Author: K5ZD

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′

K5ZD, Single Operator All Bands

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 45
Radios: SO2R

Summary:

Band   QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
160:     49    12       29
80:     504    21       80
40:    1305    33      107
20:    1145    33      112
15:     964    34      118
10:    1014    27      104
------------------------------
Total: 4981   160      550  Total Score = 10,242,460

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This contest revealed that the station and the operator are starting to show some signs of aging. Multiple hardware issues and an inability to set the alarm clock were all part of the game.

Given the great conditions expected I decided at the last minute not to use the DX Cluster, but do it on my own. There was stiff competition, but perhaps a new record to be set.

Discovered Friday night that both of my 160m antennas were intermittent. Was having trouble working anyone and the other bands were so good that I didn’t try to spend much time there.

Felt good the first night and decided to skip taking a nap.  It was a good move because 20m was open early at 0900z.

Fantastic rates on Sat morning. Had 3 consecutive hours over 190!  Don’t think I have had more than 1 ever before.  SH5 says the best 60 minutes was 204. Wow!  And I sent my call after EVERY QSO.

Noticed that the signal levels were dropping on 10m.  I assume a bad connection somewhere in the feedline or StackMatch.  Something to work on.

Was on record pace at the 24 hour mark. 2908/147/453 at 5.03M.  Potential to make 11 Meg!  USA record was 10.2M.

Was running Sat evening around 0100z on 40m when the noise level suddenly went to 20 over 9. Looked outside and it was a very light snow flurry!  Took a break for some food and a shower.  When I got back 20 minutes later the noise was gone.  Lucky!  Added bonus – the 160 antennas seemed to be working.

Was feeling good on Sat evening so had thoughts of going the full 48 hours. Knew that might be the only way to beat the tough competition. Started getting loopy (i.e., falling asleep during QSOs) around 0800z.  Decided to take a short nap at 0845z.

I set the alarm on my iPhone, but didn’t notice the phone was set to silent mode.  Amazingly, I woke up on my own at 1100z.  Surprised I didn’t sleep for more given how long I had been awake.  Of course, 20m was already wide open so I probably gave up a big chunk of QSOs.

Conditions on Sunday were OK, but didn’t feel quite as good as Saturday. Rates collapsed around 1800z and I lost focus.  Went into DXer mode and chased multipliers.  Had given up on any chance for the record when I arrived on 40m at 2030z.  Found a clear spot at 7004.7 and was rewarded with a steady stream of callers for the next 3 hours. Chased mults as I could on the second radio.

Another hardware problem appeared.  Sometimes the Array Solutions SixPak would not switch the antennas.  I had to get up, run into the other room, and give it a rap with my knuckles to unstick the relay.  Time to install my spare.

Broke the record, but it will not survive the log checking.  Sure wish I had just stayed awake or set the alarm correctly.  All part of the game and why setting big records is not easy…  Even more ironic since the reason I don’t hold the existing record is because I made myself go to sleep instead of operating on through.

One final comment (rant?).  It has become almost a waste of time for an unassisted single op to tune across a band looking for mults.  No one sends their call sign any more.  If you aren’t in a rare zone, I have no way to know that I should stop.  And if you don’t send your call I can’t tell how long it will be until you do.  I worked VP2MMM once and had to wait more than 4 minutes before he sent his call to see who I had worked.

There was many other times on Sunday when a guy would sent dit-dit or TU and there were no callers.  We would both wait for awhile and then he would call CQ.  If he had just sent his call, he would have had a QSO with me in less than half of that time!  It pays to advertise your call!!

Great to see CW so alive and well.  Also to see the increase in activity from China and India.

As always, it is amazing to see the score reports and realize how many active multipliers I never heard.  With activity spread out across hundreds of Khz across 3-4 bands at at time, it is impossible to find them all.

Thanks to everyone who found their way into my log. And congratulations to everyone who took advantage of the conditions to set a new score record.

