ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW - 2023
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 22
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 104
40: 417
20: 384
15: 136
10: 95
------------
Total: 1136 Sections = 85 Total Score = 193,120
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Worst. Sunday. Ever.
The first 6-7 hours of the contest was fun. I love the long exchange and trying to interleave QSOs on the second radio.
The hard sections seemed to be easy to find. I got the sweep when VA1RST called in on 80m at 0630z. (I worked at least 2 of every section except PE/VY2TT and VI/KP2M.)
Sunday was awful. So many unanswered CQs. Rate never happened during the morning so the afternoon, with the added solar storm, was even worse.
I would have quit but wanted to make my goal of 1000 QSOs. Did it. Then activity started to improve so I pushed a little further. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and ended an hour early.
Was keeping an eye on AA3B and N2NT on the scoreboard. They at least validated that there was no rate. We all marched along in lockstep. 🙁
Thanks to everyone who got on. It is always difficult the weekend immediately after a great high sunspot CQ WW.
This was a casual effort that turned serious. Didn’t do the normal sleep and food prep for a big effort. Was looking forward to the contest, but didn’t expect to spend full-time. Conditions on Friday night and Saturday were great. Lots of good openings and rates. Only slept 2 hours Friday night and 30 minute break for lunch. I would have been very happy if it ended after 24 hours.
Line at 24 hours: 2166 QSOs, 183 St, 95 Zn, 276 Cty for 2,958,914 points
The second 24 hours were a bit of a slog. Not helped when one of my amplifiers failed about 1305z. The power output went from 1400W to 2W. After spending an hour operating with one radio and thinking about quitting, I decided to pull a spare amp out of the closet and keep going. I was back in full SO2R mode by 1500z.
Was entertaining to watch the race between K1LZ and AA3B on the online scoreboard. They really piled up the multipliers. At one point on Saturday, I was more than 160 mults behind AA3B. I made it my goal on Sunday to close the gap to less than 100. You would think available mults are somewhat fixed, and I should be able to find some that he found using the cluster. But, no matter what I did, I never made it to under 100 mults behind. It was good motivation to keep me tuning the bands. Running on two bands very much limits the ability to tune around. You have to hope the mults call in.
The rebuilt TH7 now has an SWR problem on 10m. The amp didn’t seem to care and I was able to work stations to the south.
Nice JA run on 15m Saturday evening. Almost all right at the noise level. It was interesting to see how the bands opened in the morning. 20m was open well before sunrise but didn’t last long after due to absorption. 15m was the daytime money band. 10m was good on Saturday morning, but not so much on Sunday.
Spent time checking which antenna was best. For 10m, it seemed like the high antenna at 100′ was always better than the low stack or all 3. On 15 and 20 the stack was always best.
Spent a lot of time chasing missing states. Thought I was going to miss RI on 20m, but found NC1CC with an hour to go. Was missing OR on 20m until N7DB called in during the last hour. Didn’t hear a MT station until late Sunday and then got K7QA on 2 bands. Only worked one station in DE. No contact with VT although I heard N1IBM work someone.
Always a fun contest. The RTTY crowd is very proficient these days. Except for those few guys who still insist on sending everything 3 times. The biggest impediment to rate is my ability to type. I would mess up a letter and the station I was working would repeat their call multiple times. My bad.
Randy Thompson K5ZD and Tom Georgens W2SC went to Bologna Italy with every intention to win the World Radiosport Team Championship. Despite their best efforts, they fell short but not by much. They ranked 8th out of 58 teams with an overall score of 5,945,800 points which included 4390 QSOs in 24 hours. Randy talks in detail about qualifying, selecting the right teammate, prepping for their operating station, redundancy, location surprises, and contest tactics. If you’re into ham radio contesting, you’ll enjoy hearing from this contest hall of famer and now repeat WRTC competitor.
CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 55
40: 486
20: 543
15: 1013
10: 35
------------
Total: 2132 Prefixes = 931 Total Score = 5,748,925
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Conditions seemed fantastic for the times I was on. Especially 15m.
The main goal for the weekend was to get together with W2SC and test our WRTC station setup. Did that in the backyard on Saturday in the most perfect weather imaginable (callsign WR1TC).
Watched Formula 1 and Indy 500 on Sunday while operating. Always fun how the score takes off as the QSO totals rise.
Nice to see so much activity (and prefixes) from Ukraine.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Kevin Thomas W1DED. It was a wide-ranging conversation about what makes contesting fun and interesting to me.
