Author: K5ZD

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2020

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

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 18.6
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------
   80:  226       39      31    10
   40:  403       45      47    16
   20:  847       47      68    24
   15:   74       10      21    13
   10:    6        2       4     4
------------------------------------
Total: 1556      143     171    67  Total Score = 1,317,879

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Always a fun contest and a great test of the station in advance of the Fall contest season.

I spent the first two hours of the contest working on the log submission page at cqwwrtty.com. Should have done it weeks earlier, but didn’t get to it.

Thought the bands were ok the first night. Band was very slow to open in the morning. The VK signals on 40M after sunrise were amazingly good.

20m was a bit slow, but once opened it produced a nice rate. Didn’t have many opportunities this weekend to run on two bands since 15m never really opened.
Just a few states via some e-skip and then a few Eu when the band opened Sat afternoon.

Have some back pain that keeps me from doing long stints in the chair. Would operate a bit and then go out to enjoy a beautiful Fall day. Didn’t operate much at all on Saturday evening.

Good run on 20m again Sunday morning, but not much else. Packed it in to watch Formula One and then some football.

WriteLog worked great as always. Used 2Tone for decoding. I was having trouble printing some signals when I remembered I could set up a second clone decoder.
Used the Writelog built in decoder and it often copied things 2Tone could not (and vice versa). Having a second decoder is a great tool.

The live scoreboard at https://contestonlinescore.com/ keeps things interesting. Fun to watch AA3B just crush the multipliers. And to race against other stations with scores around mine.

We now know what CQ WW will look like in Covid days. There will be lots of QSOs, but no expeditions so a low multiplier. I missed several states including VT, ND, and MT. Even though there were two big operations from ME, I didn’t find them until Sunday afternoon. A consequence of all of us calling CQ all the time on 20m.

Even though the bands seemed OK because of the activity, I did not work a JA and only a few Russians. Most QSOs were from southern Eu and USA.

See everyone in the next one!

Rates

QSO/Zn+Dx+St by hour and band

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

0000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
0200Z   1/2      -     15/20     -       -     16/22     16/22  
0300Z  69/40   10/18     -       -       -     79/58     95/80  
0400Z  53/18   75/32     -       -       -    128/50    223/130 
0500Z  29/6    33/7      -       -       -     62/13    285/143    26
0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     285/143    60
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     285/143    60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     285/143    60
0900Z  18/5     4/4      -       -       -     22/9     307/152    38
1000Z  31/8    21/8      -       -       -     52/16    359/168 
1100Z    -     48/9    19/16     -       -     67/25    426/193 
1200Z    -     11/0    79/22     -       -     90/22    516/215     6
1300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     516/215    60
1400Z    -      1/0    82/17   18/22     -    101/39    617/254     5
1500Z    -       -     64/12   19/11    1/3    84/26    701/280 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   76/8    11/7    --+--   87/15    788/295 
1700Z    -       -      3/0      -       -      3/0     791/295    58
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     791/295    60
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     791/295    60
2000Z    -       -      8/0      -       -      8/0     799/295    53
2100Z    -     37/10   29/5      -       -     66/15    865/310 
2200Z  13/1    58/6    10/3      -       -     81/10    946/320     4
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     946/320    60
0000Z   3/0    15/3    23/5    --+--   --+--   41/8     987/328    27
0100Z    -     35/6    42/4      -       -     77/10   1064/338     2
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1064/338    60
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1064/338    60
0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1064/338    60
0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1064/338    60
0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1064/338    60
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1064/338    60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1064/338    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1064/338    60
1000Z    -      8/0     5/1      -       -     13/1    1077/339    44
1100Z   9/0    27/2    31/1      -       -     67/3    1144/342 
1200Z    -     13/3    92/2      -       -    105/5    1249/347 
1300Z    -       -     89/4     4/1      -     93/5    1342/352 
1400Z    -       -     79/4     3/1      -     82/5    1424/357 
1500Z    -       -      7/0      -       -      7/0    1431/357    55
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1431/357    60
1700Z    -       -      3/0     3/0     1/1     7/1    1438/358    50
1800Z    -       -     72/9     4/1     4/6    80/16   1518/374 
1900Z    -      7/0    19/6    12/1      -     38/7    1556/381 
2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1556/381    60
2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1556/381    60
2200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1556/381    60
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1556/381    60

