Author: K5ZD

                   ARRL DX Contest, CW

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

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  110    47
   80:  502    59
   40:  848    77
   20:  849    92
   15:  714    79
   10:  667    74
-------------------
Total: 3690   428  Total Score = 4,737,960

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

My son was visiting for the weekend. We were all at a restaurant when the
contest started. Then came home and watched the WRTC2014 video. Didn’t start operating until almost 03z. Went to bed when I got tired.

When I got to 10 meters the first morning, I pressed F4 to call a station and RF got into the keyboard. It was like the F4 key was stuck on. Had to reboot a few times to diagnose the problem. Fixed by wrapping the keyboard cable through some Ferrite a few times.

I always forget how much it helps the rate when everyone in the world is
looking for USA. 🙂 Low bands were very good on Friday night. Even better on Saturday! Was actually able to call CQ and get answers on 160m.

Took plenty of breaks. Walked the dog both days. Took advantage of the warm weather to clean up some snow.

The predicted ice storm on Sat night never happened. Got a bit of rain and that quieted down all the line noise. Could hear a pin drop on 10m on Sunday.

Was having one of the my best hours of the weekend at 14z on Sunday when my son called to say he had rolled his car over on the trip home. An expensive life lesson for him. Luckily no injuries (except to the car!).

Worked 38 stations on 6 bands. That has to be a new record for me. And
another 81 on 5 bands!

Only complaint is the phase noise and side bands that some CW signals seem to have now. Had to abandon several nice run frequencies when a dirty signal would show up on a close frequency. One was from neighbor K1LZ.

This was my first real contest with the YCCC SO2R+ box. Thanks to W1UE for building it for me. Worked great!

Didn’t plan on operating this much, but conditions and rates were too good!
Didn’t spend much time on multipliers until Sunday afternoon.

Contests are way more enjoyable when you plan for fun instead of trying to win something. Was nice to take breaks and stop operating when I got tired of it. But, competing to win is fun too – afterwards.

Station:

Radio 1 – Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA
Radio 2 – Elecraft K3 + AL-1500

Tower 1 – 100? Rohn 45G
40m: 40-2CD @ 110?
20m: 205CA @ 100? / 50?
15m: 5-el 15 @70? / 35?
160m: 1/4-wave GP with 4 elevated radials

Tower 2 – 90? Rohn 25G
10m: 6-el 10 @90? with 4/4 @ 60’/30?
80m: Wire 4 square for 80m hung from tower
160m: Tower is shunt fed

Tower 3 – 40? Rohn 25G
TH7DXX at 40? to South

By Continent:

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

    NA       9     11     19     14     12     17      82     2.2
    AS       0      2     24     78     79      9     192     5.2
    EU      94    472    774    712    591    591    3234    87.6
    AF       2      8     11     13      6      9      49     1.3
    OC       0      3      5     10      8      8      34     0.9
    SA       5      6     15     22     18     33      99     2.7

Rates:

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0     60
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0     60
0200Z    -       -       -     14/14     -       -     14/14     14/14  
0300Z  22/13   50/20   54/21    8/5      -       -    134/59    148/73  
0400Z  11/3   131/12    7/2      -       -       -    149/17    297/90  
0500Z  22/11   63/4    19/6      -       -       -    104/21    401/111 
0600Z    -     12/2   132/11     -       -       -    144/13    545/124     7
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     545/124    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
1100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     545/124    60
1200Z    -       -       -       -    114/33    1/1   115/34    660/158    17
1300Z    -       -       -       -    115/9    52/22  167/31    827/189 
1400Z    -       -       -       -    100/4    56/19  156/23    983/212 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     74/4    82/6   156/10   1139/222     6
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1139/222    60
1700Z    -       -       -    157/27     -      4/2   161/29   1300/251     8
1800Z    -       -       -    102/6     7/3      -    109/9    1409/260    23
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1409/260    60
2000Z    -       -       -    111/5     3/1      -    114/6    1523/266    20
2100Z    -       -       -    138/10   12/6      -    150/16   1673/282 
2200Z    -       -     80/3    33/6    10/2    14/4   137/15   1810/297 
2300Z    -       -     63/1      -       -       -     63/1    1873/298    38
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   15/1    --+--   15/1    1888/299    48
0100Z    -     29/0    54/3    19/11    2/0      -    104/14   1992/313 
0200Z  10/6    41/5    26/8      -       -       -     77/19   2069/332 
0300Z  22/7     2/2    54/3      -       -       -     78/12   2147/344 
0400Z   6/0    16/2    67/3     5/2      -       -     94/7    2241/351 
0500Z  15/6    26/1     2/0     3/0      -       -     46/7    2287/358 
0600Z    -    107/3    30/1      -       -       -    137/4    2424/362 
0700Z   2/1     4/3   139/4      -       -       -    145/8    2569/370 
0800Z  --+--    8/4    52/5     2/0    --+--   --+--   62/9    2631/379    16
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2631/379    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2631/379    60
1100Z    -       -      2/1    12/0      -       -     14/1    2645/380    51
1200Z    -       -      6/4   134/3     9/2      -    149/9    2794/389 
1300Z    -       -       -     20/1    68/5     5/1    93/7    2887/396    31
1400Z    -       -       -       -       -    157/6   157/6    3044/402 
1500Z    -       -       -       -      4/2    72/1    76/3    3120/405    39
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   11/1   153/4   164/5    3284/410 
1700Z    -       -       -       -    135/3    40/0   175/3    3459/413 
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3459/413    60
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3459/413    60
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -     21/5    21/5    3480/418    37
2100Z    -       -      3/0    91/2     7/2     2/1   103/5    3583/423 
2200Z    -       -     58/1      -     24/1     8/2    90/4    3673/427 
2300Z    -     13/1      -       -      4/0      -     17/1    3690/428    40

