Eu to copy the QTCs without repeats.  Thanks for taking my QTCs!

I think I had more QTCs than QSOs because WriteLog was sending the dupe QSOs in the QTCs.

Station

K3 + AL-1200 (Alpha 76-CA)
K3 + AL-1500
 
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′

Rates

QSO/DXCC by hour and band

 Hour      80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total       Cumm   OffTime

D1-0000Z   8/28   48/57   35/36   --+--   --+--   91/121    91/121  
D1-0100Z  19/16   19/21   16/14     -       -     54/51    145/172  
D1-0200Z  51/56    4/6    38/8      -       -     93/70    238/242  
D1-0300Z  31/16   22/12   10/4      -       -     63/32    301/274  
D1-0400Z    -     32/6    14/4    20/16     -     66/26    367/300  
D1-0500Z    -      5/3    73/6     1/2      -     79/11    446/311  
D1-0600Z    -       -     74/2     2/4      -     76/6     522/317  
D1-0700Z    -       -     64/0      -       -     64/0     586/317  
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   61/6    27/18   --+--   88/24    674/341  
D1-0900Z    -       -       -     87/12     -     87/12    761/353  
D1-1000Z    -       -       -    101/14     -    101/14    862/367  
D1-1100Z    -       -       -     79/12     -     79/12    941/379  
D1-1200Z    -       -       -     42/2      -     42/2     983/381     27
D1-1300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     983/381     60
D1-1400Z    -       -       -     12/2     2/4    14/6     997/387     43
D1-1500Z    -       -      1/2    55/4      -     56/6    1053/393  
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   25/0    --+--   25/0    1078/393     37
D1-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1078/393     60
D1-1800Z    -       -      5/2     8/0      -     13/2    1091/395     44
D1-1900Z    -       -     36/0    24/0      -     60/0    1151/395  
D1-2000Z    -       -     12/0     5/0      -     17/0    1168/395     30
D1-2100Z    -       -      3/0     1/0      -      4/0    1172/395     60
D1-2200Z    -     11/0    46/0     2/0      -     59/0    1231/395  
D1-2300Z    -     17/6    14/4      -       -     31/10   1262/405  
D2-0000Z   1/0    17/0     2/0    --+--   --+--   20/0    1282/405     24
D2-0100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1282/405     60
D2-0200Z  12/0    20/3      -       -       -     32/3    1314/408     27
D2-0300Z   8/0    40/0     4/0      -       -     52/0    1366/408  
D2-0400Z  19/8    34/6    10/0      -       -     63/14   1429/422  
D2-0500Z    -     39/0    26/0      -       -     65/0    1494/422  
D2-0600Z    -      1/0     1/0      -       -      2/0    1496/422     58
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1496/422     60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1496/422     60
D2-0900Z    -       -     36/0     3/0      -     39/0    1535/422      6
D2-1000Z    -       -     17/0    29/2      -     46/2    1581/424  
D2-1100Z    -       -      1/0    53/0     3/6    57/6    1638/430  
D2-1200Z    -       -      2/0    24/0     3/2    29/2    1667/432  
D2-1300Z    -       -       -      3/0      -      3/0    1670/432     40
D2-1400Z    -       -       -      9/0      -      9/0    1679/432     60
D2-1500Z    -       -       -     25/0      -     25/0    1704/432  
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    1/0    --+--    1/0    1705/432     37
D2-1700Z    -       -     12/0     4/0      -     16/0    1721/432     60
D2-1800Z    -       -     21/0     5/0      -     26/0    1747/432      6
D2-1900Z    -       -     19/2     2/0      -     21/2    1768/434     60
D2-2000Z    -       -     38/0     1/0      -     39/0    1807/434      8
D2-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1807/434     60
D2-2200Z    -     19/0    14/0      -       -     33/0    1840/434     15
D2-2300Z    -      9/3     8/0      -       -     17/3    1857/437     30

Totals:  149/124  337/123 713/90  650/88    8/12              

Worked on 5 bands:

9A5Y CR6K DJ5MW DK9PY E7DX EF5Y

Worked on 4 bands: 100

Most worked entities:

