Author: K5ZD

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2021

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

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 31
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band   QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   63	9	31
   80:  240	14	61
   40:  305	21	75
   20: 1574	35     109
   15: 1171	31     102
   10:  493	18	75
------------------------------
Total: 3846    128     453  Total Score = 6,415,983

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

True classic entry. One radio and no DX spots. Classic overlay score around 5M.

What happened to the predicted solar storm? Seemed like conditions were good and just kept getting better! The climax was having 10m bust wide open Sunday morning.

Was focused on optimizing my Classic score so not the best strategy for optimizing the traditional category score. Took time off on Friday night plus some sleep. Then almost no operating on Sat night. Once I got the 24 hours in I was running for fun or being a DXer.

Doing a contest with only one radio definitely limits your awareness of what is happening on other bands. Have to rely a lot more on intuition and the “sound” of the band to know when it is time to move.

Fun watching the scoreboard. Had to look at the assisted guys because there weren’t many SO that were posting.

Thanks to all for the QSOs. And special thanks to all those who traveled to activate more DX for the rest of us.

Recording

Audio recordings of the full operation are available here.

Station

K3 + AL-1200

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower

80m: 4 square, dipole

40m: 40-2CD @110′

20m: 205CA @100′

15m: 155ca @66′

10m: 6-ele @90′ TH7DXX @ 40′

Rates

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   47/33   42/36   --+--   --+--   89/69     89/69  
0100Z   2/4    45/34   19/7      -       -       -     66/45    155/114 
0200Z    -     30/8      -      7/2      -       -     37/10    192/124   37
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     192/124   60
0400Z  11/14   70/14     -       -       -       -     81/28    273/152    4
0500Z  10/6    24/3    27/15     -       -       -     61/24    334/176 
0600Z   1/0    19/5    36/17     -       -       -     56/22    390/198 
0700Z   1/1      -      5/2      -       -       -      6/3     396/201   54
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     396/201   60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     396/201   60
1000Z    -      3/3    19/9    47/21     -       -     69/33    465/234    6
1100Z    -       -       -    231/12     -       -    231/12    696/246 
1200Z    -       -       -     34/3   164/43     -    198/46    894/292 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    209/11     -    209/11   1103/303 
1400Z    -       -       -       -    206/7      -    206/7    1309/310 
1500Z    -       -       -     55/3    65/5     8/8   128/16   1437/326 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  183/5    --+--   --+--  183/5    1620/331 
1700Z    -       -       -     56/3      -       -     56/3    1676/334 
1800Z    -       -       -       -     31/20   26/12   57/32   1733/366   60
1900Z    -       -       -    104/5    24/14     -    128/19   1861/385 
2000Z    -       -       -    160/8      -     10/1   170/9    2031/394 
2100Z    -       -       -     69/3    18/6    19/11  106/20   2137/414 
2200Z    -       -     51/6    38/19     -       -     89/25   2226/439 
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2226/439   60
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2226/439   60
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2226/439   60
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2226/439   60
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2226/439   60
0400Z  12/7      -       -      8/5      -       -     20/12   2246/451   35
0500Z   2/1    42/5    15/2      -       -       -     59/8    2305/459 
0600Z  22/5      -     19/2      -       -       -     41/7    2346/466   35
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2346/466   60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2346/466   60
0900Z   1/1     1/1     2/1     2/1      -       -      6/4    2352/470   47
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2352/470   60
1100Z    -       -       -    141/3     4/0     2/1   147/4    2499/474    5
1200Z    -       -       -       -    176/4      -    176/4    2675/478 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    108/1    44/28  152/29   2827/507 
1400Z    -       -       -       -       -    151/23  151/23   2978/530 
1500Z    -       -       -       -       -    199/7   199/7    3177/537 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    3/0     3/0    3180/537   15
1700Z    -       -       -       -     78/6    14/0    92/6    3272/543   60
1800Z    -       -       -    112/2    14/3      -    126/5    3398/548 
1900Z    -       -       -    162/5      -       -    162/5    3560/553 
2000Z    -       -       -     89/3      -     11/2   100/5    3660/558 
2100Z    -       -       -      7/2    55/13    6/0    68/15   3728/573 
2200Z    -      1/1    64/2     5/1      -       -     70/4    3798/577 
2300Z   1/1     5/1     1/0    22/2    19/0      -     48/4    3846/581 

Total: 63/40  240/75  305/96 1574/144 1171/133 493/93 

Best 60 mins: 232 QSOs from 30-Oct-2021 11:00 to 30-Oct-2021 12:00

Worked on 6 bands:

CQ8M CR6K DP7D E7DX ED7R EW5A IR6T LN8W M6T OT5A P40W PJ2T PJ4K TM1O TM3R TM6M

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL       8     23     27    212    127     70     467
     G       5     13      8    134    120     48     328
     I       1     12     35    128     93     48     317
     F       4     19     13     87     56     34     213
    EA       3     15     13     76     61     34     202
    PA       2      6      7     85     48     27     175
    SP       1     13     12     69     42     10     147
    UA       0      4      5     58     55      1     123

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2021

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

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 36.3
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------
   80:  404       46      49    13
   40:  784       50      63    21
   20: 1173       47      85    30
   15:  849       24      77    25
   10:   14        2       5     4
------------------------------------
Total: 3224      169     279    93  Total Score = 4,177,061

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Needed a contest fix and this one is always fun.  Conditions were even better than expected which was a nice bonus.

SO2R is the way to go for RTTY.  Especially if you can handle CQing on two bands.  The rhythm is easy to match and it keeps things interesting.

The first night was ok, but nothing special.  Fun chasing AA3B on the scoreboard as he ran away from me.

Saturday morning I went to 20m a bit early and the band was already rocking. Signals up to 14140.  I found a spot and got a great run going.  Band was open deep with UA9 calling in.  In high sunspot years that is a sign to check 15m. Sure enough, there were some loud Eu there.  Called CQ and it was off to the races.

15m was good both days. The band was long and it was clear the Europeans were not hearing each other.  That means less QRM.  Signals levels were great from F to LA to UA3. Loud signals from 21080 to 21150.

Was getting a bit bored and discouraged as time wore on.  Was doing great on the online scoreboard, but didn’t think I had the mental energy to get through the full contest.  Took a break to cook lunch and go for a 3 mile walk.  That helped my mood a lot and I was re-energized to get back into the fray.

The JA opening on 20 was very good.  When that happens, it reveals a weakness in my station.  The 20 and 40m are on the same mast so if I beam Japan, it is not good for 40 to Europe.  Working Asia is more fun so focused on that while tuning around on 40.