Total: 110/47 502/59  848/77  849/92  714/79  667/74 

Best rate:
60 mins 218 QSOs at 21-Feb-2015 12:30

Worked on 6 bands:
9A1A DH8BQA DJ5AN DJ7UC DJ8OG DL1A DL2CC DP9Z EC2DX ED7P EF7T ES5Q HG1S HG6N HG7T II9P IR1Y IR4X IV3BCA LZ9W NP4Z OL4A OL5Y OL7M OZ5E PJ2T RT4F RU1A RW7K S54W SN3R SO9Q SP2LNW SP8R TI5W UX4U YL2KO YR8D

Worked 111 different entities.

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL      20     80    124    110     84     91     509
    UA       4     26     52     56     76     28     242
     I       3     26     55     56     37     52     229
    OK       9     40     44     40     35     39     207
    UR       3     30     57     39     51     26     206
    SP       5     30     34     38     30     33     170
     G       2     15     36     35     21     34     143
    PA       1     14     28     34     26     27     130
    S5       5     21     31     25     16     17     115
    EA       2     11     28     30     14     29     114
    HA       4     17     26     22     21     19     109
    SM       2     19     26     18     21     17     103
    JA                    10     31     48      8      97

Shows how good conditions were that JA made the list. Worked several JA stations on 4 bands!

                    ARRL RTTY Roundup

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

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 15.7
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  232
   40:  430
   20:  293
   15:  477
   10:  224
------------
Total: 1656  State/Prov = 57  Countries = 61  Total Score = 195,408

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

That was fun! Almost like playing a video game when running on two bands at the same time.

Running on two bands at the same time is a blast.  When you get a good stream of callers on both radios that don’t send too long and can be copied on the first pass, it is a non-stop adventure. Saw the last 10 rate meter get to about 230 at one point.  Hard to stay there.

Worked all USA states except HI and VT within the first 6 hours.  Found HI, VT, and DC on Sunday.  DX multipliers are just a matter of calling CQ as much as possible and tuning on the second radio.

Activity was lumpy.  When it was good, it was great.  But, during the football games it would slow a bit.  Then on Sunday afternoon the Europeans seemed to pack up and disappear.  But, the USA activity was good then.  I was running on 15m and working very short skip (even into PA, VA, and OH).  It sounded exactly like 40m, which I was tuning at the same time.  All part of the variability that makes radiosport so endlessly fascinating.

Found a few problems in the station.  SixPak seems to be out on 80m on the Radio B side.  Also the relays to switch to the South TH7 have failed on Radio A.

No power line noise all weekend.  We had cold at the start, then an inch of snow, then rain, then warm fog.  That suppressed all the noises.  Kept having to turn the volume up to make sure I was listening to a radio.

I think I have figured out how to get WriteLog and the MicroHam MK2R+ working for all modes.  This was the test for RTTY.  Had one problem on Sunday afternoon where CQing on 10m would crash the USB interface in the computer and require a reboot to get the keyboard working again.  Never saw that before.  Could be because the MK2R+ is connected by USB cable.  Or could be something else…

 

Breakdown by Continent:

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

    NA     204    261    179    293     92    1029    62.1
    OC       0      0      1      1      2       4     0.2
    EU      28    168    104    136    129     565    34.1
    AF       0      0      1      1      0       2     0.1
    SA       0      1      4      5      1      11     0.7
    AS       0      0      4     41      0      45     2.7

Rates:

QSO/Sta+Prov+Dx by hour and band

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

1800Z    -       -       -     32/13   22/15   54/28     54/28  
1900Z    -       -     53/21   59/14    9/1   121/36    175/64  
2000Z    -       -     66/4    46/5      -    112/9     287/73  
2100Z    -     77/8    19/1     4/0      -    100/9     387/82  
2200Z    -     50/4      -     65/2      -    115/6     502/88  
2300Z    -     14/0      -     11/0      -     25/0     527/88    50
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     527/88    60
0100Z  27/1    29/0     8/2      -       -     64/3     591/91    14
0200Z  91/1    80/0      -       -       -    171/1     762/92  
0300Z    -      1/0      -       -       -      1/0     763/92    58
0400Z  19/0    26/2      -       -       -     45/2     808/94    34
0500Z  48/0    56/4      -       -       -    104/4     912/98  
0600Z  23/0    12/1      -       -       -     35/1     947/99    23
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     947/99    60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     947/99    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     947/99    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     947/99    60
1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     947/99    60
1200Z  24/1    26/0    36/1      -       -     86/2    1033/101    5
1300Z    -      6/0    18/1    64/1    52/3   140/5    1173/106 
1400Z    -       -       -     68/1    73/0   141/1    1314/107 
1500Z    -       -       -     26/1    16/1    42/2    1356/109   37
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1356/109   60
1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1356/109   60
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1356/109   60
1900Z    -       -     32/2    24/3     2/0    58/5    1414/114   23
2000Z    -       -     24/1    12/0    26/1    62/2    1476/116 
2100Z    -     32/0    31/1      -     24/0    87/1    1563/117 
2200Z    -     21/0     6/1    66/0      -     93/1    1656/118 
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1656/118   60

Total: 232/3   430/19  293/35  477/40  224/21 

New personal best 176 QSOs in 60 minutes.