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL      61    111    215    217      2     606
     I       3     19     41     44            107
    SP      12     19     34     37            102
    UA       2     11     37     39             89
    OK       8     15     35     24             82
     G       4     14     34     28             80

                    IARU HF World Championship - 2024
 
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
 
Class: SOABMixed HP
Operating Time (hrs): 23.8
OpMode: 2BSIQ
 
Summary:
Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:    18     0      3        4
   80:   118    15     14       20
   40:   444    67     26       29
   20:   687   433     32       35
   15:   951   279     34       40
   10:   110    36     15        9
-------------------------------------
Total:  2328   830    124      137  Total Score = 3,379,480
 
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

I wasn’t really excited to do this contest, but it is a major for WRTC Qualifying so I went after it.  Did not have a plan or strategy.  Spent most of the contest trying to figure out what to do.

It did remind me why I have been doing more assisted operations lately.  It is hard to find multipliers on your own – especially when covering 6 bands on both modes! I felt like I was blind all weekend. There are many big scores reported on 3830 that I never heard or only heard once.

15m was the hot band all weekend.  Signals from Europe were so loud at the start that I tried to get a run going on SSB.  It did not last long and then I couldn’t get anything to happen.  CW was always better for being able to make rate.

Enjoyed my first successful run with 2BSIQ on Sat afternoon.  I had two hours on 15 and 20 CW.  One or two answers on each band made it easier than usual. Big help to the score!

I hit the wall around 0700z.  Was hungry, tired, and a bit worn out from doing so much SO2R.  Took an 18 minute break to eat and recover.  Then it was a push to the end.

I knew from the scoreboard there were lots of mults out there, but I just couldn’t find them. Some luck on Sunday morning helped build up the total.

Some sporadic E on 10m Saturday midday.  Worked EF4HQ, GR2HQ and IP4M.  It was better during the last hour of the contest, but not many people were there – not even the HQ stations.

Ended with a good run on 15m at the end.  Went to SSB for the last 15 minutes and it paid off with a quick 60 QSOs.

The big hassle for the weekend was computer related. Something is causing the USB port that talks to the microHAM MK2R+ to lock up. When I lose that, I lose connection to the radios and computer sending. The lockup is so deep that it requires a complete power down of the computer and then a restart to restore operation. This takes about 3 minutes to do. The lockup always seems to happen when I am running (of course) so I try to log on paper and send by hand while guiding the computer through the restart. Can’t tell if it is RF related or component failure. No pattern to when it happens. But, always at an inconvenient time.

Congratulations to N6MJ at ND7K.  He got his usual great start and I couldn’t catch up.  AA4NC and N2NT also provided much competition and motivation on the online scoreboard.

I need a bigger air conditioner in the shack.  At least in the winter contests, I can open the window.  That was not going to work this weekend!

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs!

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
 
160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′
10-20m: C31xr @ 40′

Rates

CW+PH/ZN+HQ by hour and band
 
Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total       Cumm   Off
 
1200Z    -       -       -       -    157/29   10/8   167/37    167/37   
1300Z    -       -       -       -    175/3    15/4   190/7     357/44   
1400Z    -       -       -       -    131/5    15/1   146/6     503/50   
1500Z    -       -       -     13/8    58/8    35/1   106/17    609/67   
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   87/5    35/3   122/8     731/75   
1700Z    -       -       -     43/15   38/3     9/1    90/19    821/94   
1800Z    -       -       -     67/3    78/1      -    145/4     966/98   
1900Z    -       -       -     82/3    70/3     2/0   154/6    1120/104  
2000Z    -       -       -     41/8    27/6    10/1    78/15   1198/119  
2100Z    -       -       -     97/4    46/3      -    143/7    1341/126  
2200Z    -       -       -     93/4    68/3      -    161/7    1502/133  
2300Z    -       -     70/21   24/0    16/2     2/1   112/24   1614/157  
0000Z  --+--   31/21   82/10    2/0    --+--   --+--  115/31   1729/188  
0100Z  10/4    24/2    86/10     -       -       -    120/16   1849/204  
0200Z   8/3    62/8    31/0     1/0      -       -    102/11   1951/215  
0300Z    -       -    151/1    12/1      -       -    163/2    2114/217  
0400Z    -      1/0    42/1    98/4     6/0      -    147/5    2261/222  
0500Z    -       -     12/3   140/2      -       -    152/5    2413/227  
0600Z    -       -      6/2   125/2      -       -    131/4    2544/231    8  
0700Z    -     13/2    18/3    29/0     1/1      -     61/6    2605/237   10  
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  162/5    --+--   --+--  162/5    2767/242  
0900Z    -      2/1    13/4    79/4    20/1      -    114/10   2881/252  
1000Z    -       -       -     12/4   115/0     5/4   132/8    3013/260  
1100Z    -       -       -       -    137/1     8/0   145/1    3158/261  
 
