Author: K5ZD

Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 31.7
Summary:
Band    QSOs
160:      24
 80:     484
 40:     876
 20:    2423
 15:     164
 10:       5
Total:  3976  Prefixes = 1247  Total Score = 12,412,638
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This was the Corona virus self isolation contest.  People around the world had no sports to watch, places to go, or partners to take on dates. Activity on the bands was very good. At the same time, there were very few multi-ops. That was a small help in alleviating the crowding on 40 and 20 meters!

Fun contest. Well, except for the QRM.  And stations stacked on top of each other on 20 meters… 

I decided to enter the new “CLASSIC” overlay so only used one radio. WPX is mostly a rate contest so didn’t figure that would be much of a problem.

Took my first mental health break at 04z after a furious run on 40m when I actually got 7132. Then slept some. Came back for a few minutes and then decided to get some sleep.

Set the alarm early for Saturday morning. Got to 20m and it was a zoo. One advantage of being in New England is that we get access to Europe before the rest of the country so I was able to get a frequency. This morning I was just above the SSTV channel. It worked out very well with some big hours.

Took a few breaks when the rate was still good on Saturday.  Finally got serious on Sunday morning.

The low bands were great.  20 was pretty good, but only if you could get a frequency. 15m was a tease with a few loud signals but no volume.  10 was only open a few minutes.

20 meters turned out to be excellent on Saturday evening. It started with a very good JA opening and then was wide open across the USA. That produced some big rates and lots of new prefixes. I pushed through 0530z as I could see my score was doing ok on the scoreboard.

Set the alarm for early Sunday morning. It wasn’t as good as Saturday, but once I had carved out a spot, the stations (and new mults) kept coming. I started the morning more than a million points behind some of the stations I had been chasing on the board. By the end of the 20m run, I had caught and passed some of them. At this point, I was head down trying to make as much score as possible. Only took one break on Sunday to eat and clear my head.

Rates continued to the end of the contest. 20 meters kept producing more new prefixes. Then when I went to 40m, it was rocking as well. Couldn’t get a spot below 7200 so was happy to run W/VE and get more prefixes. Spent the last 20 minutes tuning 40 and 75 just to see what was out there.

Was a thrill to give out QSO #4001 at the end of the contest.  I know I am going to look back and regret not operating more on Saturday!

I dedicate this contest to contestonlinescore.com.  If not for the scoreboard, I would have quit several times.

I did record the full contest and will try to post to my web site after the log deadline.

Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun!

Rates:

QSO/Pref by hour and band

Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    Off

0000Z  --+--   60/51   --+--   49/43   --+--   --+--  109/94    109/94  
0100Z    -     12/9   166/116    -       -       -    178/125   287/219 
0200Z    -       -    176/95     -       -       -    176/95    463/314 
0300Z  15/6    33/12  100/44     -       -       -    148/62    611/376 
0400Z    -      3/2      -       -       -       -      3/2     614/378   58
0500Z    -    101/48     -       -       -       -    101/48    715/426    2
0600Z   2/0    29/11   36/18     -       -       -     67/29    782/455   16
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     782/455   60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     782/455   60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     782/455   60
1000Z    -       -     15/5    61/34     -       -     76/39    858/494   20
1100Z    -       -       -    176/93     -       -    176/93   1034/587 
1200Z    -       -       -    182/77     -       -    182/77   1216/664 
1300Z    -       -       -    177/59     -       -    177/59   1393/723 
1400Z    -       -       -       -     53/16     -     53/16   1446/739   14
1500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1446/739   60
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1446/739   60
1700Z    -       -       -     43/11   12/1      -     55/12   1501/751   18
1800Z    -       -       -    140/34     -       -    140/34   1641/785 
1900Z    -       -       -      2/1    12/6      -     14/7    1655/792   48
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1655/792   60
2100Z    -       -       -       -     24/11    5/3    29/14   1684/806   36
2200Z    -       -     24/5    58/24    3/0      -     85/29   1769/835    3
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1769/835   60
0000Z  --+--   --+--   90/21   45/12   --+--   --+--  135/33   1904/868    4
0100Z    -       -       -    153/40     -       -    153/40   2057/908 
0200Z    -     40/6    69/9     7/0      -       -    116/15   2173/923 
0300Z   1/0    96/21     -       -       -       -     97/21   2270/944 
0400Z   4/1    67/15     -       -       -       -     71/16   2341/960 
0500Z   2/0     6/1    27/4      -       -       -     35/5    2376/965   20
0600Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2376/965   60
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2376/965   60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2376/965   60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2376/965   60
1000Z    -     26/6    20/2      -       -       -     46/8    2422/973   21
1100Z    -       -     28/3   127/32     -       -    155/35   2577/1008
1200Z    -       -       -    130/31     -       -    130/31   2707/1039
1300Z    -       -       -    130/25     -       -    130/25   2837/1064
1400Z    -       -       -    124/35     -       -    124/35   2961/1099
1500Z    -       -       -    132/24     -       -    132/24   3093/1123
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   42/8    41/2    --+--   83/10   3176/1133
1700Z    -       -       -      6/1     1/1      -      7/2    3183/1135  60
1800Z    -       -       -    143/24     -       -    143/24   3326/1159
1900Z    -       -       -    129/11     -       -    129/11   3455/1170
2000Z    -       -       -    146/13     -       -    146/13   3601/1183
2100Z    -       -       -    167/27     -       -    167/27   3768/1210
2200Z    -       -     15/2    54/13   18/5      -     87/20   3855/1230
2300Z    -     11/1   110/16     -       -       -    121/17   3976/1247