Decided to take a nap from 0220z to 0400z while the Europeans were asleep. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but looks like I gave up 170 QSOs to AA3B during that period.  Whoops.  Took a second nap during the wee hours.  Felt great when I got up.  Nice to see 20 was also opening just as it had on Saturday.  With 650 QSOs already in the log on that band, the rate was slower. 15m also opened so dual CQing helped keep things interesting.

I had intended to push through to the end of the contest.  Was running stations on 20m when I looked up and saw the AL-1200 grid meter was hitting the pin. There was no output from the amp and no HV.  That bummed me out so I took some time to cook dinner. 

I had a nice score and it seemed a shame to quit when I still had one working radio.  Decided to give up on mult chasing and just focus on pressing F1 over and over.  Rates held up better than expected and was able to cross over the 3K QSO barrier.  Then passed 4 meg.  Wow.  A new personal best in WW RTTY by far.

Most surprising QSO: Having UA0AGI call in on 15m at 1923z.  That seems kind of late, but I thank him for checking the band at that time of night.

Other 15m fun: Lots of YBs calling in. And two HS, plus a VU. And a bunch of UA9.

Weird stuff: Not much USA on 15m.  Band was just too long and no one seemed to focus on backscatter.

Studly QSOs: Working JA on 40m. Then calling a loud YD9VE and having him come right back.  DU1UGZ was also very loud but could not hear me.

WriteLog is fantastic for RTTY contesting.  The integration with the decoders is top notch. I ran with 2Tone as my primary decoder and MMTTY as the clone.

Always fun to see how one decoder will read perfectly while the other just has gibberish. Two decoders were especially helpful when running as it reduced the need for repeats.

A fun way to spend a weekend.  Had the Ryder Cup on TV all day Saturday and the NFL on Sunday.  https://contestonlinescore.com/ was a big motivator as always. Great to chase AA3B and AC0C.

With the high bands open it was fun to work a lot of new calls.  DX contests are so much more fun for everyone when there are good conditions for working DX. And we can spread out on the high bands.

Never heard or worked VT, MT, or ND.  Only one QSO with NM. Very few stations from Indiana.

Now on to WW SSB!

Postscript on the amp failure. One of the fuses had blown.  The AL-1200 will continue to run with one fuse missing, which is very confusing when you are sleep-deprived.  If I had only known, could have fixed it in 2 minutes and been back to full SO2R.  The fuse holder had experienced some heat so need to find a replacement. 

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
 80m: 4 square, dipole
 40m: 40-2CD @110′
 20m: 205CA @100′
 15m: 155ca @66′
 10m: 6-ele @90′
 TH7DXX @ 40′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box, MMTTY and 2Tone decoders

QSOs By continent

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

    NA     251    395    313     86      3    1048    32.5
    EU     150    359    740    698      0    1947    60.4
    AS       0      6     72     18      0      96     3.0
    SA       1      7     20     36     11      75     2.3
    AF       2      6      5      4      0      17     0.5
    OC       0     10     22      6      0      38     1.2

Rates

QSO/Zn+Dx+St by hour and band

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

00Z   --+--   21/25    51/38   --+--   --+--   72/63     72/63    10
01Z     -     45/28    62/13    1/3      -    108/44    180/107 
02Z   34/28   73/22    18/6      -       -    125/56    305/163 
03Z   41/26   28/6       -       -       -     69/32    374/195   13
04Z   52/13   63/15      -       -       -    115/28    489/223 
05Z   28/13   57/2      2/0      -       -     87/15    576/238 
06Z   27/7    46/14      -       -       -     73/21    649/259    4
07Z     -       -        -       -       -      0/0     649/259   60
08Z   --+--   --+--    --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     649/259   60
09Z   11/1     7/1       -       -       -     18/2     667/261   46
10Z   14/1    16/0     52/23     -       -     82/24    749/285 
11Z     -      1/0     81/11   88/28     -    170/39    919/324 
12Z     -       -      35/10  104/14     -    139/24   1058/348 
13Z     -       -      61/8    99/8      -    160/16   1218/364 
14Z     -       -      39/3    78/10    1/3   118/16   1336/380 
15Z     -       -      23/3    47/6      -     70/9    1406/389   15
16Z   --+--   --+--    19/1    45/12   --+--   64/13   1470/402 
17Z     -       -      49/2    14/3     8/5    71/10   1541/412 
18Z     -       -      63/6      -      2/0    65/6    1606/418 
19Z     -       -      35/3    31/16    1/1    67/20   1673/438   10
20Z     -       -        -       -       -      0/0    1673/438   60
21Z     -       -        -       -       -      0/0    1673/438   60
22Z     -       -      41/6    21/7      -     62/13   1735/451   16
23Z     -     63/5     31/9     3/1      -     97/15   1832/466 
00Z   --+--   32/1     10/4    --+--   --+--   42/5    1874/471   23
01Z   45/8    56/4      1/1      -       -    102/13   1976/484 
02Z    9/1    18/0       -       -       -     27/1    2003/485   38
03Z     -       -        -       -       -      0/0    2003/485   60
04Z   50/5    23/2       -       -       -     73/7    2076/492    4
05Z   25/3    64/1       -       -       -     89/4    2165/496 
06Z   25/1    56/1      1/2      -       -     82/4    2247/500 
07Z     -      2/0       -       -       -      2/0    2249/500   58
08Z   --+--   --+--    --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2249/500   60
09Z     -       -        -       -       -      0/0    2249/500   60
10Z   25/1    15/6     12/0      -       -     52/7    2301/507    7
11Z     -      1/0     64/2    39/2      -    104/4    2405/511 
12Z     -       -      55/0    66/0      -    121/0    2526/511 
13Z     -       -      51/2    74/4      -    125/6    2651/517 
14Z     -       -      53/0    44/2      -     97/2    2748/519 
15Z     -       -      52/1    37/5      -     89/6    2837/525 
16Z   --+--   --+--    28/0    31/1    --+--   59/1    2896/526 
17Z     -       -      32/3     7/0      -     39/3    2935/529   13
18Z     -       -        -       -       -      0/0    2935/529   60
19Z     -       -      49/0      -       -     49/0    2984/529   13
20Z     -       -      58/2      -       -     58/2    3042/531 
21Z     -       -      39/1    10/1     2/2    51/4    3093/535 
22Z     -     65/1       -     10/3      -     75/4    3168/539 
23Z   18/0    32/0      6/2      -       -     56/2    3224/541 

Tot: 404/108 784/134 1173/162 849/126  14/11 

Best 60 minutes: 180 starting Sep 25 at 1106z

Worked on 5 bands: K1SFA PV2K

Worked on 4 bands: 81

Most worked countries

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total

     K     214    343    276     62      2     897
    DL      30     54    124    136            344
     I      14     47     86     83            230
    UR       4     28     48     51            131
    SP       9     22     49     41            121
    UA       1     13     50     42            106
     G       7     16     46     35            104
    PA       6     16     43     33             98
    EA      10     14     30     36             90
    VE      29     33     16      8             86

Also nice to see
    JA              4     45                    49
    YB              1     12      6             19
   UA9              1     15      4             20

                    World Wide Digi DX Contest - 2021

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

Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 18.8
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   34    13
   80:  146    33
   40:  307    51
   20:  342    54
   15:   87    24
   10:   15     7
-------------------
Total:  931   182  Total Score = 339,794

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

The FT modes were not made for contesting…  but, it makes for a challenging slow-motion video game.