Contesting Tips and Inspiration from Hall of Famer Randy Thompson K5ZD
If you’re new to contesting or just want to get some inspiration and tips from one of the best contesters in the world, you may want to watch this video interview with Randy Thompson, K5ZD. Randy has been contesting for 50 years and was inducted into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame in 2008. He recently participated in the ARRL DX SSB Contest where he is currently (and unofficially) ranked third worldwide in the Single Operator Unlimited All Band High Power category. He racked up over 4.4 million points while also taking care of some household errands, taking his wife out to dinner, and watching some Formula 1 racing. Randy also operated remotely, for the first time, with the multi-op ZF1A entry in CQ WPX SSB 2023. You’ll be impressed with Randy’s cool, measured approach to amateur radio contesting and his focus on keeping up with the ever-changing game with a positive attitude.
ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 28.5
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 33 25
80: 159 54
40: 182 69
20: 763 106
15: 943 105
10: 1162 103
-------------------
Total: 3242 462 Total Score = 4,493,412
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
Considered going unassisted, but didn’t want to spend the weekend listening to people not send their calls…
All bands were open at the start, but I didn’t want to mess with 40. Ended up calling CQ on 20. Amazing where the band is open to at 00z. A71KK called in at 59+20 and said he was running 80w. Same with HZ1DS who was 59+ running 100w. Then a ZS.
I did have one good run on 40m. I was transmitting on 7205 and listening on 7089. RW9USA called in and he was 40 over S9. Amazing! That was my only real success working split. Don’t know why people don’t do that anymore.
Snow static started around 0130z. By 0230z it was so bad I could not hear any signals on any band. Went off to watch TV for a while. Came back and the static was still bad. The only band with no snow static (160m) had some kind of electronic noise that was S6 across the band (probably from a neighbor). Went to bed and hoped for better in the morning.
Saturday was fun. Went straight to 15m at 1145z and it was off to the races. Jumped to 10m at 1246z and it got even wilder. After several hours took a break to do some errands, then took my wife out to dinner later that afternoon. Watched the Formula 1 qualifying in the evening. Got back on for Eu sunrise and caught up on the low band multipliers that I missed the first night. I did more CQing on 20m and was rewarded with a 3DA0 station calling in and asking what I needed for the contest.
Took a short sleep and got up to catch some of the Asia and Pacific mults on 40. The JAs were S9 on 40.
More running on Sunday morning. Really struggled to get or keep a frequency on both 15 and 10.
The bands were slow to open. I spent all day Sunday getting beat out by stations in PA, MD, and VA. This makes sense since the bands were great to Italy and southern Europe all day but marginal to northern Eu.
As sunset passed to Western Eu the conditions improved. Had a great run on 10m of stations that were solid S9 and yet many were running less than 50W.
I noticed something interesting this weekend. On Saturday morning my 10m stack at 60’/30′ was the best antenna for Europe. On Sunday, it seemed like the 6-ele at 90′ was always better. All this contest season the stack has been the winner, but not on Sunday.
I noticed something similar on 20m on both days. Normally the stack in phase (BIP) is ALWAYS the best antenna. I try out of phase (BOP) sometimes, just for fun, but it is never an improvement. Not this weekend. The BOP configuration was an S-unit louder to Europe. I guess it is true that you can never have too many antenna options.
20m was finally good for running when I went there early around 1900z. That meant I could get a frequency. Definitely helped boost the score since I was missing some easy mults there.
Spent the last part of the contest chasing multipliers. Learned more humility. Had some great tail-end wins with HH2AA and 9V1YC. The last hour did have a good run to JA on 15m which was a pleasant surprise. Then jumped across all bands the last hour looking for anything I could work. Nice to have so many PY stations available.
TM6M once again wins the award for widest signal. There were lots of other wide and splattering signals from Europe. The good propagation makes the splatter even more noticeable. It is great for them to help keep the frequency clear, but not so good for the rest of us. Very poor sportsmanship.
Overall a fun contest. Thanks to those around the world that chase us across the bands.
ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 36.2
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 76 38
80: 402 57
40: 853 78
20: 1097 87
15: 1211 89
10: 1318 87
-------------------
Total: 4957 436 Total Score = 6,483,756
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Conditions could not be better than this one. All the bands were hot!
Comments:
This contest did not take the normal path. After 8k+ QSOs in January for the N1W WRTC event, WPX RTTY last weekend, plus some business travel, I hit the wall at about 0300z the first night. Even though the conditions were terrific, I just couldn’t see pushing through. Went to sleep for 6 hours.
When I woke up I was more than 500 QSOs behind K1ZZ and even more behind N2IC on the scoreboard. But, I felt great and the rates Saturday morning were simply amazing with consecutive hours of 193, 218, 216, 199, 173.
The second wall hit about 2 pm so took some time off to eat. Got back on for a while and then decided I needed to get a walk in before dark. Returned after sunset to discover an incredible opening to Japan. Even had some BY stations call me! At the 24-hour mark I had as many JAs in the log than stations from Italy. Whoa.