Total: 24/7   484/183 876/340 2423/672 164/42    5/3  

Best 60 minutes: 206

Worked on 6 bands: none

Worked on 5 bands: NP2P

Most worked countries:

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

    DL       1     32     16    200      3            252
    EA             17     17     70     18            122
     F             14     10     87      6            117
     G              7      6    138                   151
     I             16     25    198     24            263
     K      11    254    587    738     20      1    1611
    VE       4     28     46     75      5            158

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Countries  Oblasts
  160:    53     0       20         2
   80:   326     0       52        22
   40:   493    38       65        15
   20:   721   143       81        50
   15:    29     2       17         0
   10:     2     0        2         0
Total:  1624   183      237        89  Total Score = 2,891,294

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

After two days of great conditions leading up to the contest, it was not so good during the contest.

I did this contest for the WRTC qualifying points, and because I needed a distraction from the medical problems of the world.  Always fun to immerse in a contest and forget about reality.

I did something wrong on 40m to be so low on oblasts.

Low bands were very quiet here. I called a number of Russians on 160 and 80 that would just call CQ.  Not even a “?” in reply.

The 10m QSO in the middle of the night was a move of KC1XX from 160 to get the USA mult!

Z81C in South Sudan called me on 20 meters.  Said it was his first QSO with the new license!  With ham radio, you never know who will answer a CQ.

Very happy to work XV1X on 40m LP.  Could not get the attention of 9V1YC a few minutes later. 🙁

I think I was a bit burned out from big efforts in ARRL CW and SSB. Seemed to hit a wall around 0600 and decided to get some sleep. My competitors had 2 good hours after I stopped. Lesson learned!

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs!

Rates:

Hour   160m     80m     40m     20m     15m     10m    Total     Cumm   Off
1200Z    -       -     15/4   120/32     -       -    135/36    135/36   
1300Z    -       -      2/0   114/3     3/1      -    119/4     254/40   
1400Z    -       -       -     76/12    9/9      -     85/21    339/61   
1500Z    -       -       -    134/6     3/3      -    137/9     476/70   
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  117/3     8/4    --+--  125/7     601/77   
1700Z    -       -       -     90/9     4/0      -     94/9     695/86   
1800Z    -       -       -     86/4     4/0      -     90/4     785/90    9
1900Z    -       -     19/5    22/3      -      1/1    42/9     827/99   12
2000Z    -       -     62/14   19/5      -       -     81/19    908/118  
2100Z    -       -     97/6    14/0      -       -    111/6    1019/124  
2200Z    -     21/15   33/14   11/1      -       -     65/30   1084/154  
2300Z    -     90/21    7/2      -       -       -     97/23   1181/177  
0000Z  10/6    24/3    66/3    --+--   --+--    1/1   101/13   1282/190  
0100Z    -     26/4    77/3      -       -       -    103/7    1385/197  
0200Z  24/11   12/1    40/5      -       -       -     76/17   1461/214  
0300Z  13/3    53/4    14/1      -       -       -     80/8    1541/222  
0400Z   6/0    38/2    43/0      -       -       -     87/2    1628/224  20
0500Z    -     47/1     5/1      -       -       -     52/2    1680/226  
0600Z    -      3/0    25/3      -       -       -     28/3    1708/229  30
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1708/229  60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1708/229  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1708/229  60
1000Z    -     11/1    23/4     1/0      -       -     35/5    1743/234   5
1100Z    -      1/0     3/0    60/3      -       -     64/3    1807/237  
Total: 53/20  326/52  531/65  864/81   31/17    2/2  

Russians worked

      160m    80m    40m    20m    15m    10m   Total 
UA       2     28     32    131                   193
UA2             1             3                     4
UA9             2      2     11                    15

                ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: V47T
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: DX
Operating Time (hrs): 41
 
Summary:
  Band   QSOs  Mults
  160:   261    44
   80:   926    59
   40:  1554    59
   20:  2035    60
   15:  2046    59
   10:     4     4
Total:  6826   285  Total Score = 5,836,230

Comments:

Thanks to N2NT for the use of the station.  Nothing better than being on a hill on an island!

A few notes as I reflect on the contest:

40m beam had failed.  Replacement was an Inverted vee with top at 50′. Didn’t have the same confidence without the beam, but based on the signal reports, I should have pushed the band harder.

Who knew there were so many hams in Delaware?! Or in Florida?  FL must have been the landing point of the first bounce from here because they were loud on every band.  And lots of them!

