Randy Thompson K5ZD and Tom Georgens W2SC went to Bologna Italy with every intention to win the World Radiosport Team Championship. Despite their best efforts, they fell short but not by much. They ranked 8th out of 58 teams with an overall score of 5,945,800 points which included 4390 QSOs in 24 hours. Randy talks in detail about qualifying, selecting the right teammate, prepping for their operating station, redundancy, location surprises, and contest tactics. If you’re into ham radio contesting, you’ll enjoy hearing from this contest hall of famer and now repeat WRTC competitor.
CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 55
40: 486
20: 543
15: 1013
10: 35
------------
Total: 2132 Prefixes = 931 Total Score = 5,748,925
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Conditions seemed fantastic for the times I was on. Especially 15m.
The main goal for the weekend was to get together with W2SC and test our WRTC station setup. Did that in the backyard on Saturday in the most perfect weather imaginable (callsign WR1TC).
Watched Formula 1 and Indy 500 on Sunday while operating. Always fun how the score takes off as the QSO totals rise.
Nice to see so much activity (and prefixes) from Ukraine.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Kevin Thomas W1DED. It was a wide-ranging conversation about what makes contesting fun and interesting to me.
Contesting Tips and Inspiration from Hall of Famer Randy Thompson K5ZD
If you’re new to contesting or just want to get some inspiration and tips from one of the best contesters in the world, you may want to watch this video interview with Randy Thompson, K5ZD. Randy has been contesting for 50 years and was inducted into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame in 2008. He recently participated in the ARRL DX SSB Contest where he is currently (and unofficially) ranked third worldwide in the Single Operator Unlimited All Band High Power category. He racked up over 4.4 million points while also taking care of some household errands, taking his wife out to dinner, and watching some Formula 1 racing. Randy also operated remotely, for the first time, with the multi-op ZF1A entry in CQ WPX SSB 2023. You’ll be impressed with Randy’s cool, measured approach to amateur radio contesting and his focus on keeping up with the ever-changing game with a positive attitude.
ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 28.5
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 33 25
80: 159 54
40: 182 69
20: 763 106
15: 943 105
10: 1162 103
-------------------
Total: 3242 462 Total Score = 4,493,412
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Considered going unassisted, but didn’t want to spend the weekend listening to people not send their calls…
All bands were open at the start, but I didn’t want to mess with 40. Ended up calling CQ on 20. Amazing where the band is open to at 00z. A71KK called in at 59+20 and said he was running 80w. Same with HZ1DS who was 59+ running 100w. Then a ZS.
I did have one good run on 40m. I was transmitting on 7205 and listening on 7089. RW9USA called in and he was 40 over S9. Amazing! That was my only real success working split. Don’t know why people don’t do that anymore.
Snow static started around 0130z. By 0230z it was so bad I could not hear any signals on any band. Went off to watch TV for a while. Came back and the static was still bad. The only band with no snow static (160m) had some kind of electronic noise that was S6 across the band (probably from a neighbor). Went to bed and hoped for better in the morning.
Saturday was fun. Went straight to 15m at 1145z and it was off to the races. Jumped to 10m at 1246z and it got even wilder. After several hours took a break to do some errands, then took my wife out to dinner later that afternoon. Watched the Formula 1 qualifying in the evening. Got back on for Eu sunrise and caught up on the low band multipliers that I missed the first night. I did more CQing on 20m and was rewarded with a 3DA0 station calling in and asking what I needed for the contest.
Took a short sleep and got up to catch some of the Asia and Pacific mults on 40. The JAs were S9 on 40.
More running on Sunday morning. Really struggled to get or keep a frequency on both 15 and 10.
The bands were slow to open. I spent all day Sunday getting beat out by stations in PA, MD, and VA. This makes sense since the bands were great to Italy and southern Europe all day but marginal to northern Eu.
As sunset passed to Western Eu the conditions improved. Had a great run on 10m of stations that were solid S9 and yet many were running less than 50W.
I noticed something interesting this weekend. On Saturday morning my 10m stack at 60’/30′ was the best antenna for Europe. On Sunday, it seemed like the 6-ele at 90′ was always better. All this contest season the stack has been the winner, but not on Sunday.
I noticed something similar on 20m on both days. Normally the stack in phase (BIP) is ALWAYS the best antenna. I try out of phase (BOP) sometimes, just for fun, but it is never an improvement. Not this weekend. The BOP configuration was an S-unit louder to Europe. I guess it is true that you can never have too many antenna options.
20m was finally good for running when I went there early around 1900z. That meant I could get a frequency. Definitely helped boost the score since I was missing some easy mults there.
Spent the last part of the contest chasing multipliers. Learned more humility. Had some great tail-end wins with HH2AA and 9V1YC. The last hour did have a good run to JA on 15m which was a pleasant surprise. Then jumped across all bands the last hour looking for anything I could work. Nice to have so many PY stations available.