Worked on 5 bands: AA5AU K6ND NT0F OL8M

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

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 44.4
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Band  QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:    106  17  62
80:     502  24  96
40:    1163  39 125
20:    1100  39 143
15:    1142  37 138
10:    1009  35 133
------------------------------
Total: 5022 191 697 Total Score = 12,967,464

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

What a memorable contest. Fantastic conditions on all bands matched with incredible activity from every part of the globe! CW is alive and well.

Goals:
– Play with new toys
– See if I could push the USA record for SOA up a little higher

Station prep:

Through some good luck, was able to add a second K3 to my station the week of the contest. Also added an AL-1500 amplifier. With two K3s, decided to try the MK2R+ SO2R controller. That took hours to correctly configure, but once working it did everything I could want. Maybe not the best idea to introduce so much new stuff the week of a major.

Spent the one nice day on the previous weekend to put new coax on 10m stack. Knew the 160 antenna was intermittent, but decided to leave it. Should have spent the time to work on it, but didn’t think 160m would be that good.

Contest:

Have converted to Assisted because I was frustrated doing the CQWW and never hearing all the really good DX stations. Now I can run and chase DX both. Contest started great. Fell into a great run frequency on 80m and that was responsible for most of my QSOs on the band. Sometime later in the evening, I noticed the SWR on the 80m 4 square was high when on the NE and SW directions. Visual
inspection the next day didn’t show any broken elements, but I was no longer loud on 80.

Was a struggle to work anything on 160 the first night. I think I had 30 countries and figured that was going to be about it. The second night conditions were much much better. I was weak and had to wait in line, but I eventually got through.

Took a power nap of 20 minutes during the 10z hour. Woke up feeling really good.

What can you say about the high bands? They were awesome. Best 60 minutes was a new personal best of 220. It was tough to decide when to move up and down the bands to capture the most stations. Not to mention the decision of when to run and when to chase spots.

I was flying and totally committed to the contest when the logging software locked up at 1430z. I couldn’t type anything. Logged on paper while rebooting. Started running again and the logging window locked up again. What a moment of despair. Decided to take out the MK2R+ and go back to the W5XD keyer. Took some time to find the right cable and redo everything. Total down time was 45 minutes during some very high rates. It also meant I was no longer
recording the contest.

Back at it. The conditions were too good to stop! Short break during 20z to get some food. Then another at 01z. Had 6+ Meg at the 24 hour mark, but with 590 countries, didn’t see where I could possibly find more. It was encouraging to be on record pace.

Invested most of my time the second night on 80 and 160 chasing anything I could work. Was CQing on 20 and fun to have both Europe and Japan calling in at the same time. Was starting to drag a little and didn’t think 40m was going to be that great at Eu sunrise. Decided sleep would help me be more productive during the morning runs. Slept 3 hours between 0715 and 1030z. I probably
should have tried to stick it out until 0900 and then slept 90 minutes. Except for the off times, I was in the chair.

Sunday was fantastic on the high bands. I would run on one band and chase spots on the other. Then swap. This probably hurt my 10m QSO total, but helped with the mults.

One thing that really helped the rates and score was the amount of time the bands were open to Russia and Eastern Europe. Could not believe the number of Russian stations (and their new short calls) that I worked.

On Sunday afternoon I was turning the 10m antenna to the West and let go of the break to type something. When I tried to turn the beam again, it wouldn’t move. The break disengaged, but the antenna free wheeled to the north. So another thing that will need fixing.

I did experience one more logging window lockup on Sunday afternoon. So now I have to suspect a software problem. More testing required. Have never had problems with Writelog before.

Comments:

– Great score by K3WW. I think I heard him two times all weekend. You wonder how we can both find 60+ countries on 160 and not hear each other more. I think I heard K1DG and K0DQ only 2-3 times all weekend. Big scores require keeping your head down and running all the time.

– Missed zone 34 on 20m and zone 23 on 40m. Did work all 40 zones. I think that is a first in my years of single op. Need to find a better spot management strategy. I couldn’t keep the window open for all bands because there were too many spots from other parts of the world so would open one band at a time.

– Was watching the online scoreboard. K1AR and his magic dipole were matching me QSO for QSO for the first 8 hours. A great source of motivation as I was determined not to let him beat me! Also followed N2IC who was doing a great job from out west in New Mexico.

– I play mental games on Sunday to keep the motivation up. One of them was to see if I could have more than 1000 QSOs on 4 different bands. I made it!

– Very pleased with how often people were sending their calls. Only one time when the station wouldn’t give their call when asked. I spent very little time waiting for stations to ID. Thanks to all for that!