Conditions were not the best at the start.  Very good at the end.

Even with the good activity, had to spend some time on the FT8 water holes to get some of the multipliers.  Frustrating to see so many Asia DX stations that were clear copy, but they could not hear me through the QRM.

Amazing what FT8 enables working on 80 and 160.  I even had 3 southern European stations call in on 10 meters!

Started late.  Stayed up too late working on a project so I slept in and ran some errands.  Didn’t miss much by the sound of the bands.  Took another break to do a 5-mile walk. Then took an hour of sleep when things got really slow.

Full SO2R.  Nice to be able to have something to occupy the time while waiting for repeats.

How do you get a grid from those VKx4 letter callsigns?  Or any long call?

Great job by Bud AA3B. I don’t know he finds the stamina!

“Rates”

QSO/Mul by hour and band

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

D1-1200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -     39/19     39/19    60
D1-1300Z    -       -       -     35/16    4/3      -     39/19     39/19    13
D1-1400Z    -       -       -      9/1     9/6      -     18/7      57/26    36
D1-1500Z    -       -       -     23/2    13/4      -     36/6      93/32    23
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   29/1    14/3    --+--   43/4     136/36  
D1-1700Z    -       -     11/4    29/2     6/1      -     46/7     182/43  
D1-1800Z    -       -      4/0    33/3    11/2     3/3    51/8     233/51  
D1-1900Z    -       -       -     33/4     8/1     8/4    49/9     282/60  
D1-2000Z    -       -       -     14/0     1/0     4/0    19/0     301/60    31
D1-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     301/60    60
D1-2200Z    -       -      7/5    15/4     4/1      -     26/10    327/70    18
D1-2300Z    -      1/1    35/13   26/6      -       -     62/20    389/90  
D2-0000Z  --+--   38/11   33/2    --+--   --+--   --+--   71/13    460/103 
D2-0100Z    -     32/5    35/3      -       -       -     67/8     527/111 
D2-0200Z  19/7     4/0    21/3     4/2      -       -     48/12    575/123 
D2-0300Z    -     29/3    30/1     5/3      -       -     64/7     639/130 
D2-0400Z  10/6      -     14/1     5/2      -       -     29/9     668/139 
D2-0500Z    -     14/5    31/7     6/1      -       -     51/13    719/152 
D2-0600Z   4/0    14/5    22/4      -       -       -     40/9     759/161 
D2-0700Z   1/0    10/3    16/3     2/0      -       -     29/6     788/167 
D2-0800Z  --+--    4/0    14/3     1/0    --+--   --+--   19/3     807/170   16
D2-0900Z    -       -      2/0     5/0      -       -      7/0     814/170   60
D2-1000Z    -       -     23/2    34/3      -       -     57/5     871/175 
D2-1100Z    -       -      9/0    34/4    17/3      -     60/7     931/182 

Total:    34/13  146/33  307/51  342/54   87/24   15/7  

Best 60 minutes was 74 QSOs.  It is possible to do more, but need a quiet band with callers that can’t hear each other.

Worked 382 band-grids.

                IARU HF World Championship - 2021
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOABMixed HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 23.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
   Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
   160:    45     0      8       10
    80:   193    16     17       27
    40:   519   115     24       41
    20:   866   356     32       42
    15:   524    62     22       34
    10:   169    12     14       18
 Total:  2316   551    117      172  Total Score = 2,782,781

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Had to run some errands before the contest so did not sit down to operate until 1215z (15 mins late). Stayed on the air almost continuously for the remainder of the 24 hours.  Two quick breaks and one for 12 minutes to eat.

Decided to do this contest old school.  SO2R, but no cluster.  I have gotten used to having lots of spots of multipliers, so it was good to remember the tension of having to decide when to stop running and look for mults.

You never know what you will get for conditions in the Summer. Was hearing Europe on 10 meters at the start, in the afternoon until after sunset, and again on Sunday morning. Worked some Europeans on 15 meters at 4 am local time here!

Even with tropical storm Elsa racing away, the low bands were quiet on this end.

 Must have been noisy down south and in Europe as I called a number of loud stations on 160m that could not hear me.  40m was so good I didn’t spend enough time on 80m so missed a number of “easy” HQ mults.

All antennas seemed to be working.  I think I have a problem with the stacking box on the 10m array.  Looks like it is time to do some work there.  The recently repaired 40m beam was hearing well but has an SWR problem that will need some investigation.

Did not hear a JA station on any band until Sunday morning when 20 finally opened that way. Had a few call in along with a BY and DU, which were welcome mults.

Ended the contest with a nice run on 15 meters CW.  I kept thinking I should go to SSB, but the activity never seemed to be there at other times during the weekend.  Where are all the phone ops?!

Thanks to everyone that was active and making QSOs.  Hope you had as much fun as I did!