Power line noise sucks.  It started Sat morning and lasted through Sat afternoon.  Then the same on Sunday.  It was only in the direction of USA and impacted all antennas.  Combined with the rapid QSB, I spent a lot of time asking people to repeat their call and state.  Sorry if I was an alligator on 15 and 20 at times.

I had a bit of a mental breakdown on Sat due to the line noise. It was a full breakdown on Sun morning.  I decided to close up the station, drive 30 mins to my AirBnB, take a shower, then drive back.  Took 75 mins total.  But, when I returned I had my sanity again and was able to power through the line noise until it stopped just in time for 20m. (Getting up and down the hill is an adventure that requires all wheel drive and a road that does not permit speeding unless you want to break the suspension…)

In a bit of line noise frustration on Sat, I went to 10m and decided to call CQ.  K3LR answered my first CQ. He spotted me and I was able to work K8AZ, VE3EJ and K1TTT.  That was it for the band.  Impressed to be found on the very first CQ.

From the DX side, this contest reminded me of Sweepstakes.  There are limited mults.  It is all about running guys.  I think I called 3 people all weekend.

Only had one radio.  Every band change was a leap into the unknown. I had to stop whatever run was happening, go to the new band, retune the amp, find a new frequency, and then hope to be spotted.  This cycle took 5 to 10 minutes each time.  Worst was to change bands and then have to go back and not be able to find a spot.

Great to have 20m open for the first hour.  Got a fantastic start that dried up toward the end so ‘only’ a 299 hour.  Best 60 mins was 312.

Worked only 4 stations on 6 bands.  141 on 5 bands.

Slept 90 mins the first night.  3 hours the second.  Cost some QSOs, but was hoping to be fresh for the high bands.  No telling what the line noise would have done to me without the sleep!

Really struggled for mults on 160. Missed VE2 and everything in W0 except Colorado! How could that happen?!

Writelog software worked perfectly (as always).  Made a full recording of the contest in one hour mp3 files.  Might be a few hours that would be fun to listen to.

Thanks to everyone who called in.  Was a great experience.  Doing SOAB from the DX side in ARRL DX has been a bucket list item for me. Very entertaining. Congratulations to N6MJ @ TI7W for a commanding win and to W2SC @ 8P5A for putting me back in my place.

Randy

Rates:

Click on the Listen link to hear the audio for that hour. The transmit audio is a bit stronger than the received audio – sorry about that. Didn’t have a way to check audio levels before the contest. What you hear is what I was hearing in the headphones.

Hour    160M    80M     40M     20M     15M     10M   Total    Cumm      Off
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  299/47   --+--   --+--  299/47   299/47           Listen
0100Z    -       -    208/41   58/3      -       -    266/44   565/91           Listen
0200Z    -    199/45   15/1      -       -       -    214/46   779/137          Listen
0300Z  63/23   64/6    48/4      -       -       -    175/33   954/170          Listen
0400Z   3/0      -    219/6      -       -       -    222/6   1176/176          Listen
0500Z  42/8   123/4      -       -       -       -    165/12  1341/188          Listen
0600Z  24/2    43/0    77/1      -       -       -    144/3   1485/191          Listen
0700Z   1/0    36/1    65/0      -       -       -    102/1   1587/192          Listen
0800Z   8/2     6/0    --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   14/2   1601/194    39    Listen
0900Z    -       -     18/1      -       -       -     18/1   1619/195    45    Listen
1000Z   3/1    39/0    37/0      -       -       -     79/1   1698/196          Listen
1100Z    -       -    126/2      -       -       -    126/2   1824/198          Listen
1200Z    -       -       -    138/1      -       -    138/1   1962/199          Listen
1300Z    -       -       -     46/1    69/23     -    115/24  2077/223          Listen
1400Z    -       -       -       -    197/14     -    197/14  2274/237          Listen
1500Z    -       -       -       -    296/14     -    296/14  2570/251          Listen
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  271/1    --+--  271/1   2841/252          Listen
1700Z    -       -       -       -    203/0      -    203/0   3044/252          Listen
1800Z    -       -       -      5/0   173/0      -    178/0   3222/252          Listen
1900Z    -       -       -       -    137/0     4/4   141/4   3363/256          Listen
2000Z    -       -       -    188/2    62/0      -    250/2   3613/258          Listen
2100Z    -       -       -    217/4    54/1      -    271/5   3884/263          Listen
2200Z    -       -       -    236/1     7/0      -    243/1   4127/264          Listen
2300Z    -     26/0      -    150/0      -       -    176/0   4303/264          Listen
0000Z  --+--   13/0   181/1    --+--   --+--   --+--  194/1   4497/265          Listen
0100Z    -       -    182/0      -       -       -    182/0   4679/265          Listen
0200Z  34/2   115/1    42/0      -       -       -    191/3   4870/268          Listen
0300Z   1/0   129/1      -       -       -       -    130/1   5000/269          Listen
0400Z  40/4      -    115/0      -       -       -    155/4   5155/273          Listen
0500Z  34/2      -     70/0      -       -       -    104/2   5259/275          Listen
0600Z   4/0    31/1      -       -       -       -     35/1   5294/276    38    Listen
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0   5294/276    60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0   5294/276    60
0900Z   1/0    19/0      -       -       -       -     20/0   5314/276    45    Listen
1000Z   1/0    41/0     4/0      -       -       -     46/0   5360/276          Listen
1100Z    -       -     58/2     1/0      -       -     59/2   5419/278          Listen
1200Z    -       -       -     41/0      -       -     41/0   5460/278          Listen
1300Z    -       -       -     27/0      -       -     27/0   5487/278    30    Listen
1400Z    -       -       -     73/0      -       -     73/0   5560/278     2    Listen
1500Z    -       -       -     44/0    25/0      -     69/0   5629/278     4    Listen
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0   5629/278    60
1700Z    -       -       -       -     97/2      -     97/2   5726/280    34    Listen
1800Z    -       -       -       -    171/1      -    171/1   5897/281          Listen
1900Z    -       -       -      2/1   164/0      -    166/1   6063/282          Listen
2000Z    -       -       -    106/0   120/3      -    226/3   6289/285          Listen
2100Z    -       -       -    192/0      -       -    192/0   6481/285          Listen
2200Z    -       -       -    172/0      -       -    172/0   6653/285          Listen
2300Z   2/0    42/0    89/0    40/0      -       -    173/0   6826/285          Listen
Total: 261/44  926/59 1554/59 2035/60 2046/59    4/4

                ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Class: SO Unlimited HP
Operating Time (hrs): 38.3
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
  Band   QSOs  Mults
   160:   277    68
    80:   690    89
    40:  1106   103
    20:  1831   115
    15:   194    74
    10:    18    15
 Total:  4116   464  Total Score = 5,729,472

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

A few notes

Rates the first 18 hours or so were fantastic. Especially going down to 80 meters in the first hour and getting answers.

It felt like we ran out of people to work on the second day. No matter how good the low bands (and they were really good), this contest needs the easy QSOs on 10 and 15. Maybe again some day!

Amazing runs on 160. There were times Sat night when the band hiss on 80 and 160 sounded like 10m. No QRN at all.

Very nice JA opening on 20m Sat evening. I actually got answers to my CQs!

I had planned a semi-serious effort to go for WRTC qualifying points. Decided before the contest I would sleep both nights. First night went according to plan, but didn’t expect 20 to open so early. It was already rocking when I got there. I had planned to sleep Sat evening when the Europeans were sleeping. That worked out well, but I could see on the scoreboard that AA3B gained 150+ QSOs during that time. I made it my mission on Sunday morning to try to close the gap.

I had also planned to sleep Sun morning at 09z. About that time I came down with some kind food poisoning. Had to take a number of unplanned breaks for that. Thought about quitting many times… Thanks to the incredibly close scoreboard competition with AA3B (we were trading places every hour or so) I was motivated to keep pushing. At the finish we are too close to call.

10m was completely empty on Saturday. Was surprised to see spots on Sunday morning. It must have been e-skip because propagation was very spotlight. 8P5A and VP2MSS were in all the time. Everyone else was nil until their 5 minutes of propagation appeared.

DX contests are funny. I can run guys like crazy and then when I tune around a call people, I am always getting beat out and have to stand my turn in line. DXers are loud!

Fun contest. Thanks to everyone around the world who spent their weekend chasing W/VE stations. You make the contest fun.

Recording

Click here to listen to audio recordings of the full operation.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
Writelog + MK2R+
160: Shunt fed tower, elevated 1/4-wave GP
 80: 4 square, dipole @ 80'
 40: 40-2CD @ 110'
 20: 205CA @ 100'/50'
 15: 155CA @ 66'/33'
 10: 6-ele @ 90'
South: TH7DXX @ 40'

By Continent

      160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total      % 
EU     237    611    983   1550    108      0    3489    84.8 
SA       6     18     24     47     37     10     142     3.4 
AF       6     10     15     16      8      0      55     1.3 
AS       1     10     19    152      3      0     185     4.5 
NA      25     36     41     51     34      8     195     4.7 
OC       2      5     24     14      4      0      49     1.2