– Having so many bands open makes it easier to find run frequencies. It didn’t really seem to matter if you were low or high in the band. I had a very good run on 28161!

– Really wanted to make the “5000 club”. That is USA single ops with
more than 5K QSOs after log checking. Didn’t think I would get so close or would not have taken the extra 90 minutes of sleep. But, I am going to blame the lost time of the station rewiring for the miss!

– Bad practice. I heard JE3IGA (big S9 signal) call a Caribbean station on 80m at 0830z and send 599 25. This was clearly a remote operation transmitting from the USA. It pollutes the contest to have people give out bogus QSOs/mults like this.

Station:
K3 + Alpha 76CA
K3/P3 + AL-1500

Antennas:
160m: GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square
40m: 40-2CD @110′
20m: 5/5 @ 100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @ 66’/33′
10m: 6/4/4 @ 90’/60’/30′
Mult: TH7DXX @45′

Numbers:

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

    NA      30     57     88     70     43     58     346     6.9
    AF       3      8     19     26     16     17      89     1.8
    EU      63    410    979    825    960    832    4069    81.0
    AS       2      5     39    128     84     34     292     5.8
    SA       7     17     26     35     25     50     160     3.2
    OC       1      5     11     16     14     18      65     1.3

Rates:

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   32/31   81/73   --+--   --+--  113/104   113/104 
0100Z    -       -     52/26   12/8    33/23     -     97/57    210/161 
0200Z   8/12    1/2    80/17   19/10     -       -    108/41    318/202 
0300Z    -    160/40   13/5      -       -       -    173/45    491/247 
0400Z    -    133/8    24/9      -       -       -    157/17    648/264 
0500Z  16/15   33/5    17/16    5/4      -       -     71/40    719/304 
0600Z    -     23/15   92/4     6/5      -       -    121/24    840/328 
0700Z    -     18/15  121/5      -       -       -    139/20    979/348 
0800Z  --+--   12/4   103/4    --+--   --+--   --+--  115/8    1094/356 
0900Z   7/8     6/6    40/12    8/6      -       -     61/32   1155/388 
1000Z   4/5     1/1     7/4     4/5      -       -     16/15   1171/403   25
1100Z    -       -      3/3   138/12   17/23     -    158/38   1329/441 
1200Z    -       -       -     44/12  137/35    7/12  188/59   1517/500 
1300Z    -       -       -       -     53/17  155/35  208/52   1725/552 
1400Z    -       -       -       -      7/8   117/11  124/19   1849/571   30
1500Z    -       -       -       -      3/0    38/11   41/11   1890/582   15
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  143/6    24/17  167/23   2057/605 
1700Z    -       -       -       -    158/5    20/6   178/11   2235/616 
1800Z    -       -       -     27/8    53/17   24/24  104/49   2339/665 
1900Z    -       -       -    132/1      -     14/13  146/14   2485/679 
2000Z    -       -       -     72/3    13/11    9/2    94/16   2579/695   20
2100Z    -       -     59/9    10/4     6/2     3/0    78/15   2657/710 
2200Z    -       -    105/1      -       -     24/6   129/7    2786/717 
2300Z    -       -     98/3      -     18/3     3/1   119/7    2905/724 
0000Z  --+--   --+--   40/1    30/13    1/0    --+--   71/14   2976/738 
0100Z  10/6      -      3/1     6/0     3/0      -     22/7    2998/745   25
0200Z  14/9    26/13    3/0      -       -       -     43/22   3041/767 
0300Z  21/16    5/5      -       -       -       -     26/21   3067/788 
0400Z    -     10/3     5/2    52/3     3/1      -     70/9    3137/797 
0500Z  25/6     6/0      -     32/0      -       -     63/6    3200/803 
0600Z   1/2    52/1     6/1      -       -       -     59/4    3259/807 
0700Z    -       -       -      4/1      -       -      4/1    3263/808   51
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    3263/808   60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3263/808   60
1000Z    -      5/0      -      5/0      -       -     10/0    3273/808   44
1100Z    -      1/2     7/2    51/1    85/4      -    144/9    3417/817 
1200Z    -       -       -      4/4    86/5    91/7   181/16   3598/833 
1300Z    -       -       -       -     10/4   196/3   206/7    3804/840 
1400Z    -       -       -       -     68/4   108/9   176/13   3980/853 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     35/1    97/6   132/7    4112/860 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  115/1    39/0   154/1    4266/861 
1700Z    -       -       -     34/5    85/4     3/2   122/11   4388/872 
1800Z    -       -       -    116/0    10/1     2/0   128/1    4516/873 
1900Z    -       -       -    102/0      -     15/1   117/1    4633/874 
2000Z    -       -       -     85/1      -     16/2   101/3    4734/877 
2100Z    -       -     94/7     9/0      -      4/0   107/7    4841/884 
2200Z    -       -    102/0     7/3      -       -    109/3    4950/887 
2300Z    -     10/0    57/1     5/0      -       -     72/1    5022/888 