Station

K3 + AL-1200

K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower

 80m: 4 square, dipole

 40m: 40-2CD @110′

 20m: 205CA @100′

 15m: 155ca @66′

 10m: 6-ele @90′

 TH7DXX @ 40′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rates

QSO/ZN+HQ by hour and band

Hour     160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M       Total     Cumm     Off
D1-1200Z    -       -       -     48/13   32/8     7/5       87/26     87/26    15
D1-1300Z    -       -       -    109/22   40/9      -       149/31    236/57
D1-1400Z    -       -       -     90/5    18/6    20/3      128/14    364/71
D1-1500Z    -       -       -    130/2    28/10     -       158/12    522/83
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  117/5    18/3     7/0      142/8     664/91
D1-1700Z    -       -       -    114/1    11/3      -       125/4     789/95
D1-1800Z    -       -       -    135/2    50/4      -       185/6     974/101
D1-1900Z    -       -       -     51/2    39/1    25/14     115/17   1089/118
D1-2000Z    -       -       -       -     50/0    69/7      119/7    1208/125
D1-2100Z    -       -       -     60/0    59/3    47/1      166/4    1374/129
D1-2200Z    -       -     46/12  109/2    13/1      -       168/15   1542/144
D1-2300Z    -       -     86/11   35/2     6/2      -       127/15   1669/159
D2-0000Z  --+--   16/14   72/12   50/2    --+--   --+--     138/28   1807/187
D2-0100Z   4/4    43/11   71/8      -       -       -       118/23   1925/210
D2-0200Z   8/3    37/8    70/1      -       -       -       115/12   2040/222
D2-0300Z  12/6    35/3   115/3      -       -       -       162/12   2202/234
D2-0400Z  10/2     1/1    52/9     3/1      -       -        66/13   2268/247
D2-0500Z   4/3    26/3    29/3     9/3      -       -        68/12   2336/259
D2-0600Z   4/0    18/2    44/2      -       -       -        66/4    2402/263
D2-0700Z    -       -     17/1    38/5      -       -        55/6    2457/269   12
D2-0800Z   3/0    16/1    22/3    --+--    4/1    --+--      45/5    2502/274
D2-0900Z    -     17/1    10/0    64/1      -       -        91/2    2593/276
D2-1000Z    -       -       -     53/5    90/2      -       143/7    2736/283
D2-1100Z    -       -       -      7/1   128/3     6/2      141/6    2877/289
Total:    45/18  209/44  634/65 1222/74  586/56  181/32

Best 60 mins: 194 starting at 18:26 10-Jul-2021

Most worked stations

10 band/modes GR2HQ OP0HQ TM0HQ S50HQ

 9 band/modes DA0HQ EF4HQ NU1AW/5 YT0HQ

 8 band/modes 9A0HQ OE0HQ PA6HQ

Most worked countries

Country   QSOs
  K       1041
 DL        272
 VE        130
 UA        127
  I        102
 SP         95
  G         81
 OK         80
  G         78
 UR         75

Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: Single Op HP

Operating Time (hrs): 14.4
Radios: SO2R
Summary:   Compare Scores
Band      CW Qs   Ph Qs
 80:       259       52
 40:       395      165
 20:       515      416
 15:        73        4
 10:         2        1
Total:    1244      638        Mults     117        Total Score         365,742

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

New personal best score for me in this contest. Conditions weren’t great, but not bad either. Thanks to the sporadic E on Sunday that kept the skip zone short on 20 and opened 15.

Started the contest 20 minutes late. Took an hour off for dinner. Went for a walk on Sunday afternoon and wasn’t feeling well so took a long nap. Back on for the end.

I had worked all states and most of the Canadian provinces after just 3.5 hours of operation. Freed me up to spend more time looking for new countries. Fun chasing DX between runs. Amazing how much stuff is on the air over the course of a weekend.

The short skip also helped me work more NE counties than ever. Missed 1 in CT, 3 in ME, 1 in MA, 1 in NH, and 6 in VT.

NV9L was very loud on 15m SSB Sunday morning. He commented that he had worked some NE stations on 10 so we moved to 10 CW. He was loud. Then we moved up to 28350. Made the QSO, but he was not loud. So the MUF was somewhere in between.

K2UA/M was the mobile I heard the most, but they never sent their county in the CQ so often had to wait to see if they were in a new one.

WriteLog was doubling my SSB QSOs when it posted to the scoreboard. I know that had K1ZZ scratching his head over where I was finding all the extra QSOs!

Sure a lot of activity in the 7QP. Thanks to all that called in.

Station

Full SO2R operation.

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 40-2CD @110′
20m: 205CA @100′
15m: 155ca @66′
10m: 6-ele @90′
TH7DXX @ 40′
WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rates

CW+PH/Mul by hour and band
Hour     80m     40m     20m     15m     10m    Total     Cumm    Off
2000Z     -     17/8   106/37     -       -    123/45    123/45
2100Z     -     67/6    67/18     -       -    134/24    257/69
2200Z     -     38/9   107/6      -       -    145/15    402/84
2300Z     -     14/0   158/6      -       -    172/6     574/90
0000Z   35/1    83/0    --+--    2/0    --+--  120/1     694/91      9
0100Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0     694/91     60
0200Z   76/1    54/0      -       -       -    130/1     824/92      7
0300Z   85/4    27/4      -       -       -    112/8     936/100
0400Z   72/0    27/0      -       -       -     99/0    1035/100
0500Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1035/100    60
0600Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1035/100    60
0700Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1035/100    60
0800Z   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1035/100    60
0900Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1035/100    60
1000Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1035/100    60
1100Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1035/100    60
1200Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1035/100    60
1300Z   16/0    46/0    59/2      -       -    121/2    1156/102     1
1400Z     -     15/0    87/0     4/0      -    106/0    1262/102
1500Z     -       -    179/4      -       -    179/4    1441/106
1600Z   --+--   --+--   41/2    60/0     2/0   103/2    1544/108
1700Z     -       -     19/1    11/0      -     30/1    1574/109    47
1800Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1574/109    60
1900Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1574/109    60
2000Z     -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1574/109    60
2100Z     -     36/0    48/2      -      1/1    85/3    1659/112    15
2200Z     -     59/0    60/2      -       -    119/2    1778/114
2300Z   27/0    77/3      -       -       -    104/3    1882/117
Total: 311/6   560/30  931/80   77/0     3/1

                CQMM DX Contest - 2021
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 13.7
Summary:
 Band   QSOs  Prefixes
   80:    90       7
   40:   291      43
   20:   668      53
   15:    82      49
   10:    21      17
Total:  1152     169  Countries = 91  Total Score = 1,319,500

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

I became a CWJF member last year after CQMM 2020. Wanted to have the honor of giving out extra points. 🙂

Fun contest even though conditions were terrible.  You know conditions are bad when it is difficult to work South Americans on 15m!

Operated more than intended to support CWJF and this most interesting contest.

I love the use of South American prefixes per band as the mult.  Also nice to see so much activity from SA.

Single radio operation plus the cluster.