Breakdown

QSO/DX by hour and band
  Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total  Cumulative  Off
0000Z  --+--   91/31   60/31    1/1    --+--   --+--  152/63   152/63 
0100Z    -     80/7    46/15     -       -       -    126/22   278/85 
0200Z  74/28   38/18     -       -       -       -    112/46   390/131
0300Z  43/17   19/4    54/3      -       -       -    116/24   506/155
0400Z    -     14/4    93/14     -       -       -    107/18   613/173
0500Z  50/12   62/7     2/2      -       -       -    114/21   727/194
0600Z  17/5    72/4    23/8      -       -       -    112/17   839/211
0700Z   6/2    14/3   114/8      -       -       -    134/13   973/224
0800Z  --+--    2/0    18/2    --+--   --+--   --+--   20/2    993/226   45
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    993/226   60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    993/226   60
1100Z    -      2/1      -    121/33     -       -    123/34  1116/260   24
1200Z    -       -       -    212/11     -       -    212/11  1328/271
1300Z    -       -       -    196/5    11/9      -    207/14  1535/285
1400Z    -       -       -    141/6    36/19     -    177/25  1712/310
1500Z    -       -       -     70/25   34/9      -    104/34  1816/344
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  103/9     6/2    --+--  109/11  1925/355
1700Z    -       -       -     63/4     4/2      -     67/6   1992/361   20
1800Z    -       -       -     78/4     8/4      -     86/8   2078/369
1900Z    -       -      8/1    35/4    22/12     -     65/17  2143/386
2000Z    -       -    113/2     4/0     2/0      -    119/2   2262/388
2100Z    -       -     51/0    43/3     4/3      -     98/6   2360/394
2200Z    -       -     10/9    59/1      -       -     69/10  2429/404
2300Z    -      6/0    74/1    25/1      -       -    105/2   2534/406
0000Z  --+--   62/1    25/0    --+--   --+--   --+--   87/1   2621/407
0100Z   6/1     6/1     1/1      -       -       -     13/3   2634/410   50
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0   2634/410   60
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0   2634/410   60
0400Z   4/0    75/3     8/1      -       -       -     87/4   2721/414   20
0500Z  66/3    28/0      -       -       -       -     94/3   2815/417
0600Z   7/0    69/2    14/0      -       -       -     90/2   2905/419
0700Z    -      4/0   101/1      -       -       -    105/1   3010/420
0800Z  --+--    2/0   101/0    --+--   --+--   --+--  103/0   3113/420    
0900Z    -      1/1    18/1      -       -       -     19/2   3132/422   45
1000Z    -       -      2/1     9/0      -       -     11/1   3143/423   60
1100Z    -       -      3/0    52/1      -       -     55/1   3198/424   28
1200Z    -       -       -    125/1     1/1      -    126/2   3324/426
1300Z    -       -       -    136/2     1/0      -    137/2   3461/428
1400Z    -       -       -    101/0    26/6      -    127/6   3588/434
1500Z    -       -       -     67/1    15/2     2/2    84/5   3672/439
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   73/1     3/1     4/4    80/6   3752/445
1700Z    -       -       -     59/0     4/0     6/5    69/5   3821/450    5
1800Z    -       -       -      1/0      -      5/4     6/4   3827/454   48
1900Z    -       -     20/0    12/1    10/2     1/0    43/3   3870/457     
2000Z    -       -     11/0     9/0     7/2      -     27/2   3897/459   15
2100Z    -       -     53/0    11/1      -       -     64/1   3961/460    5
2200Z    -       -     66/2    18/0      -       -     84/2   4045/462
2300Z   4/0    43/2    17/0     7/0      -       -     71/2   4116/464
Totals: 277/68 690/89 1106/103 1831/115 194/74   18/15 

Most worked countries

       160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total 
DL      32     98    165    264     19            578 
I        9     32     90    131      8            270 
UA      15     43     41    151      1            251  
G        7     28     59     99     10            203 
UR      14     37     50     81      -            182 
SP      12     37     58     63      1            171 
OK      16     35     46     67      2            166  
F        4     26     43     63      7            143 
EA       9     18     49     54      8            138 
HA      10     24     45     49      6            134 
PA       8     14     38     68      3            131 
SM      13     23     25     47      1            109 
JA       -      1      3    102      -            106 
S5       9     18     29     36      8            100

Best 60 minutes: 218 QSOs 15-Feb-2020 11:28-12:28 UTC

Worked on 6 bands (thanks to 10m opening):
8P5A KP3DX P40L P44W PJ2T PJ4A TO4A V26M V47T VP2MSS VP5K

Worked on 5 bands: 71

                CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2020
Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 20.3
Radios: SO2R
 
  Band   QSOs
   80:   423
   40:   595
   20:   726
   15:    38
   10:     0
Total:  1782  Prefixes = 777  Total Score = 3,982,125

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Always fun.  Love all the multipliers.

Started strong and was almost keeping up with AA3B.  Then remembered that ARRL CW is next weekend so didn’t want to get burned out.  Still operated a lot, but also got some sleep.

Didn’t hear a JA until Sunday evening.

15m did open to Europe… for a few minutes.  9A1A was loud.

Station:

K3+AL-1200
K3+AL-1500

80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 40-2CD @110′
20m: 205CA @100/50′
15m: 5-ele @66/33′
10m: didn’t matter

By Continent:

       80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total      % 
NA     280    442    264     23      0    1009    56.6 
EU     141    131    423      5      0     700    39.3 
AF       1      3      4      0      0       8     0.4 
AS       0      2     12      0      0      14     0.8 
SA       1      9     17      9      0      36     2.0 
OC       0      8      6      1      0      15     0.8

Rates:

QSO/Pref by hour and band
Hour       80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime
D1-0000Z  35/31   64/56   --+--   --+--   --+--   99/87     99/87  
D1-0100Z  59/43   63/41     -       -       -    122/84    221/171 
D1-0200Z  14/9    33/17     -       -       -     47/26    268/197    35
D1-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     268/197    60
D1-0400Z  35/20   22/15     -       -       -     57/35    325/232    27
D1-0500Z  58/24   38/23     -       -       -     96/47    421/279 
D1-0600Z  36/18   32/17     -       -       -     68/35    489/314 
D1-0700Z  41/22   33/9      -       -       -     74/31    563/345 
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     563/345    60
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     563/345    60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     563/345    60
D1-1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     563/345    60
D1-1200Z   4/1    38/12   71/45     -       -    113/58    676/403     4
D1-1300Z    -     48/10   78/36     -       -    126/46    802/449 
D1-1400Z    -     32/12   81/25     -       -    113/37    915/486 
D1-1500Z    -       -      3/2      -       -      3/2     918/488    57
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     918/488    60
D1-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     918/488    60
D1-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     918/488    60
D1-1900Z    -       -     13/4      -       -     13/4     931/492    37
D1-2000Z    -     11/4    66/15   15/6      -     92/25   1023/517 
D1-2100Z    -      3/0    25/8     2/1      -     30/9    1053/526    39
D1-2200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1053/526    60
D1-2300Z    -      7/2    10/5      -       -     17/7    1070/533    45
D2-0000Z  27/9    46/16   --+--   --+--   --+--   73/25   1143/558 
D2-0100Z  59/15   25/6      -       -       -     84/21   1227/579 
D2-0200Z   9/2     1/0      -       -       -     10/2    1237/581    52
D2-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1237/581    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1237/581    60
D2-1200Z  10/2    25/5    27/12     -       -     62/19   1299/600    17
D2-1300Z    -     28/6    70/27     -       -     98/33   1397/633 
D2-1400Z    -      3/0    73/40     -       -     76/40   1473/673 
D2-1500Z    -       -     62/29    3/0      -     65/29   1538/702 
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   15/5     3/1    --+--   18/6    1556/708    44
D2-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1556/708    60
D2-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1556/708    60
D2-1900Z    -       -     51/12   15/3      -     66/15   1622/723    10
D2-2000Z    -      7/5    26/12     -       -     33/17   1655/740    30
D2-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1655/740    60
D2-2200Z    -     11/1    46/14     -       -     57/15   1712/755    12
D2-2300Z  36/5    25/9     9/8      -       -     70/22   1782/777 
Total:   423/201 595/266 726/299  38/11    0/0

                CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: Single Op HP
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 872  State/Prov = 52  Countries = 55  Total Score = 344,647

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Station:
K3 + AL-1200
1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower

Comments:

Always a fun way to spend a winter weekend. Although it was so nice outside both days it felt like Spring!

Not a serious effort. Took plenty of time off during the evenings to binge watch some TV shows. Stayed up too late, then tried to get up for sunrise. Then tired all day. 🙂

Seemed to be able to hear Europeans most of both evenings, but they couldn’t always hear me. Called lots of guys with no response. Must have been crowded in Eu because was very difficult to find a clear frequency enough to get answers.

Can’t believe I missed NV, SD, ND, and WY. We sure missed VY2ZM to hand out the PEI mult too.

Got up at sunrise both mornings, but not much to show for it except the KH6 mult.

Thanks to all for the QSOs. Amazing how activity on Top Band keeps getting bigger and better. Some of the country counts are amazing.

Breakdowns:

By Continent:

       160   Total      % 
NA     711     711    81.5
EU     149     149    17.1
SA       4       4     0.5
AF       6       6     0.7
OC       1       1     0.1
AS       1       1     0.1

By Hour:

QSO/Sec+Dx by hour and band
Hour      160    Total     Cumm    OffTime
D1-2200Z 138/31  138/31    138/31  
D1-2300Z  44/12   44/12    182/43     39
D2-0000Z  --+--    0/0     182/43     60
D2-0100Z    -      0/0     182/43     60
D2-0200Z    -      0/0     182/43     60
D2-0300Z    -      0/0     182/43     60
D2-0400Z  35/9    35/9     217/52     43
D2-0500Z 107/16  107/16    324/68  
D2-0600Z  73/11   73/11    397/79  
D2-0700Z  63/3    63/3     460/82  
D2-0800Z  22/5    22/5     482/87     24
D2-0900Z    -      0/0     482/87     60
D2-1000Z    -      0/0     482/87     60
D2-1100Z    -      0/0     482/87     60
D2-1200Z  44/4    44/4     526/91     15
D2-1300Z    -      0/0     526/91     60
D2-1400Z    -      0/0     526/91     60
D2-1500Z    -      0/0     526/91     60
D2-1600Z  --+--    0/0     526/91     60
D2-1700Z    -      0/0     526/91     60
D2-1800Z    -      0/0     526/91     60
D2-1900Z    -      0/0     526/91     60
D2-2000Z    -      0/0     526/91     60
D2-2100Z   3/0     3/0     529/91     58
D2-2200Z  53/2    53/2     582/93  
D2-2300Z  79/0    79/0     661/93  
D3-0000Z  47/7    47/7     708/100     8
D3-0100Z    -      0/0     708/100    60
D3-0200Z    -      0/0     708/100    60
D3-0300Z    -      0/0     708/100    60
D3-0400Z  60/2    60/2     768/102     7
D3-0500Z  39/4    39/4     807/106 
D3-0600Z   5/0     5/0     812/106    53
D3-0700Z    -      0/0     812/106    60
D3-0800Z  --+--    0/0     812/106    60
D3-0900Z    -      0/0     812/106    60
D3-1000Z    -      0/0     812/106    60
D3-1100Z  16/1    16/1     828/107    28
D3-1200Z  26/0    26/0     854/107    15
D3-1300Z    -      0/0     854/107    60
D3-1400Z    -      0/0     854/107    60
D3-1500Z    -      0/0     854/107    60
D3-1600Z  --+--    0/0     854/107    60
D3-1700Z    -      0/0     854/107    60
D3-1800Z    -      0/0     854/107    60
D3-1900Z    -      0/0     854/107    60
D3-2000Z    -      0/0     854/107    60
D3-2100Z  18/0    18/0     872/107    30