Tot:  106/79  502/120 1163/164 1100/182 1142/175 1009/168

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL       6     67    184    148    156    135     696
    EA       3      9     36     39     32     24     143
     F       1      9     21     25     31     28     115
     G       7     15     58     47     48     47     222
    HA       1     16     26     22     31     23     119
     I             17     56     62     54     44     233
    JA                     6     57     29     11     103
    OK       5     32     41     28     53     39     198
    PA       1      7     30     39     28     22     127
    S5       2     10     28     25     22     22     109
    SM       2     10     24     22     19     28     105
    SP       2     16     52     40     53     44     207
    UA       3     52     85     75    119    114     448
    UR       3     29     67     24     70     54     247
    VE      12     25     38     21     10     14     120

6 bands (37 stations!!!)
4O3A 4V1JR 6Y6N 8P5A 9A1A 9K2HN 9Y4/VE3EY CN2AA CR3A DF0HQ DF3FS DR1A EA5KA EI1Y HC2AO/8 HI3A HK1NA HR2J II9P J6/DL7VOG LX7I LZ9W NP2X NP4Z OM7M OR2F PJ2T PJ4A SO9Q TM6M V26K VC7M VE2IM VP2MDX VP9/N3AD ZD8O ZF1A

5 bands (58 stations!)
6W1RW 9A1P 9A2BD A71BX CR3L CR6K DK4M DL0GL DL0UM DL2VWR DL3YM DL5KUD DL6RAI DL8ZAW DM8T DR4A DR5N G4DDL G5O G5W GD6IA GM5A HA5PT HC1WDT HD2A HG1S HG7T IB9T IO1T IZ4DLR KH7XX LY4A LY7A LZ5R M6W OH2XX OH4MDY OK2D OL6P OQ5M OX3OA P33W P40W PZ5AV RM5A RT3F RZ1OK SN3R SP2LNW SV1ENG TC0A UA4Z UI5F UW3E UX4U YL2SM YT0A YU5R

 

November 2015: Geoff, KA1IOR, did some analysis of my log and created the following list showing what frequency was used to produce the most contacts (biggest runs), in descending order:

Freq.      QSOs

21062:    349

28046:    336

14001:    331

7028:     320

3503:     319

7018:     284

28112:    266

7014:     240

14060:    210

21003:    191

21053:    172

14006:    172

21017:    161

28162:    117

21002:     89

14028:     82

14059:     55

It shows that you can run just about anywhere.  In some cases, the higher frequencies are easier to keep. Many people tune from the bottom of the band going up so being down low gives more probability of working everyone. The best run for my score was the one on 3503!

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

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 18.1
Radios: SO2R  

Summary:    
Band	     QSOs
160:	       0
80:	     163
40:	     293
20:	     306
15:	     151
10:	     172
Total:      1085   Sections 82 Total Score 177,940

For the first time in 37 years I was not sitting at the radio ready to go when the clock struck 2100z. After 3400 QSOs in CQ WW last weekend and another 2400 as W1AW/1 this week, I did not have my usual radio excitement for SS CW. So I did sit down about 2 minutes late and had to wait for the computer to reboot. Hey – its SS CW!

I had hinted to my wife that I did not plan to be serious. She came into the shack about 01z to see if I wanted to go out to dinner. This was when guys were calling in at 2 per minute. I decided to take 2 hours and go, knowing that finding QSOs on Sunday would be much harder.

Had 82 sections by Sunday morning. Not a hint of VE8. KL7RA was booming in for hours so the band was open. Spent hours tuning 10 and 15 meters.

I sat down at 01z to make a few QSOs before turning off the radio and switched to 20m. Heard VE8EV work someone. First sign of a VE8 all weekend! Spent the next hour trying everything I could think of to find him. Tuned and tuned. Called CQ with the beam north. No luck. 🙁

I love copying the long SS exchange. We just need to find an additional 500-1000 people to share that passion and this would be a great contest. Unfortunately, it gets pretty slow on Sunday.

With 10m so good and my 2 hours off Sat evening, this is one of the weirdest band by band totals I have ever had. Usually 40m dominates.

This is my 37th consecutive year to make more than 1000 contacts in SS CW.
Full history at http://k5zd.com/scores/sweepstakes-cw-personal-records/

Thanks for the QSOs!

QSO/Sec by hour and band

Hour    80      40      20      15      10     Total     Cumm    Off

2100Z    -       -       -      1/1    95/44   96/45     96/45  
2200Z    -       -      1/0    33/5    39/10   73/15    169/60  
2300Z    -       -     50/7    31/3      -     81/10    250/70  
0000Z  --+--   32/3    36/2     7/0    --+--   75/5     325/75     8
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     325/75    60
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     325/75    60
0300Z   1/0    47/1    26/0      -       -     74/1     399/76     1
0400Z  79/0    14/1      -       -       -     93/1     492/77  
0500Z  52/1    22/1      -       -       -     74/2     566/79  
0600Z   9/0    47/0      -       -       -     56/0     622/79  
0700Z   8/1    10/0      -       -       -     18/1     640/80    30
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     640/80    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     640/80    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     640/80    60
1100Z    -      2/0      -       -       -      2/0     642/80    58
1200Z   8/0    51/1     2/1      -       -     61/2     703/82  
1300Z    -     17/0    34/0      -       -     51/0     754/82  
1400Z    -     24/0    22/0      -       -     46/0     800/82  
1500Z    -      3/0     6/0      -       -      9/0     809/82    46
1600Z  --+--   --+--   25/0    19/0    --+--   44/0     853/82  
1700Z    -       -     40/0     7/0     2/0    49/0     902/82  
1800Z    -       -     25/0      -     20/0    45/0     947/82  
1900Z    -       -       -     11/0      -     11/0     958/82    44
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     958/82    60
2100Z    -       -      4/0    29/0     5/0    38/0     996/82    14
2200Z    -      9/0    19/0     9/0     5/0    42/0    1038/82  
2300Z    -      8/0      -      2/0     6/0    16/0    1054/82    34
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    2/0    --+--    2/0    1056/82    56
0100Z   5/0     7/0    11/0      -       -     23/0    1079/82  
0200Z   1/0      -      5/0      -       -      6/0    1085/82    53