Rates

QSO/Dx+Pref by hour and band
Hour      80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime
D1-1000Z    -     26/7      -       -       -     26/7      26/7   
D1-1100Z    -      4/0    96/30     -       -    100/30    126/37  
D1-1200Z    -       -     56/17    2/4      -     58/21    184/58  
D1-1300Z    -       -     98/8    18/12     -    116/20    300/78  
D1-1400Z    -       -     19/2     2/2      -     21/4     321/82     45
D1-1500Z    -       -     53/2     2/1      -     55/3     376/85     35
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   18/0     5/6    --+--   23/6     399/91     44
D1-1700Z    -       -     31/4    10/5    10/10   51/19    450/110     4
D1-1800Z    -       -      8/4     3/3      -     11/7     461/117    60
D1-1900Z    -       -      4/1     3/2      -      7/3     468/120    51
D1-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     468/120    60
D1-2100Z    -     22/3    22/19    2/2      -     46/24    514/144    23
D1-2200Z    -     68/14   23/7      -       -     91/21    605/165 
D1-2300Z   9/2    21/8      -       -       -     30/10    635/175    38
D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     635/175    60
D2-0100Z  30/5    40/13     -       -       -     70/18    705/193    13
D2-0200Z  26/0    13/5      -       -       -     39/5     744/198    33
D2-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     744/198    60
D2-0400Z  17/1    21/4      -       -       -     38/5     782/203    23
D2-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     782/203    60
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     782/203    60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     782/203    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     782/203    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     782/203    60
D2-1000Z    -     12/2    11/1      -       -     23/3     805/206    29
D2-1100Z    -       -     13/0      -       -     13/0     818/206    47
D2-1200Z    -       -     65/2      -       -     65/2     883/208    22
D2-1300Z    -       -     70/0      -       -     70/0     953/208    23
D2-1400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     953/208    60
D2-1500Z    -       -     16/1     5/6      -     21/7     974/215    42
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     974/215    60
D2-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     974/215    60
D2-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     974/215    60
D2-1900Z    -       -     14/4     7/4     7/5    28/13   1002/228    22
D2-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1002/228    60
D2-2100Z    -     15/0    26/11   21/11    1/0    63/22   1065/250     7
D2-2200Z    -     25/1    22/5     2/1     3/2    52/9    1117/259 
D2-2300Z   8/0    24/0     3/1      -       -     35/1    1152/260 

Total:    90/8   291/57  668/119  82/59   21/17 

                CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2021
 Call: AK1W
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Class: SOAB HP
 QTH: W1

 Operating Time (hrs): 17
 Summary:
 Band   QSOs
 160:    16
  80:   317
  40:   362
  20:  1157
  15:   102
  10:     9
Total: 1963  Prefixes = 981  Total Score = 5,325,849
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

After a year of hyper contest activity due to pandemic boredom, I think I finally hit burnout.  Just couldn’t see myself pushing through a weekend of splatter. Did a part time effort and really enjoyed myself.  Single radio effort with the cluster.

First day was almost all 20m.  Low bands seemed noisy and Europeans were not hearing well.

Second night was better. Even worked some Europe on 160.  SP7VC had a booming signal.

Sunday morning on 20m was more fun. I could see from spots that there was a lot of Eu activity on 15 and 10 so there seemed to be less crowding on 20. The Russians were coming through very well.

Big surprise was the last 2.5 hours of the contest.  Loud Eu and JA were coming in at the same time on 20. The Asia opening was deep with multiple HL, DU and BY also calling in.  That never happens for me!  Then went to 40 and had a very wild last hour with calls from USA and EU. Worked over 100 multipliers in those final hours.

Thanks for everyone who got on.  Sounded like a lot of people were having fun.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
 80m: 4 square, dipole
 40m: 40-2CD @110′
 20m: 205CA @100′
 15m: 155ca @66′
 10m: 6-ele @90′
 TH7DXX @ 40′
WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box 

Rates

QSO/Pref by hour and band
 Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    Off
 0000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0     60  
 0100Z    -       -     61/52    8/7      -       -     69/59     69/59    22
 0200Z   6/6   117/69   12/9      -       -       -    135/84    204/143
 0300Z    -     72/42     -       -       -       -     72/42    276/185   22
 0400Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     276/185   60
 0500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     276/185   60
 0600Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     276/185   60
 0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     276/185   60
 0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     276/185   60
 0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     276/185   60
 1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     276/185   60
 1100Z    -       -     16/10   80/69     -       -     96/79    372/264   19
 1200Z    -       -       -    173/107    -       -    173/107   545/371
 1300Z    -       -       -    102/69   14/10     -    116/79    661/450
 1400Z    -       -       -       -      9/6      -      9/6     670/456   54
 1500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     670/456   60
 1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     670/456   60
 1700Z    -       -       -     86/47   10/8      -     96/55    766/511    3
 1800Z    -       -       -     13/5    16/11    9/6    38/22    804/533   28
 1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     804/533   60
 2000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     804/533   60
 2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     804/533   60
 2200Z    -       -       -     63/38   10/3      -     73/41    877/574   22
 2300Z    -       -       -     35/16     -       -     35/16    912/590   40
 0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     912/590   60
 0100Z    -       -     32/15    1/0      -       -     33/15    945/605   39
 0200Z    -     67/20   28/9      -       -       -     95/29   1040/634
 0300Z   4/0    61/19   22/9      -       -       -     87/28   1127/662
 0400Z   6/1      -     16/4      -       -       -     22/5    1149/667   37
 0500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1149/667   60
 0600Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1149/667   60
 0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1149/667   60
 0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1149/667   60
 0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1149/667   60
 1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1149/667   60
 1100Z    -       -      5/1   106/49     -       -    111/50   1260/717   10
 1200Z    -       -       -    149/65     -       -    149/65   1409/782
 1300Z    -       -       -     81/33     -       -     81/33   1490/815    8
 1400Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1490/815   60
 1500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1490/815   60
 1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   42/17   22/9    --+--   64/26   1554/841    6
 1700Z    -       -       -     51/17   10/5      -     61/22   1615/863   13
 1800Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1615/863   60
 1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1615/863   60
 2000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1615/863   60
 2100Z    -       -       -     53/24     -       -     53/24   1668/887   33
 2200Z    -       -      1/1   114/46   11/5      -    126/52   1794/939
 2300Z    -       -    169/42     -       -       -    169/42   1963/981
 Total: 16/7   317/150 362/152 1157/609 102/57   9/6

                ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2021
 Call: K5ZD
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Station: K5ZD
 Class: SO Unlimited HP
 Operating Time (hrs): 24
 Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Mults
 160:     35    25
  80:    181    59
  40:    297    80
  20:   1513   106
  15:    143    42
  10:     26     3
 Total: 2195   315  Total Score = 2,074,275

 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

One year ago I was in V4 for this contest.  What a year it has been since!

This was a just for fun effort.  Started late.  Watched some TV. Chased cluster pileups. Only used one radio.

Got on Sat morning and found 20m just opening around 1015z.  By 1030 it was off to the races.  Three consecutive hours over 200/hour!!  Wow.