Total:   872/107

                ARRL RTTY Roundup - 2020
 Call: K5ZD
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Station: K5ZD
 Class: Single Op HP
 Operating Time (hrs): 9.5
 Radios: SO2R
 Summary:
 Band  RTTY Qs  Dig Qs
   80:   196        
   40:   389        
   20:   323        
   15:    45        
   10:     0        
Total:   953       0  State/Prov = 54  Countries = 50  Total Score = 99,112
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Always fun.  Agreat way to spend a winter weekend.

Put a new 80m dipole up on Sat morning.  It is a keeper.  Had some of my best 80m runs ever.  Band was really good too.

Had trouble getting RTTY to work correctly at the start of the contest.  Finally re-registered OMMT.ocx and then everything started working. Another challenge from a recent hard disk crash and having to rebuild the computer.

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs.  I love how the operating speed and savvy keeps getting better every year.

With so many breaks I have no idea how this log will fit within the limit of only 2 off-times!

Randy K5ZD

QSO/mult per hour
 QSO/Sta+Prov+Dx by hour and band
 Hour      80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime
 D1-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
 D1-1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
 D1-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
 D1-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
 D1-2000Z    -     15/12   10/10     -       -     25/22     25/22  
 D1-2100Z    -     16/7     1/0      -       -     17/7      42/29     46
 D1-2200Z    -     35/12   12/4      -       -     47/16     89/45     12
 D1-2300Z    -     17/4      -       -       -     17/4     106/49     47
 D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     106/49     60
 D2-0100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     106/49     60
 D2-0200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     106/49     60
 D2-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     106/49     60
 D2-0400Z  43/8    12/3     1/1      -       -     56/12    162/61     26
 D2-0500Z  65/3    62/5      -       -       -    127/8     289/69  
 D2-0600Z  25/2    19/0      -       -       -     44/2     333/71     22
 D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     333/71     60
 D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     333/71     60
 D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     333/71     60
 D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     333/71     60
 D2-1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     333/71     60
 D2-1200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     333/71     60
 D2-1300Z   4/0    40/1    56/6      -       -    100/7     433/78     21
 D2-1400Z    -     69/1    85/6      -       -    154/7     587/85  
 D2-1500Z    -      5/0    63/5      -       -     68/5     655/90     11
 D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    2/1    --+--    2/1     657/91     60
 D2-1700Z    -       -     61/2    43/4      -    104/6     761/97      9
 D2-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     761/97     60
 D2-1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     761/97     60
 D2-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     761/97     60
 D2-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     761/97     60
 D2-2200Z    -     17/2    30/1      -       -     47/3     808/100    30
 D2-2300Z  58/1    82/3     4/0      -       -    144/4     952/104 
 Total:   196/14  389/50  323/35   45/5     0/0

               CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2019
 Call: K5ZD
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Station: K5ZD
 Class: SO(A)AB HP
 QTH: MA
 Operating Time (hrs): 40
 Radios: SO2R
 Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
 160:    267    17       77
  80:    655    27      101
  40:    979    34      134
  20:   1691    34      146
  15:    202    24       87
  10:     36    11       25
 Total: 3830   147      570  Total Score = 7,769,412
 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

I wanted to do the contest, but didn’t do the mental prep work to commit for a full effort.  I “quit” for the first time after just 4 hours.  But, as always, the contest and online scoreboard sucked me in. 

Didn’t hurt that the weather outside was raining and cold. That meant no line noise for most of the contest, but we did have severe rain static on Sunday afternoon. Part of my 40m run during that time was listening on a dipole that was up 30 feet.

Slept 90 mins the first night.  Then 3 hours early Sat evening and then another 90 mins before sunrise.

There were no other daytime bands besides 20m so spent most of my time there.  Lots of spot chasing on the second radio.

That was surely the best 160m conditions we have ever had for a WW CW. I had some short runs to Eu both nights.  Sat night the signal levels were great and there was NO noise.  Even the last hour had good signals from Eu.  Sure never expected to have a better line score on 160 than on 15!

As good as 80m was at Eu sunrise, what happened to 40m?  It was empty even as I worked Europeans on 160 and 80 well past their sunrise.

15 opened very early both mornings, then faded, and then came back as sunset passed the eastern stations.  Glad I got most of my mults on Sat, because was not as good on Sun morning.