Totals: 18/7  133/34  511/55 1120/67 1230/74  146/24        

Best 60 minutes: 198 starting 13-Jul-2024 12:36   

Most worked stations

9       S50HQ YT0HQ

8       DA0HQ E7HQ EF4HQ GR2HQ HG0HQ NU1AW/0 OP0HQ W1AW/4

7       G3WW LZ0HQ SK9HQ

6       9A0HQ 9A1P ED8M N4UU OZ1HQ PA6HQ SN0HQ SP9XCN

5       AA4NC AC0W DL4HRM DM3M ER7HQ EW5A LN2HQ RU1A SO5CW WW4XX YR0HQ YR8D YU5R

Most worked entities

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M    Total
     K      12     51    142    120    146     66     537
    DL             13     47    151    168            379
    UA                    24     80    101            205
    SP              4     24     73     72            173
     I              3     20     66     56      5     150
     G       1      7     13     43     45      1     110
    HA              3     23     41     37      1     105
    PA              3      7     40     34             84
    UR                    11     31     35             77
     F              1      4     35     33             73

We need more USA activity in this contest!

Multipliers Worked

                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2024
 
Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
 
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 36
OpMode: SO2R
 
Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    1
   80:  105
   40:  747
   20: 1070
   15: 1489
   10:  306
------------
Total: 3718  Prefixes = 1263  Total Score = 14,206,224
 
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

I have to thank WRTC qualifying for this contest effort.  The weather outside was fantastic and I decided to spend the weekend inside chasing prefixes. Luckily my family understands the obsession.

The contest felt like it started slow.  Couldn’t get an answer to a CQ for 5 minutes. Even so, it ended up as my best hour of the contest. I was ahead of 8P5A for a while.  🙂

It was a weekend of one radio CQing and the second radio always tuning. Never really had two bands open enough to try 2BSIQ.  It was old-fashioned SO2R.

Kept expecting a solar storm of some kind.  Only took one hour of off-time in the first 24 hours. Conditions were good, but not great.  10m never really opened the first day.  Sat evening did have a good opening to JA on 15m. The JAs saved me.  I was 100 prefixes behind ND7K at one point.  The JA opening produced a lot of prefixes to help close the gap.

Second 24 hours was more interesting.  Had to find times to burn 11 hours off. Conditions just kept getting better.  80m sounded like a winter evening with no QRN and very loud signals from Europe. 20m and 40m were open, but had worked most stations so rates were lower.  Felt like activity was down.  I.e., not many stations with small QSO numbers.

Slept 4 hours Sunday morning.

Was about to take another hour off Sunday morning when I tuned across 10m and heard S50C about 20 over 9.  Called CQ and had a good hour.

Decided on a strategy of taking an hour or so off and then getting on for an hour.  Gave me time to take a walk during one off time.  Eat during another. And a shower.  Ran out of time with 90 minutes of the contest still to go.

Even better opening to Japan on 15m on Sunday afternoon.  Had both Eu and JA calling at the same time.

Highlight of the weekend was having the serious USA single ops on the Contestonlinescoreboard.com site. I was neck and neck with N6MJ at ND7K the whole weekend.  Fantastic motivation. I could not match Dan for QSOs, but tried to hang in on multipliers. I realized I had a QSO point advantage when my score was higher even when he had 400 more QSOs and 30 more mults. Nice to be close enough to Europe to get them on the low bands. Also fun to watch the N2IC and K5GN battle for top W5.

The QSB was brutal.  Stations would send 599 loud and then disappear by the last digit of the serial number.  The polar flutter on JA stations would eliminate the dit from a letter. This happened many times.  Thanks to SCP or would not have known I had the call wrong.