Started scoreboard watching and it was quite the race between AA3B, K1KI, N3RD, and AA1K. I would go away, see they had pushed ahead, and then I would chase. Provided some motivation to keep plugging away.

Chased spots when I wasn’t trying to run.  Missed a few mults I might have gotten if I had the second rig on.

Only a few skew path Europe on 15m.  It was not good.  That left everyone on 20m shoulder to shoulder.

40m was weird.  Never heard it really open until the last 2 hours.  But, I did miss the pre-darkness hours on Saturday. I may have been avoiding it because the beam is intermittent on receive.  Got really annoying at times.  It does improve the longer RF is injected, but takes longer to clear the intermittent on SSB than CW or RTTY.  Definitely a project for this summer!

75m and 160m weren’t bad, but there just didn’t seem to be much activity.  I.e., lots of unanswered CQs.

In a way, it was nice not having all the big multi-ops.  Made it more possible to find a frequency – especially on 20 and 40.  We definitely miss the expeditions…

Best DX was VK6APZ on 75m LP Sunday evening.  Thanks to K1RX for the spot.  Also good to have UA9BA call in on 40m during the last hour for a new mult. Was also cool to have 3 YB and an HS call in on 20m in the morning.

Spent a lot of time in cluster pileups this weekend listening to whatever DX station it was essentially reading (working) the FRC and PVRC rosters while I waited my turn.

Thanks to all the DX stations that got on the air and gave us contacts – even dealing with some gnarly pileups to do so.

Special thanks to VA2WA and contestonlinescore.com for making the game much more fun.

Station

 K3 + AL-1200
 80m: 4 square, dipole
 40m: 40-2CD @110′
 20m: 205CA @100′
 15m: 155ca @66′
 10m: 6-ele @90′
 TH7DXX @ 40′
 WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box 

Rate Sheet

QSO/DX by hour and band
 Hour     160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime
 D1-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   22/9     6/1    --+--   28/10     28/10     35
 D1-0100Z   2/2    26/20   52/29    3/0      -       -     83/51    111/61 
 D1-0200Z   1/1    14/6    13/6      -       -       -     28/13    139/74     31
 D1-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     139/74     60
 D1-0400Z   8/7      -       -       -       -       -      8/7     147/81     52
 D1-0500Z   8/5    26/11    4/2      -       -       -     38/18    185/99  
 D1-0600Z   3/2    29/4    11/6      -       -       -     43/12    228/111    18
 D1-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     228/111    60
 D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     228/111    60
 D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     228/111    60
 D1-1000Z    -      2/1     3/2    63/16     -       -     68/19    296/130    24
 D1-1100Z    -       -       -    207/20     -       -    207/20    503/150 
 D1-1200Z    -       -       -    220/14     -       -    220/14    723/164 
 D1-1300Z    -       -       -    221/8      -       -    221/8     944/172 
 D1-1400Z    -       -       -     50/9    20/14     -     70/23   1014/195 
 D1-1500Z    -       -       -      1/1     2/2      -      3/3    1017/198    56
 D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   30/0    26/14    3/2    59/16   1076/214     4
 D1-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1076/214    60
 D1-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1076/214    60
 D1-1900Z    -       -     17/3    18/5    27/3      -     62/11   1138/225    16
 D1-2000Z    -       -     12/2    27/10     -      6/1    45/13   1183/238    13
 D1-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1183/238    60
 D1-2200Z    -       -       -     16/5    11/2      -     27/7    1210/245    38
 D1-2300Z    -       -     14/2    10/1     5/0      -     29/3    1239/248    35
 D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   15/3    --+--   --+--   --+--   15/3    1254/251    47
 D2-0100Z    -     19/1    13/3     2/1      -       -     34/5    1288/256    28
 D2-0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1288/256    60
 D2-0300Z   3/3    15/6    16/5      -       -       -     34/14   1322/270     6
 D2-0400Z   5/1    20/5     3/1      -       -       -     28/7    1350/277 
 D2-0500Z   5/4     3/0      -       -       -       -      8/4    1358/281    35
 D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1358/281    60
 D2-1000Z    -       -      7/2    23/0      -       -     30/2    1388/283    22
 D2-1100Z    -       -       -    159/2      -       -    159/2    1547/285 
 D2-1200Z    -       -       -    123/1      -       -    123/1    1670/286 
 D2-1300Z    -       -       -    104/2      -       -    104/2    1774/288 
 D2-1400Z    -       -       -     27/0     4/1      -     31/1    1805/289    34
 D2-1500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1805/289    60
 D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    4/1     3/1    --+--    7/2    1812/291    53
 D2-1700Z    -       -       -     74/0      -       -     74/0    1886/291 
 D2-1800Z    -       -       -     32/0    16/1    16/0    64/1    1950/292 
 D2-1900Z    -       -       -      9/1    16/2     1/0    26/3    1976/295 
 D2-2000Z    -       -      6/1    31/0     7/1      -     44/2    2020/297     8
 D2-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2020/297    60
 D2-2200Z    -      1/1    51/6    28/0      -       -     80/7    2100/304    10
 D2-2300Z    -     26/4    60/7     9/0      -       -     95/11   2195/315 
 Total:    35/25  181/59  297/80 1513/106 143/42   26/3  

Best 60 mins: 228 @ 06-Mar-2021 11:41

Worked on 6 bands: NONE!

Worked on 5 bands: CQ8M ED8W FM5BH HH2AA II9P IR6T J68HZ NP4DX PJ2T V31MA WP3R ZF1A ZF5T ZW5B

Most worked countries

      160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total  
I        3     11     35    215      3            267
DL       1     26     22    134                   183
G        1      6     14    133                   154
F              13     16     91                   120
PY              3     12     31     52     20     118
EA       3      8     12     83      1            107
PA              2      7     98                   107

Great to see so much activity from South America!

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2021

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

Class: SO Unlimited HP
Operating Time (hrs): 40.0
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  241    54
   80:  712    78
   40:  985    96
   20: 1880   103
   15:  216    69
   10:   41    21
-------------------
Total: 4075   421  Total Score = 5,146,725

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 40-2CD @110′
20m: 205CA @100′
15m: 155ca @66′
10m: 6-ele @90′
TH7DXX @ 40′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Comments:

It’s always good to be in W1 for a DX contest, but that was especially true for this one. With weak signals and QSB – it helps to be closer.

I started on 40 with the second radio on 20. Couldn’t break many pileups on 20. 40 had very loud signals from Southern Eu and very weak ones from Northern Eu. Rate was ok, but not great. The guys on the scoreboard were racing away. I discovered the issue when I moved the 20m radio to 80. The band was wide open with big signals!