Never felt loud all weekend.  And never had the really big rates, but it was always interesting and entertaining.  Had to keep reminding myself not to fall into DXing.  Rate is king in this contest!

The list of broken stuff keeps getting longer.  No rotatable antenna on 15m. Direction indicator on the tribander is out. Tri-bander showed high SWR on 20m Sunday (never had that before).  20m stack system has a control cable short somewhere. 40m antenna is intermittent on receive due to corrosion at the feedpoint…  I should have addressed all this during the nice Summer and Fall weather, but what’s the fun in that?

I did record the contest if anyone wants to hear something.

Thanks to everyone who traveled to give out a multiplier.  I have never had anywhere close to 140 countries on a band as a single op – and half the world was out of range due to propagation.  Missed zones 23, 24,28 and 34.

Numbers

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band
 Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    Off
 0000Z  --+--   --+--   47/54   38/27   --+--   --+--   85/81     85/81  
 0100Z    -      2/3   126/24    3/3      -       -    131/30    216/111 
 0200Z    -     29/28   85/15     -       -       -    114/43    330/154 
 0300Z    -     49/19   65/3      -       -       -    114/22    444/176 
 0400Z    -     64/12   22/13     -       -       -     86/25    530/201  15
 0500Z  66/53    6/1     7/3      -       -       -     79/57    609/258 
 0600Z  67/4    47/7     6/5     3/3      -       -    123/19    732/277 
 0700Z  16/12   65/13    1/0      -       -       -     82/25    814/302 
 0800Z   6/6    11/9    45/9     6/9    --+--   --+--   68/33    882/335 
 0900Z    -      2/3     9/3     8/7      -       -     19/13    901/348  35
 1000Z    -       -      2/0      -       -       -      2/0     903/348  60
 1100Z   1/1     4/0     7/3    98/23    3/6      -    113/33   1016/381 
 1200Z    -       -       -    186/14    8/13     -    194/27   1210/408 
 1300Z    -       -       -    175/3    18/18     -    193/21   1403/429 
 1400Z    -       -       -    165/6    25/19     -    190/25   1593/454 
 1500Z    -       -       -    128/10   42/8     1/2   171/20   1764/474 
 1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   43/35   22/18    4/8    69/61   1833/535 
 1700Z    -       -       -    111/2    18/9     4/2   133/13   1966/548 
 1800Z    -       -       -     64/12    4/5    17/16   85/33   2051/581 
 1900Z    -       -       -     13/1     3/2     3/3    19/6    2070/587 
 2000Z    -       -    111/1     4/4      -      1/1   116/6    2186/593 
 2100Z    -      3/1   138/1     8/3      -       -    149/5    2335/598 
 2200Z    -      7/5    48/16    3/0      -       -     58/21   2393/619 
 2300Z   6/2    22/6     9/6     4/0      -       -     41/14   2434/633 
 0000Z   2/1    11/3    --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   13/4    2447/637  47
 0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2447/637  60
 0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2447/637  60
 0300Z   6/3    26/2     1/1      -       -       -     33/6    2480/643  28
 0400Z   3/3    82/7    11/1      -       -       -     96/11   2576/654 
 0500Z  24/4    86/2      -       -       -       -    110/6    2686/660 
 0600Z  39/1    51/3     2/1      -       -       -     92/5    2778/665 
 0700Z  19/4    48/1     3/0      -       -       -     70/5    2848/670 
 0800Z  --+--   14/0     1/0    --+--   --+--   --+--   15/0    2863/670  43
 0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2863/670  60
 1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2863/670  60
 1100Z    -      6/1    13/2    42/2      -       -     61/5    2924/675   6
 1200Z    -       -      4/2    90/5     2/1      -     96/8    3020/683 
 1300Z    -       -       -    124/1     2/0      -    126/1    3146/684 
 1400Z    -       -       -    113/0    11/3     2/1   126/4    3272/688 
 1500Z    -       -       -     83/1    22/3      -    105/4    3377/692 
 1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   88/2     3/2     1/2    92/6    3469/698 
 1700Z    -       -       -     71/2     8/0      -     79/2    3548/700 
 1800Z    -       -      3/0     4/1     4/1     1/1    12/3    3560/703 
 1900Z    -       -     11/0     7/2      -      2/0    20/2    3580/705  30
 2000Z    -       -     56/3     3/1     3/1      -     62/5    3642/710 
 2100Z    -      1/0    81/0     5/1     4/2      -     91/3    3733/713 
 2200Z   3/0    12/0    55/2     1/0      -       -     71/2    3804/715 
 2300Z   9/0     7/2    10/0      -       -       -     26/2    3830/717  15
 Total:267/94  655/128 979/168 1691/180 202/111 36/36 

Best 60 mins: 208 starting @ 23-Nov-2019 12:45

Worked on 6 bands:

PJ4K VE3EJ 6V7A 8P5A 8R1/AG6UT D4C HI3CC P40W PJ2T PZ5W TI7W V26K V47T

Lots of 5-banders that covered 160-15m.