Serial numbers were a real frustration on Sunday.  Whether it was having to ask for repeats or giving them. It seemed like the bigger the number got, the harder it was for people to copy. It became a joy to send the number and have it accepted on the first try.

Only one equipment failure.  The SO2R controller started randomly switching split headphones back to combined.  Then it would not switch back until the transmitting radio stopped.  Very frustrating when about to copy a serial number. The problem started Sat evening and then mysteriously stopped on Sunday early. Then came back for awhile Sunday afternoon. Not sure how to duplicate this, but had never seen it happen before.

This was a personal best for me in WPX CW. Just a bit short of the USA record set by WA1Z a few years ago.

Thanks to everyone that got on for the contest and produced so many interesting prefixes! You don’t work calls like AO275JZ or DM5041MK every day.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2/2 @ 110’/70′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 100’/65’/30′
10-20m: C31xr @ 40′

By Continent

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total      %
 
    EU       0     57    447    689    975    189    2357    63.4
    NA       1     45    271    246    270     43     876    23.6
    AF       0      2      8     13     10     11      44     1.2
    AS       0      0      5     82    183      3     273     7.3
    SA       0      1     12     22     25     50     110     3.0
    OC       0      0      4     18     25     10      57     1.5

Rates

QSO/Pref by hour and band
 
Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    Off
 
0000Z  --+--   --+--  112/95   46/43   --+--   --+--  158/138   158/138 
0100Z    -       -    102/72   44/35     -       -    146/107   304/245 
0200Z    -       -     98/59   30/18    5/3      -    133/80    437/325 
0300Z    -      8/4    97/58     -     14/14     -    119/76    556/401 
0400Z    -      9/4    84/33   17/12     -       -    110/49    666/450 
0500Z    -       -     64/32   44/22     -       -    108/54    774/504 
0600Z    -       -      9/5   137/40     -       -    146/45    920/549 
0700Z    -       -     15/9    90/33     -       -    105/42   1025/591 
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   54/28   21/7    --+--   75/35   1100/626 
0900Z    -       -       -     17/14  115/17     -    132/31   1232/657 
1000Z    -       -       -     16/14  132/28     -    148/42   1380/699 
1100Z    -       -       -     19/13  115/35     -    134/48   1514/747 
1200Z    -       -       -      4/4   103/21   22/8   129/33   1643/780 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    107/22   17/6   124/28   1767/808 
1400Z    -       -       -       -     87/22   13/8   100/30   1867/838 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     66/54     -     66/54   1933/892 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    3/3    54/23   11/7    68/33   2001/925 
1700Z    -       -       -     15/6    23/7      -     38/13   2039/938  15
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2039/938  60
1900Z    -       -       -     18/1    32/2      -     50/3    2089/941  32
2000Z    -       -       -     40/9    49/7     5/3    94/19   2183/960 
2100Z    -       -       -       -     79/22   27/9   106/31   2289/991 
2200Z    -       -       -     25/5    71/23    1/0    97/28   2386/1019
2300Z    -       -     20/10   22/6    45/14     -     87/30   2473/1049
0000Z  --+--   --+--    9/3    88/13    9/4    --+--  106/20   2579/1069
0100Z    -       -     44/6    55/15     -       -     99/21   2678/1090
0200Z    -     55/1    17/9     7/5     3/3      -     82/18   2760/1108
0300Z   1/0    33/4    55/6     4/0      -       -     93/10   2853/1118
0400Z    -       -      9/4     7/2     3/1      -     19/7    2872/1125 39
0500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2872/1125 60
0600Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2872/1125 60
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2872/1125 60
0800Z  --+--   --+--    1/0    19/3    --+--   --+--   20/3    2892/1128 50
0900Z    -       -      1/0    91/10   14/1      -    106/11   2998/1139
1000Z    -       -       -     67/11   23/4      -     90/15   3088/1154
1100Z    -       -      8/2    13/2    56/15    2/0    79/19   3167/1173
1200Z    -       -      1/1     5/2    79/10    4/2    89/15   3256/1188
1300Z    -       -       -       -     27/6    79/5   106/11   3362/1199
1400Z    -       -       -       -      8/2    24/4    32/6    3394/1205 33
1500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3394/1205 60
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   28/7    66/3    94/10   3488/1215  9
1700Z    -       -       -       -      9/2    26/2    35/4    3523/1219 35
1800Z    -       -       -       -     15/2     7/1    22/3    3545/1222 43
1900Z    -       -       -     19/5    25/8      -     44/13   3589/1235  8
2000Z    -       -       -      1/1     2/2      -      3/3    3592/1238 60
2100Z    -       -      1/1    28/3    56/12    2/2    87/18   3679/1256
2200Z    -       -       -     25/1    14/6      -     39/7    3718/1263 35
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3718/1263 60
 