160 was amazing the first night. Super quiet with very loud Eu signals.

40 just never got going at any time. On 40 and 20, if you lost your frequency you were not going to find another one.

20m was incredible Sat morning. When I got there the band scope was full. Found a quiet spot at 14002 and proceeded to work 1000 QSOs on that frequency before I finally moved.

Didn’t mean to operate so much. I took a 3 hour nap on Saturday morning. Looks like I gave up 150-200 QSOs by doing that, but I may have gotten most of them back with higher rates. I didn’t plan to be serious because I had just done 30 hours the previous weekend in the WPX RTTY contest. There really can be too much of a good thing!

Almost quit on Sat afternoon when AA3B was way ahead of me. Thanks to the pandemic I didn’t have anything else to do, so got back on the radio. As I caught up with Bud on the scoreboard I transitioned from casual to serious. KI1G wasn’t on the scoreboard, but I assumed he must be serious by the number of pileups he was in (and winning).

Did work 2 EU on 10m beaming toward Africa. EA5RS had a good signal on both 10 and 15 beaming skew path. Otherwise, I had a very frustrating time on 10. With spotlight propagation, I walked away from several multipliers because the pileups were too big and favoring some other part of the country. Sometimes I got lucky later and sometimes not.

Speaking of pileups… being assisted means you run into the same hyper-aggressive ops in every pileup. I had many cases where I experienced all of my main competitors getting through before me. This is mentally frustrating. Of course, I never notice the times I get through before them. 🙂

The bands were not as good on Sunday. This made it a real slog on 20m. The weak QRP signals were even weaker so it helped to have a clear frequency and some luck with the QSB. Of course, the band was great to Asia at the end. Go figure.

I spent most on Sunday afternoon just trying to see if I could make it to 4000 QSOs. This is where the change to being serious hurt. If I was just playing, I could have taken the afternoon off and gone outside.

Very happy I decided to use the cluster. Worked lots of fun DX that I would have never found while running and tuning. RBN rocks.

Best DX was working ZM4T on 160 and VK2CCC on 80. Also very happy to get a JA on 80 Sat morning.

I think I logged over 100 dupes. Way more than normal. In many cases, I suspect they had miscopied my call the first time. All part of the game.

Amazing how many western European contesters joined in the game. We appreciate their activity!

Thanks to all for the QSOs.

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z   2/2    43/19   74/27    6/6    --+--   --+--  125/54    125/54  
0100Z    -    102/12   39/16     -       -       -    141/28    266/82  
0200Z   7/4    62/10   51/5      -       -       -    120/19    386/101 
0300Z  90/28     -     18/8      -       -       -    108/36    494/137 
0400Z  30/4    87/2    11/3      -       -       -    128/9     622/146 
0500Z   7/3    57/9    23/6      -       -       -     87/18    709/164 
0600Z  21/3    51/2    27/6      -       -       -     99/11    808/175 
0700Z   3/0    10/4    40/1      -       -       -     53/5     861/180  16
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     861/180  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     861/180  60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     861/180  60
1100Z    -      1/1     4/3   133/30     -       -    138/34    999/214  10
1200Z    -       -       -    190/9     3/3      -    193/12   1192/226 
1300Z    -       -       -    179/3    15/11     -    194/14   1386/240 
1400Z    -       -       -    175/3     6/3      -    181/6    1567/246 
1500Z    -       -       -    160/2    12/8      -    172/10   1739/256 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  141/7    12/8     1/1   154/16   1893/272 
1700Z    -       -       -    122/1    22/10    3/3   147/14   2040/286 
1800Z    -       -       -     31/6    66/9    13/12  110/27   2150/313 
1900Z    -       -       -     24/1     5/2    14/4    43/7    2193/320  20
2000Z    -       -    103/0    11/3     2/0      -    116/3    2309/323 
2100Z    -       -    140/1     2/1     9/6      -    151/8    2460/331 
2200Z    -       -     80/2    23/8      -       -    103/10   2563/341 
2300Z    -     44/4    36/4    10/5     3/0      -     93/13   2656/354 
0000Z  --+--   45/1    10/1     1/1    --+--   --+--   56/3    2712/357  25
0100Z  20/1    13/3    17/0      -       -       -     50/4    2762/361 
0200Z   5/2     6/2    38/2     2/0      -       -     51/6    2813/367 
0300Z  14/0      -       -       -       -       -     14/0    2827/367  55
0400Z  16/3    14/3    43/2      -       -       -     73/8    2900/375 
0500Z  10/2    66/0     4/2      -       -       -     80/4    2980/379 
0600Z   4/1    68/1     5/2      -       -       -     77/4    3057/383 
0700Z  11/1    26/1    36/1      -       -       -     73/3    3130/386 
0800Z  --+--    4/1    30/1    --+--   --+--   --+--   34/2    3164/388  40
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3164/388  60
1000Z    -      2/1      -      1/1      -       -      3/2    3167/390  53
1100Z    -       -      4/0    90/1      -       -     94/1    3261/391 
1200Z    -       -       -    121/5     2/1      -    123/6    3384/397 
1300Z    -       -       -     99/0     6/2      -    105/2    3489/399 
1400Z    -       -       -    108/1     6/1      -    114/2    3603/401 
1500Z    -       -       -     73/0     4/0      -     77/0    3680/401 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   70/0     5/0     2/1    77/1    3757/402 
1700Z    -       -       -     33/1     7/2     5/0    45/3    3802/405 
1800Z    -       -       -     15/1     3/0     3/0    21/1    3823/406  20
1900Z    -       -     15/0    15/2     6/1      -     36/3    3859/409 
2000Z    -       -     27/0    11/2     7/0      -     45/2    3904/411 
2100Z    -       -     51/0     6/0    14/2      -     71/2    3975/413 
2200Z    -      2/1    52/0    12/0     1/0      -     67/1    4042/414 
2300Z   1/0     9/1     7/3    16/3      -       -     33/7    4075/421 

Day 1:160/40  457/63  646/82 1207/85  155/60   31/20
Day 2: 81/14  255/15  339/14  673/18   61/ 9   10/ 1

Total:241/54  712/78  985/96 1880/103 216/69   41/21 

Worked on 6 bands:

CR6K EA5RS EA7X FM5BH HH2AA HI0LT KP4AA NP4DX NP4Z P44W PJ2T ZF1A ZF5T

Most worked countries:

      160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
DL      39    107    122    271      9            548
 I       7     52    112    163     14            348
 G      19     46     54    125     10            254
 F      11     41     57     85     12            206
OK      15     42     40     86      1            184
EA       5     25     52     74     18      2     176
UA      10     29     24    107                   170
SP      12     35     27     83      1            158
PA       5     22     31     87      2            147
UR       9     29     31     71                   140

                CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2021
 Call: AK1W
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Station: AK1W
 Class: SOAB HP
 Operating Time (hrs): 30
 Radios: SO2R
 Summary:
   Band  QSOs
    80:   479
    40:   878
    20:  1137
    15:   257
    10:     0
 Total:  2751  Prefixes = 975  Total Score = 8,171,475

 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

I was looking forward to this contest, but had not planned on doing a full effort.  Friday night was fun and I went to be when it stopped being fun. Didn’t set my alarm, but work up around 1115z so decided to get back on.  Bands sounded terrible until I got to 20m around 1145z (my sunrise).  Band was already hopping.