Total: 226/80 403/108 847/139  74/44    6/10

World Wide Digi DX Contest - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 16.2
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Band    QSOs    Mults
160:     43       13
80:     136       28
40:     251       39
20:     386       56
15:      41       14
10:       0        0
Total:  857      150    Total Score = 262,350

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

An interesting learning experience.  I now know that the most important trait of a successful digi contester is patience!  Whether it is waiting for 3 retries to complete a QSO or wishing you could change the protocol to work all 5 callers that were copied at one time — there is simply no way to make things go faster…

20m was almost too good.  So much QRM it was hard to make QSOs at times and very hard to work the deep Asia paths.  The Digi contest does a great thing by suggesting use of different channels to spread activity out.  Might be better with 3 Khz rather than 2 Khz so you know which channel a station is actually using.

Band conditions on 15m were poor.  Only South America and few (very few) e-skip QSOs.  Never even listened on 10m.

40 was open to Europe even at 2pm here in Boston, but could not make a QSO until almost 4pm.

80m was busy, but not many Eu in the log.  Same for 160.  Got tired and slept 4 hours.

Best hours were early when running FT4 on 2 bands.  In the end, FT8 was the more reliable and productive mode.  Slower, but seemed to have less failures to complete contacts.

I decided to run power because I wanted to chase DX QSOs. It definitely helped make more contacts on the low bands and on 20m when it was crowded.

The combination of WriteLog and DigiRite was fantastic.  Did the first 8.5 hours of the contest at full tilt.  Was transmitting almost 100% of the time by alternating odd/even cycles on two bands. Good test of the two amplifiers.

Was fun chasing AA3B and LZ8E on the scoreboard.

Thanks to everyone for creating so much activity in just the second year of this contest.  Some of the DX contacts were amazing.  It was fun!

Station:

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

Rates:

QSO/Mul by hour and band

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

1200Z    -       -     39/9    39/11     -       -     78/20     78/20  
1300Z    -       -     37/0    48/7      -       -     85/7     163/27  
1400Z    -       -     13/1    33/7     1/1      -     47/9     210/36  
1500Z    -       -       -     35/11   17/5      -     52/16    262/52  
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   31/6     1/0    --+--   32/6     294/58  
1700Z    -       -       -     32/1    10/3      -     42/4     336/62  
1800Z    -       -       -     39/1     5/2      -     44/3     380/65  
1900Z    -       -     22/4    34/2      -       -     56/6     436/71  
2000Z    -       -      6/2    17/1     4/1      -     27/4     463/75     28
2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     463/75     60
2200Z    -       -     25/7    28/1     3/2      -     56/10    519/85      5
2300Z    -       -     28/1    30/4      -       -     58/5     577/90      3
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     577/90     60
0100Z    -     21/5    15/0      -       -       -     36/5     613/95     34
0200Z  23/10   33/13    2/0      -       -       -     58/23    671/118 
0300Z  15/3    19/4      -      4/1      -       -     38/8     709/126 
0400Z    -     30/4    26/7      -       -       -     56/11    765/137 
0500Z   5/0    23/1    13/2      -       -       -     41/3     806/140 
0600Z    -      2/0     9/3      -       -       -     11/3     817/143    41
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     817/143    60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     817/143    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     817/143    60
1000Z    -       -      1/1      -       -       -      1/1     818/144    59
1100Z    -      8/1    15/2    16/3      -       -     39/6     857/150 

Total: 43/13  136/28  251/39  386/56   41/14    0/0

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

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 17
Radios: SO2R

Summary:  
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
80: 130 0 144
40: 316 410 114
20: 599 745 94
15: 218 110 80
10: 8 0 16
Total: 1271 1265 448 Total Score 1,135,680

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

I think this is my best WAE score ever.