Total: 163/2  293/7   306/10  151/9   172/54

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

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

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   18     7       13
   80:  208    14       61
   40:  178    21       70
   20:  640    37      127
   15:  817    37      127
   10: 1437    31      129
------------------------------
Total: 3298   147      527  Total Score = 6,446,810

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Wow, that was fun! The new saying might be, “When there’s 10 meters, there’s no other meters!”

The whole world seemed to be on 10 meters all weekend. With the high MUF the other bands really suffered except for short periods around sunrise and sunset. I had a 200+ hour Sunday morning on 29022!! And there was plenty of activity all the way up to 29100. Gotta love having some elbow room!

40m was difficult. The band was open pretty well, but there just aren’t enough operating slots between 7125 and 7200. I tried multiple times to CQ listening down with no responses.

DX contests are fun when you aren’t trying to win anything. Lots of other things in life plus two long business trips left me unmotivated to operate full time. Decided to use the Cluster and chase multipliers. Slept when I was tired.
Walked the dog both days. Had a blast.

Station is starting to show signs of age. High SWR on some antennas. RF in the cable modem. This place used to feel really loud 20 years ago when first built, but the rest of the world has increased their hardware and power so I spent a lot of time waiting in line.

Highlights:

– Four hours over 200 QSOs! One of them when I finally got to 20m on Sunday evening.

– Asia on 15m and 20m. Never worked so many China stations before – and they were loud!

– Working DXCC on the 3 high bands.

– Signals were relatively clean (with a few exceptions) and with so much room on 10 meters, I didn’t get into any frequency squabbles.

Thanks to everyone who put me in their log. Always fun to spend a weekend of ham radio DXing with 40,000 of my best friends!

Station:

K3 + Alpha 76CA
FT1000D + AL-1200

160m: Shunt fed tower (my GP failed on the second transmission)
80m: 4 square
40m: 40-2CD up 33m
20m: 205CA/205CA at 30m/15m
15m: 155CA/155CA at 20m/10m
10m: 6/4/4 at 30m/20m/10m
Mult: TH7DXX at 10m fixed south

By Continent

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

    EU       5    166     98    427    608   1237    2541    77.0
    AS       0      4      8     50     84     40     186     5.6
    NA       9     28     50     68     43     58     256     7.8
    AF       0      5      5     22     19     18      69     2.1
    SA       3      4     11     52     44     64     178     5.4
    OC       1      1      6     21     18     20      67     2.0

Rates:

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  -+--   --+--   --+--   66/58   27/24   --+--   93/82     93/82      8
0100Z   -       -     44/40   39/19   18/9      -    101/68    194/150 
0200Z   -     40/32   13/5     6/2      -       -     59/39    253/189 
0300Z  3/5    61/8    22/3      -       -       -     86/16    339/205 
0400Z  1/1    27/7    13/5    28/20     -       -     69/33    408/238 
0500Z  8/7    25/12     -     16/5      -       -     49/24    457/262    19
0600Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     457/262    60
0700Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     457/262    60
0800Z  -+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     457/262    60
0900Z   -     10/6     5/4      -       -       -     15/10    472/272    50
1000Z   -       -     17/15   42/15   37/29     -     96/59    568/331 
1100Z   -      2/2      -      6/1   157/28   12/14  177/45    745/376 
1200Z   -       -       -       -      1/1   147/48  148/49    893/425 
1300Z   -       -       -       -     17/5   189/17  206/22   1099/447 
1400Z   -       -       -       -     30/7    80/13  110/20   1209/467 
1500Z   -       -       -       -      4/3   231/4   235/7    1444/474 
1600Z  -+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    2/2    47/6    49/8    1493/482    43
1700Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1493/482    60
1800Z   -       -       -       -     92/12   36/13  128/25   1621/507     6
1900Z   -       -       -      5/0   107/8    23/13  135/21   1756/528 
2000Z   -       -       -     14/1     7/3     9/5    30/9    1786/537    40
2100Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1786/537    60
2200Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1786/537    60
2300Z   -       -       -      3/1    20/5      -     23/6    1809/543    45
0000Z  -+--   --+--    5/2    32/11   37/9    16/5    90/27   1899/570 
0100Z  2/3     8/0    14/6     1/0    14/1      -     39/10   1938/580 
0200Z   -     11/1    15/6    22/2      -       -     48/9    1986/589 
0300Z  3/2    21/3     5/1     6/3      -       -     35/9    2021/598    15
0400Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2021/598    60
0500Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2021/598    60
0600Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2021/598    60
0700Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2021/598    60
0800Z  -+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2021/598    60
0900Z   -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2021/598    60
1000Z  1/2     2/2     1/1     1/1      -       -      5/6    2026/604    51
1100Z   -      1/2     6/3    23/8    19/2      -     49/15   2075/619 
1200Z   -       -       -      7/7    52/0    49/9   108/16   2183/635 
1300Z   -       -       -       -      8/2   192/0   200/2    2383/637 
1400Z   -       -       -       -     20/3   118/2   138/5    2521/642 
1500Z   -       -       -      5/0     7/1    25/1    37/2    2558/644    26
1600Z  -+--   --+--   --+--    1/1     1/2     5/1     7/4    2565/648    60
1700Z   -       -       -       -     10/0   165/3   175/3    2740/651 
1800Z   -       -       -     15/0    20/2    47/2    82/4    2822/655 
1900Z   -       -       -     34/1    86/4    12/0   132/5    2954/660 
2000Z   -       -       -    209/4     1/1      -    210/5    3164/665 
2100Z   -       -       -     44/0    23/1    25/2    92/3    3256/668 
2200Z   -       -       -      6/0      -      9/2    15/2    3271/670    40
2300Z   -       -     18/0     9/4      -       -     27/4    3298/674    45