Some time later 15m opened to Europe and I was able to do some dual CQing.  Was watching the scoreboard and was keeping up with the big dogs.  Was even ahead of AA3B, which provided some motivation.

I didn’t see how I was ever going to get 36 hours of operation, so didn’t pay much attention to off times.

40m opened to Europe very early with good signals.  Managed to get a few JA QSOs on 20 after dark.  The band seemed to close to Japan and then open again. Always good multipliers to be had.

When I laid down to take a nap Saturday evening, I vaguely remembered that WPX RTTY still uses the 30 hour limit for single ops.  Uh oh! I got up and checked the rules.  That changed things because I already had 20 hours of operating time in the log and still 20 hours of the contest to go.

I decided to start a bit later and do what I could with Europe on Sunday morning.  Bands were not as good.  15m didn’t really open so it was all 20 meters.  The band was packed.  I lost my frequency when I chased some mults and struggled to get a new one.  That was a bad hour and I could see AA3B chasing me down.

It was weird to have to take most of Sunday as off time.  I went out for a 4 mile run, had lunch, watched some TV.  Came back one at 2200z to do my last 90 minutes.  I was late to 40m and could not get a good frequency.  Rates were not good.  Then I saw AA3B pass me with 90 minutes left in the contest.  It looks like his extra time spent on 40m paid off.

Congratulations to Bud AA3B on the win.  He did a great job.  It was a very exciting contest to have such close competition the whole way through. Especially with the variations in off time strategy making the distance between scores ebb and flow. I probably would have quit if not for the race on the live scoreboard keeping me engaged!

This was a new personal best for me in this contest. RTTY operating practices keep improving.  I can’t wait until with the higher bands open!

I used WriteLog as my logging software.  2Tone as the primary decoder and MMTTY as the clone was a great combo.  Amazing how often one would decode perfectly and the other had nothing but garbage. This was my first real contest using dual decoders and it paid big dividends.  Also nice when both decoders copied the same thing so had a higher confidence it was right.  Even so, I expect a few busted calls and numbers when the log checking gets done.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
 160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
  80m: 4 square, dipole
  40m: 40-2CD @110′
  20m: 205CA @100′
  15m: 155ca @66′
  10m: 6-ele @90′
  TH7DXX @ 40′
 WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box 

Rates:

QSO/Pref by hour and band

Hour      80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime
D1-0000Z  32/28   43/41   --+--   --+--   --+--   75/69     75/69  
D1-0100Z  56/38   66/51     -       -       -    122/89    197/158 
D1-0200Z  64/32   46/33     -       -       -    110/65    307/223 
D1-0300Z  66/32   37/24     -       -       -    103/56    410/279 
D1-0400Z  42/21   58/27     -       -       -    100/48    510/327 
D1-0500Z  49/24   55/33     -       -       -    104/57    614/384 
D1-0600Z  40/14   37/19     -       -       -     77/33    691/417 
D1-0700Z   7/2     3/2      -       -       -     10/4     701/421    51
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     701/421    60
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     701/421    60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     701/421    60
D1-1100Z   7/5    14/4    22/13     -       -     43/22    744/443    20
D1-1200Z    -     29/7    92/39     -       -    121/46    865/489 
D1-1300Z    -     28/10   79/25   12/4      -    119/39    984/528 
D1-1400Z    -       -     76/17   68/16     -    144/33   1128/561 
D1-1500Z    -       -     78/23   59/9      -    137/32   1265/593 
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   77/14   38/10   --+--  115/24   1380/617 
D1-1700Z    -       -     70/27   15/7      -     85/34   1465/651 
D1-1800Z    -       -     53/12   15/5      -     68/17   1533/668     2
D1-1900Z    -       -      5/4      -       -      5/4    1538/672    60
D1-2000Z    -     22/5    41/6    28/8      -     91/19   1629/691 
D1-2100Z    -     72/10   23/6      -       -     95/16   1724/707 
D1-2200Z    -     43/8    41/19     -       -     84/27   1808/734 
D1-2300Z    -     44/6    51/15     -       -     95/21   1903/755 
D2-0000Z  14/3    41/8    29/7    --+--   --+--   84/18   1987/773 
D2-0100Z   8/1     8/1      -       -       -     16/2    2003/775    43
D2-0200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2003/775    60
D2-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2003/775    60
D2-0400Z  27/4    43/11     -       -       -     70/15   2073/790     8
D2-0500Z  42/6    42/10     -       -       -     84/16   2157/806 
D2-0600Z  11/3    41/7      -       -       -     52/10   2209/816    14
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2209/816    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2209/816    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2209/816    60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2209/816    60
D2-1100Z    -      6/4    15/6      -       -     21/10   2230/826    48
D2-1200Z    -     16/2    70/27     -       -     86/29   2316/855 
D2-1300Z    -      3/1    70/29     -       -     73/30   2389/885 
D2-1400Z    -      8/2    53/16    4/2      -     65/20   2454/905 
D2-1500Z    -     13/4    38/9     6/3      -     57/16   2511/921 
D2-1600Z  --+--    1/1    71/15    9/3    --+--   81/19   2592/940 
D2-1700Z    -      1/0    19/4     1/0      -     21/4    2613/944    41
D2-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2613/944    60
D2-1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2613/944    60
D2-2000Z    -      8/0    18/7     2/1      -     28/8    2641/952    40
D2-2100Z    -      3/3      -       -       -      3/3    2644/955    56
D2-2200Z   1/1    23/4    36/7      -       -     60/12   2704/967     9
D2-2300Z  13/0    24/5    10/3      -       -     47/8    2751/975    25
 
Total:  479/214 878/343 1137/350 257/68    0/0