TM6M once again wins the award for widest signal. There were lots of other wide and splattering signals from Europe. The good propagation makes the splatter even more noticeable. It is great for them to help keep the frequency clear, but not so good for the rest of us. Very poor sportsmanship.
Overall a fun contest. Thanks to those around the world that chase us across the bands.
ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 36.2
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 76 38
80: 402 57
40: 853 78
20: 1097 87
15: 1211 89
10: 1318 87
-------------------
Total: 4957 436 Total Score = 6,483,756
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Conditions could not be better than this one. All the bands were hot!
Comments:
This contest did not take the normal path. After 8k+ QSOs in January for the N1W WRTC event, WPX RTTY last weekend, plus some business travel, I hit the wall at about 0300z the first night. Even though the conditions were terrific, I just couldn’t see pushing through. Went to sleep for 6 hours.
When I woke up I was more than 500 QSOs behind K1ZZ and even more behind N2IC on the scoreboard. But, I felt great and the rates Saturday morning were simply amazing with consecutive hours of 193, 218, 216, 199, 173.
The second wall hit about 2 pm so took some time off to eat. Got back on for a while and then decided I needed to get a walk in before dark. Returned after sunset to discover an incredible opening to Japan. Even had some BY stations call me! At the 24-hour mark I had as many JAs in the log than stations from Italy. Whoa.
Saturday evening I decided to try to catch up from missing Friday night. The low bands were excellent and very quiet. Could hear almost anything. The sunrise peak on 160 to Europe was great with 9A1A up to S9 for a while.
Was catching up to the leaders so only slept for 90 minutes and then straight on to 20m. Rates were not as crazy, but the band was open deep with JA and BY calling in over Europe on 20m. So many Russians!
It was fun watching the scoreboard and chasing. Decided to just power through to the end to see if I could catch the leaders. Seeing K1ZZ, N2IC and I switching places at the top on almost every update was exciting. Thought I had passed N2IC at the end for the win, but K5GN turned in a truly amazing score from Texas that was ahead of us all.
Only SO2R here. Tried to run on two bands when the rates slowed, but just can’t do it. It was an experiment that lasted 10 minutes at most.
The worst signals of the weekend award go to TM6M (some kind of wide sidecars on their signal especially on 20), SN3A (very wide on 40m), and many others from Europe with strong clicks (too many to remember and name).
Having all bands open spread out the activity. Was relatively easy to find a CQ frequency. At the same time, that plus the rates made it very difficult to find multipliers. You would tune by and just hear “599 KW” and then “TU.” Before the cluster and RBN stations had a reason to sign their call to generate pileups. No more.
Best DX was being called by VU stations on 40-10m. HS on 10-20. V85 called in on 20 and then heard me through a big pileup on 15. VR2CO called in. Also DU3T on two bands. Nice to have JAs calling me on 10 and 15. The JAs were even loud on 40.
All the antenna work over the summer paid off. The new 40m stack is significantly better to Europe than the other 40m beam. And the low stack on 10m made me feel like the king of the band.
We will likely never see conditions this good again across all of the bands in the same weekend. Too bad I didn’t make a recording of this one.
Thanks to contesters around the world for chasing us all weekend. Especially for the number of Russian and Ukraine stations that were on. Those guys really know CW!
CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2023
Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 28
OpMode: 2BSIQ
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 204
40: 543
20: 494
15: 769
10: 609
------------
Total: 2619 Prefixes = 900 Total Score = 6,745,500
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This is a fun contest. Never intended to do a full effort, but operated more than expected.
The first 8 hours were full-on. Things started slow but picked up as Europe woke up. Could not keep up with AA3B. Bud is amazing at working on 2 bands AND chasing multipliers.
Took some sleep and then continued. Could never really get good runs on 2 bands at the same time. It was almost like the bands were too open. Activity was really spread out.
Did my Sat morning errands. Weather was very nice outside. Got back on the radio, but the nice weather was calling. Took time off Sat afternoon to play 18 holes of golf. Got on for a while and discovered one of the best JA openings on
10 and 15 that I have experienced in a contest. My family called for me to cook dinner. Worked a bit more but was too sleepy to continue late.
Woke up Sunday morning and pushed hard for another 8+ hours. Managed to catch most of the guys who had gotten ahead of me. Was going to stop for the Super Bowl, but just kept going right to the end of the contest.
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD KW1X
Station: K5ZD
Class: M/S HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 24.2
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 1152 146 (81 DX, 65 states/prov)
SSB: 849 123 (62 DX, 61 states/prov)
-------------------
Total: 2001 269 Total Score = 1,693,314
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
A casual multi-single effort. Wanted to give Mark KA1YQC a chance to use the antenna system he had helped me build over the summer. Mark did a lot of the CW operating while I covered phone.
Mark just received his new call – KW1X – on Friday.