Station Description:

• Radio 1   Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA
• Radio 2   Yeasu FT-1000D + Ameritron AL-1200

Tower 1   100′ Rohn 45G

• 40-2CD @ 110′
• 2x 205CA @ 100′ / 50′
• 2x 105CA @70′ / 35′
• 160m 1/4-wave GP with 4 elevated radials

Tower 2   90′ Rohn 25G

• 6-el 10 @90′ with 4/4 @ 60’/30′
• 80m wire 4 square hanging from tower with 16 radials per vertical
• 160m shunt feed tower with 32 radials

Tower 3   40′ Rohn 25G

• TH7DXX at 40′

WriteLog v11.17B + W5XD keyer for SO2R

Continental Breakdown

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

EU      18    398   1115    930    778    890    4129    82.9
SA       5     16     23     31     29     51     155     3.1
NA      19     70    105     52     49     40     335     6.7
AS       2      8     31     98     83      7     229     4.6
AF       4      6     21     20     13     14      78     1.6
OC       1      6      9     14     12     11      53     1.1

 

Rate

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--  124/61   15/26   --+--   --+--  139/87    139/87
0100Z   2/4      -     80/10   22/19     -       -    104/33    243/120
0200Z   4/6    54/41   37/5      -       -       -     95/52    338/172
0300Z    -     31/10   73/8      -       -       -    104/18    442/190
0400Z  13/12   15/8    34/1      -       -       -     62/21    504/211
0500Z    -     60/6    22/8      -       -       -     82/14    586/225
0600Z  10/7    46/5    33/3      -       -       -     89/15    675/240
0700Z    -      8/4   146/7      -       -       -    154/11    829/251
0800Z   1/1    12/5    77/7     4/5    --+--   --+--   94/18    923/269
0900Z   1/2     8/8    14/8    50/20     -       -     73/38    996/307
1000Z    -       -     11/6    69/12     -       -     80/18   1076/325
1100Z    -       -      4/2    69/16   10/9      -     83/27   1159/352
1200Z    -       -       -       -    187/35    3/4   190/39   1349/391
1300Z    -       -       -       -     85/10  112/37  197/47   1546/438
1400Z    -       -       -       -      9/4   186/11  195/15   1741/453
1500Z    -       -       -       -     15/5   158/6   173/11   1914/464
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   46/13   95/8   141/21   2055/485
1700Z    -       -       -       -    116/2    35/16  151/18   2206/503
1800Z    -       -       -     87/2    42/5     7/3   136/10   2342/513
1900Z    -       -       -    147/9     9/7      -    156/16   2498/529
2000Z    -       -       -     96/3    20/16    2/3   118/22   2616/551
2100Z    -       -       -     82/3    10/7    20/15  112/25   2728/576
2200Z    -       -       -     73/8    34/2      -    107/10   2835/586
2300Z    -       -     46/0     3/2    23/12     -     72/14   2907/600
0000Z  --+--   --+--   97/0     6/1    --+--   --+--  103/1    3010/601
0100Z    -     35/3    15/1     2/0      -       -     52/4    3062/605    20
0200Z    -     49/5    14/2      -       -       -     63/7    3125/612
0300Z   7/4    22/2     8/1      -       -       -     37/7    3162/619
0400Z   9/5     2/1    44/1     1/0      -       -     56/7    3218/626
0500Z   2/0    50/0      -       -       -       -     52/0    3270/626
0600Z    -     75/0     2/0      -       -       -     77/0    3347/626
0700Z    -     15/1    74/4      -       -       -     89/5    3436/631
0800Z  --+--    4/0    29/0     5/1    --+--   --+--   38/1    3474/632    15
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3474/632    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3474/632    60
1100Z    -      1/2      -     98/1    15/4      -    114/7    3588/639     7
1200Z    -       -       -     30/2   136/2     7/3   173/7    3761/646
1300Z    -       -       -       -    132/3    16/5   148/8    3909/654
1400Z    -       -       -       -     21/3   134/7   155/10   4064/664
1500Z    -       -       -       -     11/1   113/0   124/1    4188/665
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   12/0    13/1    79/1   104/2    4292/667
1700Z    -       -       -    165/3      -      6/1   171/4    4463/671
1800Z    -       -       -     68/2    11/4    17/5    96/11   4559/682
1900Z    -       -       -     16/2     4/1    22/3    42/6    4601/688
2000Z    -       -     42/0     4/1    14/5      -     60/6    4661/694
2100Z    -       -    121/1      -      1/1     1/1   123/3    4784/697
2200Z    -       -     93/3     6/3      -      1/2   100/8    4884/705
2300Z    -     17/0    65/1    15/4      -       -     97/5    4981/710

Total: 49/41  504/101 1305/140 1145/145 964/152 1014/131

 

Most worked countries:

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

DL       4     77    214    175    131    162     763
EA             14     43     37     27     25     146
F        2     18     42     41     27     45     175
G        1     23     67     53     36     60     240
HA       1     12     30     24     20     24     111
I              13     61     54     37     52     217
OK       2     23     68     56     49     40     238
S5       1      9     35     22     17     23     107
SM             14     27     21     26     27     115
SP       1     28     60     44     51     41     225
UA             17     97     79     91     68     352
UR             28     68     38     37     47     218
VE      13     37     29     15     16      7     117

Best rate:
60 mins     204   23-Nov-2013 12:26 – 23-Nov-2013 13:26

6 Banders:
8P5A 9A1P CN2AA CR3L D4C DM5TI DR1A HK1NA LZ9W OL4A P3N P40L PJ2T PJ4Q

5 Banders: 74

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

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

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  244
   40:  367
   20:  439
   15:  149
   10:   43
------------
Total: 1242  Sections = 83  Total Score = 206,172

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

My 37th consecutive year with more than 1000 QSOs in SS CW. I do love this contest!