Saturday evening I decided to try to catch up from missing Friday night. The low bands were excellent and very quiet. Could hear almost anything. The sunrise peak on 160 to Europe was great with 9A1A up to S9 for a while.
Was catching up to the leaders so only slept for 90 minutes and then straight on to 20m. Rates were not as crazy, but the band was open deep with JA and BY calling in over Europe on 20m. So many Russians!
It was fun watching the scoreboard and chasing. Decided to just power through to the end to see if I could catch the leaders. Seeing K1ZZ, N2IC and I switching places at the top on almost every update was exciting. Thought I had passed N2IC at the end for the win, but K5GN turned in a truly amazing score from Texas that was ahead of us all.
Only SO2R here. Tried to run on two bands when the rates slowed, but just can’t do it. It was an experiment that lasted 10 minutes at most.
The worst signals of the weekend award go to TM6M (some kind of wide sidecars on their signal especially on 20), SN3A (very wide on 40m), and many others from Europe with strong clicks (too many to remember and name).
Having all bands open spread out the activity. Was relatively easy to find a CQ frequency. At the same time, that plus the rates made it very difficult to find multipliers. You would tune by and just hear “599 KW” and then “TU.” Before the cluster and RBN stations had a reason to sign their call to generate pileups. No more.
Best DX was being called by VU stations on 40-10m. HS on 10-20. V85 called in on 20 and then heard me through a big pileup on 15. VR2CO called in. Also DU3T on two bands. Nice to have JAs calling me on 10 and 15. The JAs were even loud on 40.
All the antenna work over the summer paid off. The new 40m stack is significantly better to Europe than the other 40m beam. And the low stack on 10m made me feel like the king of the band.
We will likely never see conditions this good again across all of the bands in the same weekend. Too bad I didn’t make a recording of this one.
Thanks to contesters around the world for chasing us all weekend. Especially for the number of Russian and Ukraine stations that were on. Those guys really know CW!
CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2023
Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 28
OpMode: 2BSIQ
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 204
40: 543
20: 494
15: 769
10: 609
------------
Total: 2619 Prefixes = 900 Total Score = 6,745,500
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This is a fun contest. Never intended to do a full effort, but operated more than expected.
The first 8 hours were full-on. Things started slow but picked up as Europe woke up. Could not keep up with AA3B. Bud is amazing at working on 2 bands AND chasing multipliers.
Took some sleep and then continued. Could never really get good runs on 2 bands at the same time. It was almost like the bands were too open. Activity was really spread out.
Did my Sat morning errands. Weather was very nice outside. Got back on the radio, but the nice weather was calling. Took time off Sat afternoon to play 18 holes of golf. Got on for a while and discovered one of the best JA openings on
10 and 15 that I have experienced in a contest. My family called for me to cook dinner. Worked a bit more but was too sleepy to continue late.
Woke up Sunday morning and pushed hard for another 8+ hours. Managed to catch most of the guys who had gotten ahead of me. Was going to stop for the Super Bowl, but just kept going right to the end of the contest.
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD KW1X
Station: K5ZD
Class: M/S HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 24.2
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 1152 146 (81 DX, 65 states/prov)
SSB: 849 123 (62 DX, 61 states/prov)
-------------------
Total: 2001 269 Total Score = 1,693,314
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
A casual multi-single effort. Wanted to give Mark KA1YQC a chance to use the antenna system he had helped me build over the summer. Mark did a lot of the CW operating while I covered phone.
Mark just received his new call – KW1X – on Friday.
Bands opened to Europe within minutes of sunrise on both mornings. Things got slow in the afternoons when it was all South America and stations in Colorado and Texas. Weird that the opening to the Pacific Northwest never seemed to get very good.
We did well on chasing multipliers. Best QSO of the weekend was having JE1CKA call in on Sunday evening after dark. Another thrill was getting a very weak VY1JA through a huge pileup. With the 6-el, I really have to move it to work JA, KL7, and VY1.
Nice to see the sunspots bringing higher MUFs.
No big monster rates. Just a continuous stream of callers or S&P QSOs.
We used N1MM+ for the weekend at Mark’s request. First real contest I have used it. Definitely some challenges due to keystrokes and software behavior not being like my usual software, but we lived through it.
Very happy with how the 10m array was working all weekend.
6-el @100′ 4-el @63′ 4-el @32′
Spent most of the time running Europe on the lower two antennas.
By Continent
10M CW 10M PHO Total %
NA 629 606 1235 61.7
OC 11 12 23 1.1
EU 473 165 638 31.9
AF 5 5 10 0.5
AS 4 1 5 0.2
SA 30 60 90 4.5