15m had a good opening early on Sat morning. Then 10m opened early on Sunday morning. That helped the multiplier total.

Low bands were very good Friday night. Must have been noisier in Eu on Sat night (their Sun morning) as they didn’t seem to hear as well. I decided to give up and sleep.

Thanks for all the QSOs and QTCs!

QSO/DXCC by hour and band

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

D1-0000Z  --+--   91/66   14/20   --+--   --+--  105/86    105/86  
D1-0100Z  42/84    4/6     6/8      -       -     52/98    157/184 
D1-0200Z  44/36   33/24     -       -       -     77/60    234/244 
D1-0300Z   8/8    58/6      -       -       -     66/14    300/258 
D1-0400Z  15/0    31/6    11/10     -       -     57/16    357/274     5
D1-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     357/274    60
D1-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     357/274    60
D1-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     357/274    60
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     357/274    60
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     357/274    60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     357/274    60
D1-1100Z    -       -    116/34     -       -    116/34    473/308    14
D1-1200Z    -       -     51/8    44/36     -     95/44    568/352 
D1-1300Z    -       -     15/0    20/6      -     35/6     603/358    40
D1-1400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     603/358    60
D1-1500Z    -       -      4/0      -       -      4/0     607/358    17
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     607/358    60
D1-1700Z    -       -     19/0     4/4      -     23/4     630/362    40
D1-1800Z    -       -      7/2     4/2      -     11/4     641/366    43
D1-1900Z    -       -     19/0      -       -     19/0     660/366    60
D1-2000Z    -       -     90/6      -       -     90/6     750/372 
D1-2100Z    -       -     27/0      -       -     27/0     777/372    30
D1-2200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     777/372    60
D1-2300Z   2/8    41/3    17/0      -       -     60/11    837/383     9
D2-0000Z   8/4     4/0    --+--   --+--   --+--   12/4     849/387    33
D2-0100Z   5/4     3/0      -       -       -      8/4     857/391    60
D2-0200Z   5/0     6/0      -       -       -     11/0     868/391    43
D2-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     868/391    60
D2-0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     868/391    60
D2-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     868/391    60
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     868/391    60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     868/391    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     868/391    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     868/391    60
D2-1000Z    -       -     27/0      -       -     27/0     895/391    40
D2-1100Z    -       -     64/0      -       -     64/0     959/391 
D2-1200Z    -       -      6/0    83/24    7/14   96/38   1055/429 
D2-1300Z    -       -      8/2    52/6     1/2    61/10   1116/439 
D2-1400Z    -       -     22/2    10/2      -     32/4    1148/443    21
D2-1500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1148/443    60
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1148/443    60
D2-1700Z    -       -      4/0      -       -      4/0    1152/443    57
D2-1800Z    -       -     41/2     1/0      -     42/2    1194/445 
D2-1900Z    -       -     12/0      -       -     12/0    1206/445    43
D2-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1206/445    60
D2-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1206/445    60
D2-2200Z    -     32/3    19/0      -       -     51/3    1257/448     6
D2-2300Z   1/0    13/0      -       -       -     14/0    1271/448 

Total:   130/144 316/114 599/94  218/80    8/16 

Best 60 minutes: 144 QSOs

Stations worked on 5 bands: 9A3XV, DP6A, EI7M, ES5RR, LX7I, IR6T, J42L

Most worked countries:

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total

    DL      53     94    189     89      1     426
    UA       5     22     41      6             74
    UR       4     23     29      7             63
    SP       8     15     32      2             57
     I       4     13     21     15      1      54
    PA       1      7     27      7             42
    OK       1     14     23      3             41

       IARU HF World Championship - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: SOABMixed HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 22.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Band   CW Qs  Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
160:      62     1    9     9
80:      200    31   17    25
40:      624    47   24    30
20:      914   543   32    38
15:      457    98   18    25
10:      139    19    9    18
Total:  2396   739  109   145 Total Score = 2,713,990

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Interesting. Fun to see 10m open to Europe. Amazing rates for all the daylight hours.