Bands were interesting Saturday evening. Skip was very short even on 20 and 15 so it was possible to work most of the country right out of the gate. Didn’t make my first contact on 40 meters until 0226z!

Had a sweep at 0328 when K2NNY called in. Next to last section was KP2M in VI. I think I eventually worked 2 or more of everything. Its a great feeling to have the sweep in hand and then only have to concentrate on making QSOs.

Felt like I had a good start, but the rate died around 0700z. Sunday morning everyone seemed to go right to 20m. Did well CQing on 40m and picking off new stations on 20m.

After about noon it got too sloooowwwwwww. I would CQ for 10 minutes without an answer. Took a break to walk the dog. Took another break to eat dinner. When I made my first QSO on returning, I realized it was only 26 minutes and therefore not an offtime. Ouch.

From that point on I would come and go as I had time. Rate never picked back up so threw in the towel with 1 hour to go. With the 1000 QSO goal achieved, I was happy with the result. And I had enough SO2R practice to be ready for WW CW.

Thanks to everyone who was on. There really is something special about passing SS traffic all weekend.

Ratesheet

QSO/Sec by hour and band

Hour    80      40      20      15      10     Total     Cumm    Off

2100Z    -       -     74/41     -     18/10   92/51     92/51  
2200Z    -       -     58/6    25/5     2/2    85/13    177/64  
2300Z    -       -     33/5    50/1      -     83/6     260/70  
0000Z   5/0    --+--   70/4    16/1    --+--   91/5     351/75  
0100Z  69/5      -     18/0      -       -     87/5     438/80  
0200Z  17/0    45/0    15/1      -       -     77/1     515/81  
0300Z   9/0    37/0    22/2      -       -     68/2     583/83  
0400Z  66/0    13/0      -       -       -     79/0     662/83  
0500Z  16/0    58/0      -       -       -     74/0     736/83  
0600Z  19/0    30/0      -       -       -     49/0     785/83  
0700Z   5/0     2/0      -       -       -      7/0     792/83     51
0800Z   9/0    12/0    --+--   --+--   --+--   21/0     813/83     28
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     813/83     60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     813/83     60
1100Z   1/0     7/0      -       -       -      8/0     821/83     53
1200Z   7/0    46/0     2/0      -       -     55/0     876/83  
1300Z    -     40/0    10/0      -       -     50/0     926/83  
1400Z    -     34/0     7/0      -       -     41/0     967/83  
1500Z    -     25/0     4/0    11/0      -     40/0    1007/83  
1600Z  --+--   --+--   35/0     9/0     2/0    46/0    1053/83  
1700Z    -       -     36/0     5/0     6/0    47/0    1100/83      5
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1100/83     60
1900Z    -      4/0    17/0     8/0     2/0    31/0    1131/83      8
2000Z    -       -     18/0     4/0    13/0    35/0    1166/83  
2100Z    -       -      4/0     8/0      -     12/0    1178/83  
2200Z    -       -     11/0    13/0      -     24/0    1202/83     41
2300Z   8/0     2/0     5/0      -       -     15/0    1217/83     29
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1217/83     60
0100Z  11/0    10/0      -       -       -     21/0    1238/83     28
0200Z   2/0     2/0      -       -       -      4/0    1242/83  

Tot:  244/5   367/0   439/59  149/7    43/12

K5ZD, Single Operator All Bands, Classic Overlay

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

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

Class: SOAB Classic HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   44    12       24
   80:  143    17       55
   40:  185    24       67
   20:  511    31       97
   15:  757    32      101
   10: 1249    31       97
------------------------------
Total: 2889   147      441  Total Score = 4,932,144

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This is my Classic score.  I operated for another 3.5 hours to end up with a traditional single op score of 3144/151/464 = 5,603,265.

What great conditions!  I have never seen all bands to be so great at the same time and for the full weekend.