Total:  1/0   105/13 747/405 1070/379 1489/406 306/60 

Best 60  mins: 164 @25-May-2024 00:02      

Worked on 5 bands:

9A1A AK1MD CN3A CR6K DL3YM DP6A DP7D DP9A EF6T II8K II9P K1ZZ K8LX LZ9W NR4M OL3Z OL7D OM7M S53M VE3EJ YR8D YT5A

Most worked entities

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
     K       1     34    235    210    222     28     730
    DL             11     80     97    166     46     400
    JA                           50    113            163
    UA                    23     53     93      6     175
     I              4     26     46     62     13     151
     G              3     19     34     49     17     122
    OK              5     28     38     38      4     113
    EA              5     12     35     41     12     105
    HA              1     27     36     34      4     102
    UR                    22     31     47      1     101
    SP              1     28     24     41      4      98

                    CQMM DX Contest - 2024

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 12.7
OpMode: 2BSIQ

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Prefixes
----------------------
   80:   30       3
   40:  171      25
   20:  246      28
   15:  454      28
   10:  261      54
----------------------
Total: 1162     138  Countries = 94  Total Score = 1,244,448

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Entertaining contest. Conditions were not the best.  Activity was low on Sunday so I decided to spend some time outside.

Rates

QSO/Dx+Pref by hour and band

 Hour      80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm     Off

D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
D1-1000Z    -     10/3     3/4    20/9      -     33/16     33/16     35
D1-1100Z    -       -       -     91/21   15/7   106/28    139/44  
D1-1200Z    -       -       -     71/10   49/12  120/22    259/66  
D1-1300Z    -       -      3/1     5/0    55/13   63/14    322/80  
D1-1400Z    -       -      2/1    39/2    46/13   87/16    409/96     30
D1-1500Z    -       -       -     61/4    25/6    86/10    495/106 
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    4/2     8/3    12/5     507/111    49
D1-1700Z    -       -      2/0    38/4    19/4    59/8     566/119     8
D1-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     566/119    60
D1-1900Z    -       -     56/1     9/6    10/6    75/13    641/132    16
D1-2000Z    -       -     45/0     3/4     4/5    52/9     693/141    35
D1-2100Z    -       -     32/7     3/4      -     35/11    728/152    42
D1-2200Z    -     17/4    35/14    3/3    16/6    71/27    799/179 
D1-2300Z    -     14/4     3/2     1/1      -     18/7     817/186    44
D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     817/186    60
D2-0100Z   5/2    28/6    12/7      -       -     45/15    862/201    25
D2-0200Z  25/1    54/11   11/1     1/0      -     91/13    953/214 
D2-0300Z    -      4/1     1/1      -       -      5/2     958/216    55
D2-0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     958/216    60
D2-0500Z    -     36/1     7/0      -       -     43/1    1001/217    32
D2-0600Z    -      8/0     2/0      -       -     10/0    1011/217    54
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1011/217    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1011/217    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1011/217    60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1011/217    60
D2-1100Z    -       -     26/1     5/2      -     31/3    1042/220    43
D2-1200Z    -       -      6/0    10/4     2/2    18/6    1060/226    38
D2-1300Z    -       -       -     10/0     2/1    12/1    1072/227    54
D2-1400Z    -       -       -     80/2     8/3    88/5    1160/232 
D2-1500Z    -       -       -       -      2/0     2/0    1162/232    57
D2-1600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1162/232    60
D2-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1162/232    60
D2-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1162/232    60

Total:    30/3   171/30  246/40  454/78  261/81