Nothing broke except the op.  Got too slow at 3am so took an hour nap.

Congrats to WA1Z at KC1XX.  He just had too much station horsepower and skills for me to keep up!

Rates:

-------------- Q S O   R a t e   S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour     160     80     40     20     15     10    Rate Total    Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1200       0      0     60     69      0      0    129    129    4.1
1300       0      0      0      5     91     72    168    297    9.5
1400       0      0      0      2    139     19    160    457   14.6
1500       0      0      0     75     68      0    143    600   19.1
1600       0      0      0     29     85     27    141    741   23.6
1700       0      0      0     89     48      4    141    882   28.1
1800       0      0      0    104     50      0    154   1036   33.0
1900       0      0      0    142      3      0    145   1181   37.7
2000       0      0      0    189      4      0    193   1374   43.8
2100       1      1      1     59     29     35    126   1500   47.8
2200       0      0      0    152     29      1    182   1682   53.7
2300       0      0     92     57      1      0    150   1832   58.4
0000       0     40    119      9      0      0    168   2000   63.8
0100      12     13     21     78      0      0    124   2124   67.8
0200      10     91     11     14      0      0    126   2250   71.8
0300      16     19     31     28      0      0     94   2344   74.8
0400       4      9    115      2      0      0    130   2474   78.9
0500       2      2    106      7      0      0    117   2591   82.6
0600       0     46     43      0      0      0     89   2680   85.5
0700       6      0     43      4      0      0     53   2733   87.2
0800       0      0      0      0      0      0      0   2733   87.2
0900      12     10     21     70      0      0    113   2846   90.8
1000       0      0      8    154      0      0    162   3008   95.9
1100       0      0      0    119      8      0    127   3135  100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total     63    231    671   1457    555    158   3135

The best 60 minute rate was 194/hour from 1959 to 2058

The following stations were worked on 6 bands: DA0HQ K1ZZ OP0HQ GR2HQ TM0HQ

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

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This event put the word test in contest!

Decided to do single op serious to chase some WRTC qualifying points and because there was nothing else to do.  The qualifying points motivation went away when I saw my #1 competitor was WA1Z at KC1XX.

Also wanted to do actual 2BSIQ in a contest for real for the first time. It was interesting.  I was a lid at times (most times).  It also got harder as the serial numbers got longer and there were more requests for repeats.  But, I learned a lot.

Everything was working in the station.  Fixed all my rotator issues over the spring.  40m beam is still intermittent and really needs a new feedpoint.  It is such a difficult antenna to get to that I keep procrastinating. Will need some help to get it fixed.  Don’t think I can put it off any longer.

When I came into the shack at 2355z to do the contest, I found 15m was open to Europe. That sounded like fun so I started there.  Worked 60 guys while also chasing some stations on 20.  Didn’t get to 40m until 30 minutes in. I did dual CQ on 40 and 20 for a few hours and it was pretty cool.  I am sure my accuracy rate will suffer…

This was the first contest where the online scoreboard added a challenge. After 6 hours I had made 835 QSOs and was already a million points behind KC1XX and AA3B. K1ZZ was also well ahead of me.  With the way WPX scoring is exponential (mults just keep going up with QSOs), I knew there was no way I was going to catch those guys.

After feeling bad for awhile, I turned it around and decided to see if I could chase them down. Conditions on Sat morning were not the best. I went out for a walk late in the morning because there was nothing to do but work USA.  No way to catch up at 1 point per QSO.  Things got a lot better after 1900z and we were off to the races until I just couldn’t stay awake any more about 0530z.