Total: 18/20 208/75  178/91  640/164 817/164 1437/160

Worked 9 stations on 6 bands: 8P5A DF0HQ HK1NA IB9T KH7XX P40L PJ4X TM6M V26B

Worked 39 on 5 bands and 58 on 4 bands. 160m was the missing one most of the time.

Best 60 mins was 240 QSOs at Oct 25 1503-1602z

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL       1     30      7     77     88    208     411
    EA       1     13      5     32     48     71     170
     F       2      7      4     24     32     64     133
     G              8      4     33     43     77     165
     I              8     10     34     49    116     217
    PA              7      2     25     24     52     110
    SP              6      7     20     33     66     132
    UA              7      2     14     36     82     141
    VE       4     15     21     20     11     11      82

Cool things

    BY                            9      9             18
    JA                     1      5     45      7      58
    CM              2      3      5      4      3      17
    YV              1      4      3      5      4      17

K5ZD, Single Operator Unlimited, All Bands

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD

Class: SO Unlimited HP
Operating Time (hrs): 32.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   64    41
   80:  376    70
   40:  663    93
   20: 1044   109
   15: 1069   112
   10:  913   105
-------------------
Total: 4129   530  Total Score = 6,565,110

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

I am little burned out on contesting.  I am in the middle of CQWW results, made trip to Estonia for the Contest Club of Finland meeting 2 weeks ago, and WRTC2014.  So couldn’t get up for a full effort, but as it seems each time, the great conditions lured me in for more operating than I planned.

It wasn’t without challenges.  Spent the first 90 minutes on 40m with the amp tuned to 10m.  I turned the amp on, but forgot to tune it.  Still worked a bunch of guys but couldn’t figure out why I felt so weak.  Duh!

Discovered the TH7 mult antenna would not turn and didn’t seem to be pointed exactly south. Something to work on when the snow melts.

Started getting the sniffles on Friday evening.  It had turned into a full on cold with some fever by Sat morning. My whole station now needs to be disinfected from the occasional sneeze…

All bands were good.  160m to 10m. I made myself take a nap the first night and then took another off time at midday to go for a walk and get a haircut.

The rates during the morning were incredible.  A personal best 60 minutes of 222! Personal best clock hour of 219.  Could have been better, but the zero beat problem often caused some delay in getting a callsign.

Had just settled into a perfect run frequency on 40m Sat afternoon when the snow static started.  Wiped out 40 and pushed me back to 20m. Then I got the dinner call and took a break.

With the cold, I figured it would be good to get some more sleep.  Didn’t set the alarm and figured I would probably sleep 8 hours or so.  I woke up at one point and saw the clock said 10:43.  In my fog, I thought that was GMT and it was the perfect time to wake up.  I was on the air making QSOs before I realized it was local time and had only slept 3 hours.

It exposed me to the most incredible conditions of the weekend.  I happened to listen on 15m at 0400z.  There were signals there!  Lots of them from Asia and very loud.  Worked a JT1, BG2, XW0, UA0s, JAs.  Even wilder, I was alternating making QSOs on 15m and 160m.  It was really noisy here on 160, but must have been very quiet in Europe because everyone came right back on the first call.

About 0730z I ended up on 20m.  The band was open to everywhere over the pole. I had one beam NE and one NW. Started off with some Eu and then the JAs started calling.  JAs don’t usually call me, much less have a real run. Signals had a polar sound, but were loud enough to get the whole call each time.  Even worked some QRP JAs. This lasted until about 0930z.  Must not have been much activity on the band because I had lots of callers.

Took a 90 minute nap and then came back on at 1130z. 15m was already rocking so I went there.  More big hours.  Kept waiting for 10m to open, but it didn’t sound as good at 15m.  Heard K0DQ up in ME running guys before I could. Finally made the jump around 1445z.

Some studly QSOs during the day.  Plenty of VU2s on 10-20m. Several HS0 called in on 15m over Europe.  As did two VK6s.  The amazing QSO was JA1BPA calling in on 15m LP at 1337z.