I have some vacation days to use so took one on Friday to do some work on my 160m antenna. After listening to 10m in the morning, decided to work on the 10m stack instead. SWR was funky so took the analyzer up the tower and did some changes to the gamma match tuning on each antenna.  Came back to shack after 2 hours of tower work and the SWR seemed worse than when I started.  Argh!

During the day I kept debating on whether to do a semi serious Assisted effort or try Classic.  With business travel coming and my wife out most of both days, decided I would go for the Classic.

I have been doing SO2R in contests since 1977. I often just use one rig in smaller contests, but it has been a long time since I operated one of the “majors” this way.  30 minutes before the contest started I made a rough plan on the back of an envelope.  Operate 2 hours, take a break, operate 2 more, then sleep until sunrise. Operate during the morning and then play it by ear.

Decided I would operate in true classic fashion – completely unplugged.  No cluster, no online scoreboards, no propagation, no nothing. Just a boy and his radio.

Contest started great. It was a blast chasing DX on all bands. Without the second radio I was constantly pushing to run or scan. With conditions so good, I never had to get into a mode where I was just pushing F1 waiting for something to happen.

After about 3 hours, I was feeling burned out. The triple combination of a new job at work, managing the CQWW, and working on WRTC2014 was almost too much. I took an hour long nap at 0300z and woke up feeling much better. I chased DX on the low bands for 2 hours and had to make myself stop since the rate was not that high.

Woke up around 1000z (6am local) and worked my way up the bands chasing mults. Hard to find a hole on 20m. Ended up CQing on 15m at 1115z. When the frequency cratered, I did S&P up the band and then jumped to 10m. Wow!  Wide open. One thing you miss with not having the second rig is knowing what is going on and being able to quickly jump between bands.

Found a hole at 28378 at 1200z and it was off to the races. SH5 shows the best 60 minutes was 236 QSOs!  A personal best from the USA.  That certainly got my contest juices flowing and there were no more motivation problems all weekend.

Had a contractor come by to look at a project.  That took 20 minutes, but decided not to get back on until I had taken a full hour break. Operated 30 minutes and then had to run some errands.

The surprise of the weekend was to come back on at 1700z (1pm local) and find 10 meters still wide open. One CQ and the rate was incredible. Very quiet frequency on 10 meters and all Western European stations. Jumped down to 15m and did it all again.

By 2230z I realized that I had operated over 16 hours.  This didn’t leave much time for the second day.  Took a break for a nap and dinner. Got back on around 0130z for some low band multiplier chasing. Once again, had to make myself stop at 0300z.  Got to watch the end of the World Series game.  During breaks I was answering emails about CQWW rules questions.

With such great conditions, the low bands really took the hit from less operating time.

Slept until 1030z. Sunrise is at 1110z. Chased some DX on the low bands and then had some very nice runs on 15m and 10m. Rates were lower, but conditions were great. Best DX was having Champ, XW0YJY, call in on 15m, then 10m, then later on 20m! I have never worked so many HS stations in one weekend.

Took 2 hours off at 1530z to relax. Then back on for my final hour of operation.

Conditions were so good that I just kept going.  Mostly multiplier chasing and DXing. Figured out that I had put the 10m coaxes back on the box incorrectly so the low antenna was really the high antenna.  Luckily I did most of my running on all 3 antennas!

Never was able to get any kind of run going on 40 meters all weekend.  Signals were loud, but the mosh pit between 7125 and 7200 is only for the hard core. Worked a few mults on 75m right at the end.

A few comments.

– Operating with only one radio was more fun than I expected. It was more focused.  Also more engaging because I was always thinking about whether to stay or move.  When I did tune, there was pressure to go fast and dig for mults.  Lots of decisions.

– Operating with only one radio is less tiring. Listening to two audio streams of splatter is work.  I just felt better and had more fun all weekend.  The downside is that I missed a lot of mults. Operating with one radio is like viewing a football game through a straw. Difficult to fully take it in.

– Never heard zone 34.  Where were the zone 19 and zone 32 stations? Only one zone 19 and that was on 40 meters!!  Only worked two zone 32 and both were on 10 meters.

– The 24 hour limit did take me off the air. This was a concern with creating a limited time category and it will be interesting to see how it impacts activity (if at all).  With the great conditions, it may be difficult to draw any real conclusions.  Once I had passed the 24 hour mark, it was fun to be able to keep going.

– The super power stations from Europe are hurting the contest. They are loud and wide and aggressive. Power is asymmetrical.  It helps the user and hurts the others on the band.  If none of the little guys can find a place, will they keep operating contests?