Bands opened to Europe within minutes of sunrise on both mornings. Things got slow in the afternoons when it was all South America and stations in Colorado and Texas. Weird that the opening to the Pacific Northwest never seemed to get very good.
We did well on chasing multipliers. Best QSO of the weekend was having JE1CKA call in on Sunday evening after dark. Another thrill was getting a very weak VY1JA through a huge pileup. With the 6-el, I really have to move it to work JA, KL7, and VY1.
Nice to see the sunspots bringing higher MUFs.
No big monster rates. Just a continuous stream of callers or S&P QSOs.
We used N1MM+ for the weekend at Mark’s request. First real contest I have used it. Definitely some challenges due to keystrokes and software behavior not being like my usual software, but we lived through it.
Very happy with how the 10m array was working all weekend.
6-el @100′ 4-el @63′ 4-el @32′
Spent most of the time running Europe on the lower two antennas.
By Continent
10M CW 10M PHO Total %
NA 629 606 1235 61.7
OC 11 12 23 1.1
EU 473 165 638 31.9
AF 5 5 10 0.5
AS 4 1 5 0.2
SA 30 60 90 4.5
K5ZD (op. K5ZD) in the Single Operator Assisted Category, High Power.
This was an SO2R operation. The audio is the same as heard by the operator. When headphones are ‘split’, the left channel is from the left side radio and the right channel is from the right side radio. The sidetone audio is very low so you may not always be able to hear what is being sent.
V47T (op. K5ZD) in the Single Operator Category, High Power. Read the post-contest write-up.
This was an SO2R operation. The audio is the same as that heard by the operator. When headphones are ‘split’, the left channel is from the left side radio and the right channel is from the right side radio.
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 42.2
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 88 15 51
80: 504 22 87
40: 1453 32 118
20: 1103 38 127
15: 1115 31 121
10: 759 28 110
------------------------------
Total: 5022 166 614 Total Score = 11,311,560
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Another amazing CQWW CW. So much more fun with sunspots and a bonus to have the low bands be so quiet and open.
The 40m stack that I worked so hard on all summer had the top antenna fail a few weeks before the contest. With help from KA1YQC I thought we had it fixed last weekend. Nope. That had me a little down, but it is CQWW so decided to get on and see how it all goes.
Wow. The QSOs just kept coming. Always enjoy the tension between multiplier spots and the need to maintain a run frequency and the rate. Managed to stay focused on rate most of the weekend.
Once again I operated more due to the online scoreboard. Something about seeing how other people are doing that fires me up. I was amazed to see K1AR killing me on mults the first day. At one point he was almost 100 ahead. That became a focus to try and catch him. Finally did that and saw K1ZZ climbing the leader board with an even bigger mult. So started trying to reel him in. Keeps my BIC…
The top antenna of the new 40 stack didn’t work, but the bottom one seemed to play well. When I checked it was always better than the old 40. And the new 10m antenna arrangement was also a big improvement over what I had before. So felt much better about all the work after the contest.
Great start. Took 2 hour sleep the first night so I could be fresh for the rate on Sat morning. It worked as I had 3 hours in a row over 200.
10m was slow to open, but once it did there was rate to be had. I tried to always be running on one band and chasing multiplier spots on the other. Conditions were perfect for trying 2BSIQ, but I just don’t seem to have the skills for that.
I have never felt so weak on 160 as I did the first night. I could hear lots of stations, but they could not hear me. It was much better the second night and I was able to rescue the multiplier total.
Not much from JA the first 24 hours, but better the second day. I did get JA3YBK to copy K5 on 80, but then he disappeared so missed my chanced. Only two JA on 40. 20 had great signals to Asia on Sunday evening and was even able to call some BY stations and have them come back to me! Even worked a bunch of JA on 15m.
I took a lunch break with 4 hours to go and figured there was no chance to make it to 5000 QSOs. Got a nice frequency on 40 and was able to S&P across 10, 15, and 20 to keep filling in missing band slots with the expeditions. My first ever CQ WW from home with over 5k QSOs.
Some of the pileups were a mess. 3B9KW was on 80 at his sunrise and had a great signal. In 10 minutes he managed to make 1 QSO because both EU and NA stations would never stop calling. I know split is not ideal in contests, but this was a time it was necessary. 7Q6M was running split on 10m and was cranking out the QSOs, but he would never announce that he was split. So took some time to figure it out.
Nice to have all the bands open so people could spread out. There were still plenty of people asking QRL? just seconds after I would finish a CQ, but there were also long stretches where it felt like I had the frequency all to myself.
Thanks to everyone around the world who gets on the air and helps make CQWW the best. Special thanks to all the travelers who add to the country total.
Special thanks to W2ID for loaning me a K3S so my K3 could go in for repair. Was quite interesting to see how much “quieter” the K3S was than the K3 due to the improved receiver. Can’t wait to try a K4 sometime.