Using the cluster was fun because it allowed me to run like a maniac all the time without missing too much.  Even with it, there weren’t many new mults on the second day. Mostly filling in band slots.

The ultimate proof of how good conditions were is the number of 5 and 6 band QSOs.

Worked 44 stations on 6 bands:

6Y2T 9A1A CN2AA CR3L CS2C DF3FS DL1A E7DX EA5RS EC2DX ED7P EF5F HG1S HK1NA IR1Y 
J38XX KH6LC KP2M LZ9W OE2S OL7M OM7RU OT2A P40W PI4TUE PJ2T PJ4X R22ALS S54W SO9Q 
SV1DPJ TI5W TM6M UR7GO UW1M UW2M UW3U V26M V31TP VP2EZZ VP5S YU0T YU5R ZF35A

Worked 86 on 5 bands.

It also means there isn’t as much pressure on any one band.  With everyone spread out across 3+ bands at a time, it was never difficult to find a frequency.  No frequency fights the whole weekend!

Thanks to everyone who called in.  This was a great one for having fun running rate and chasing DX.

Rates:

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   87/34   24/21   --+--   --+--  111/55    111/55  
0100Z    -       -     72/12   20/15     -       -     92/27    203/82  
0200Z   1/1    80/34    5/1     2/0      -       -     88/36    291/118 
0300Z  20/17   10/2      -     42/11     -       -     72/30    363/148 
0400Z   5/5    74/14    2/2    19/4      -       -    100/25    463/173 
0500Z   1/1    16/11   17/16   35/4      -       -     69/32    532/205 
0600Z   2/2    76/4     7/3    32/5      -       -    117/14    649/219 
0700Z   4/4     1/1    48/5    82/12     -       -    135/22    784/241 
0800Z   3/3    --+--   54/2     3/0    --+--   --+--   60/5     844/246   28
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     844/246   60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     844/246   60
1100Z    -      2/2     9/4      -    109/33     -    120/39    964/285    9
1200Z    -       -       -     11/5   169/11   28/19  208/35   1172/320 
1300Z    -       -       -       -      8/4   211/23  219/27   1391/347 
1400Z    -       -       -       -     14/9   175/9   189/18   1580/365 
1500Z    -       -       -       -      4/4    21/18   25/22   1605/387   44
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1605/387   60
1700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1605/387   60
1800Z    -       -       -       -     70/3    21/12   91/15   1696/402   22
1900Z    -       -       -    140/5    27/11    2/1   169/17   1865/419 
2000Z    -       -     27/0    87/3    12/6     6/3   132/12   1997/431 
2100Z    -       -       -     78/2    16/3    13/6   107/11   2104/442 
2200Z    -       -       -     19/0    12/2     8/0    39/2    2143/444   35
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2143/444   60
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2143/444   60
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2143/444   60
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2143/444   60
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2143/444   60
0400Z  15/4     2/0    68/4     8/3     8/3      -    101/14   2244/458 
0500Z  11/2    68/1    10/1     6/5      -       -     95/9    2339/467 
0600Z   2/2    15/1    98/1     1/0      -       -    116/4    2455/471 
0700Z    -      3/0    40/0    70/1      -       -    113/1    2568/472 
0800Z  --+--   --+--    4/1   129/4    --+--   --+--  133/5    2701/477 
0900Z    -      3/0     1/1    46/0      -       -     50/1    2751/478   12
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2751/478   60
1100Z    -       -      2/1      -     59/0      -     61/1    2812/479   36
1200Z    -       -       -      3/2   173/5     6/3   182/10   2994/489 
1300Z    -       -       -      1/0   152/5    11/2   164/7    3158/496 
1400Z    -       -       -       -     83/5    54/1   137/6    3295/502 
1500Z    -       -       -      4/1     5/2   147/3   156/6    3451/508 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    1/1    17/2   113/1   131/4    3582/512 
1700Z    -       -       -      6/0    77/1    61/2   144/3    3726/515 
1800Z    -       -       -     85/2    26/0    18/0   129/2    3855/517 
1900Z    -       -       -     60/0     1/1    12/1    73/2    3928/519   23
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3928/519   60
2100Z    -       -      4/1     1/1      -       -      5/2    3933/521   54
2200Z    -       -     80/2    29/2      -      2/0   111/4    4044/525 
2300Z    -     26/0    28/2      -     27/2     4/1    85/5    4129/530    7

Total: 64/41  376/70  663/93 1044/109 1069/112 913/105

By continent:

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

    EU      45    337    589    806    904    791    3472    84.1
    AF       2      3      7     12     11     11      46     1.1
    NA      12     22     26     25     25     27     137     3.3
    SA       4      8     15     24     25     42     118     2.9
    OC       1      5      7     15     13      9      50     1.2
    AS       0      1     19    162     91     33     306     7.4

Station:

Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA

FT1000D + AL-1200

• 160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
• 80m: 4 square 40m: 2-el Yagi @ 110′
• 20m: 5-el/5-el @ 100’/50′
• 15m: 4-el/4-el @ 66’/33′
• 10m: 6-el/4-el/4-el @90’/60’/30′
• South: TH7DXX @40′