– I told a number of stations they were splattering. Many of them were able to reduce the splatter significantly just by turning down their drive. This indicates that some stations are using splatter as an offensive weapon.  Once again, they are causing long term damage to the game that we all love.

Thanks to everyone that goes on the road to make CQWW the best contest of the year.  And thanks to all of those that get on the air and fill our logs with contacts.

See you on CW!

Station

Elecraft K3 + Alpha 76CA

• 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′

All numbers below are for the full 27.5 hours of operation.   Continents

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

    AF       3     10      6     14     19     13      65     2.1
    EU      21    105    135    431    660   1100    2452    78.0
    NA      18     32     35     41     59     51     236     7.5
    SA       2      4      8     42     39     76     171     5.4
    AS       0      1     12     51     94     36     194     6.2
    OC       0      1      4      3      9      8      25     0.8

Rates

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

00Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   95/70   --+--   --+--   95/70     95/70  
01Z    -       -     68/37    6/4      -       -     74/41    169/111 
02Z   7/11   31/24   13/5     5/2      -       -     56/42    225/153 
03Z    -       -     14/7    23/14     -       -     37/21    262/174    25
04Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     262/174    60
05Z   7/7    50/23     -       -       -       -     57/30    319/204      
06Z  13/7    19/8    25/17     -       -       -     57/32    376/236 
07Z   3/3    10/7    21/8    57/15     -       -     91/33    467/269      
08Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     467/269    60
09Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     467/269    60
10Z   1/0     4/2     8/6    58/5      -       -     71/13    538/282      
11Z    -       -       -      4/1   111/46   21/19  136/66    674/348 
12Z    -       -       -       -       -    231/32  231/32    905/380 
13Z    -       -       -       -       -    194/11  194/11   1099/391 
14Z    -       -       -       -       -     38/0    38/0    1137/391      
15Z    -       -       -       -       -     63/7    63/7    1200/398    13
16Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1200/398    60
17Z    -       -       -       -       -    169/18  169/18   1369/416      
18Z    -       -       -       -    127/18   10/8   137/26   1506/442 
19Z    -       -       -       -    185/19     -    185/19   1691/461 
20Z    -       -       -       -     32/23   50/10   82/33   1773/494 
21Z    -       -       -       -     73/13   15/5    88/18   1861/512 
22Z    -       -       -     33/3      -     17/2    50/5    1911/517    29
23Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1911/517    60
00Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1911/517    60
01Z   8/7    14/3      -      2/1      -       -     24/11   1935/528    26
02Z   1/0    14/3    21/3    33/7      -       -     69/13   2004/541 
03Z   4/1      -       -       -       -       -      4/1    2008/542    53
04Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2008/542    60
05Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2008/542    60
06Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2008/542    60
07Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2008/542    60
08Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2008/542    60
09Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2008/542    60
10Z    -      1/2    15/8     8/0      -       -     24/10   2032/552    39
11Z    -       -       -     27/0   148/8      -    175/8    2207/560 
12Z    -       -       -       -     64/5    83/3   147/8    2354/568 
13Z    -       -       -       -       -    154/6   154/6    2508/574 
14Z    -       -       -       -       -    172/5   172/5    2680/579 
15Z    -       -       -      2/0    17/1    32/2    51/3    2731/582    30
16Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2731/582    60
17Z    -       -       -    140/6      -       -    140/6    2871/588    20
18Z    -       -       -     25/0    23/0    30/6    78/6    2949/594 
19Z    -       -       -       -     52/3     6/1    58/4    3007/598    20
20Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3007/598    60
21Z    -       -       -       -      9/2      -      9/2    3016/600    55
22Z    -       -       -     58/7    39/1      -     97/8    3113/608 
23Z    -     10/2    15/5     6/0      -       -     31/7    3144/615 

Tot: 44/36  153/74  200/96  582/135 880/139 1285/135

Worked on 6 bands: CN2AA D4C DF0HQ DR1A ES9C GM0B HK1NA PJ2T TI5W TM6M

Worked on 5 bands: 8P5A CN3A CR2X CR6K DL0CS ED1R EI7M G6PZ HA30S HG6N HG7T IG9Y II9P KP3Z LY7A M4A OK7O OZ7X PI4M RU1A SK3W UA4M

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL       3     16     15     53    127    166     380
    EA              7     10     35     42     46     140
     F       2      4     10     13     31     58     118
     G       2      8      3     16     41     80     150
     I              3      9     41     39     68     160
    PA              7      3     14     32     67     123
    SP       1      6      7     14     41     54     123
    UA              5     14     37     47    135     238
    UR       1      3      5     29     18     58     114