There was a very cool 10 meter e-skip opening on Sat afternoon.  I worked as far away as Arizona and as close as Delaware. Even a few Caribbean called in.  Not great for points, but good for fun.

Pushed hard on the low bands the second night and made up some ground.  80 was as quiet and good as I have ever heard it in WPX CW.  Even so, the low bands were tough to do much dual CQing.

On again at sunrise on Sunday morning and 20 was a little better, but still difficult to get much rate. There was a nice JA opening that didn’t produce many QSOs, but sure helped my prefix count.  15m did open, but not for long.  Only heard a few signals on 10.  So it was mostly 20m all day until the last 90 minutes when 40 opened.

I did catch K1ZZ for score Sunday morning.  We had the same score and multiplier, but I had 500 more QSOs than he did.  Those missed low band contacts the first few hours created a hole I could not fill.  Dave then proceeded to work 100 mults that I could not match and it was over.  Fun chasing him though.

Made a bonehead decision on Sunday afternoon when contemplating off time.  I came back on only to realize I still had 25 minutes of off time remaining.  That meant I would have to end a little early.  Not normally a problem, but as that time approached, I was running 6 pointers on 40 meters.  Gave up a few points because I couldn’t do basic clock management.

This contest alternated between a domestic contest and a DX contest. I have always loved chasing and working prefixes.  Great to have so much activity to keep things hopping.

Congrats to WA1Z at KC1XX and to N5DX for breaking the existing USA record. And to AA3B and K1ZZ for also whipping up on me.  Next year!

By continent:

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

    EU       0    100    447    953    197      0    1697    44.4
    NA       9    186    592    672    375    108    1942    50.8
    AS       0      0      4     97      1      0     102     2.7
    SA       0      5     15      5      9      1      35     0.9
    OC       0      1     18      8      5      0      32     0.8
    AF       0      1      3      6      1      0      11     0.3

Rates:

QSO/Pref by hour and band

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

0000Z --+--  --+--   52/48   13/13   60/51   --+--  125/112   125/112 
0100Z   -      -     87/65   67/46    1/0      -    155/111   280/223 
0200Z   -      -     92/45   87/53     -       -    179/98    459/321 
0300Z   -      -     79/31   91/46     -       -    170/77    629/398 
0400Z  4/2   58/29   39/29    5/2      -       -    106/62    735/460 
0500Z   -      -     75/30   25/13     -       -    100/43    835/503 
0600Z   -    34/10   46/14     -       -       -     80/24    915/527   23
0700Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0     915/527   60
0800Z --+--  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     915/527   60
0900Z   -    13/7    14/9      -       -       -     27/16    942/543   41
1000Z   -     1/1    22/7    84/35    2/0      -    109/43   1051/586 
1100Z   -      -     57/13   70/20     -       -    127/33   1178/619 
1200Z   -      -      2/1    87/29    3/2    11/3   103/35   1281/654 
1300Z   -      -       -     83/24   23/1     8/3   114/28   1395/682 
1400Z   -      -       -     48/8    76/7      -    124/15   1519/697    9
1500Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1519/697   60
1600Z --+--  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1519/697   60
1700Z   -      -       -     26/6    69/11     -     95/17   1614/714   10
1800Z   -      -       -     73/13   48/8      -    121/21   1735/735 
1900Z   -      -       -     91/28   36/8      -    127/36   1862/771 
2000Z   -      -       -     59/16   53/8    33/5   145/29   2007/800 
2100Z   -      -       -     61/14    1/1    45/5   107/20   2114/820 
2200Z   -      -       -    116/33   14/3      -    130/36   2244/856 
2300Z   -      -     32/6    75/18   13/5      -    120/29   2364/885 
0000Z --+--  --+--  112/23    5/4    --+--   --+--  117/27   2481/912 
0100Z   -     6/2    77/12   10/4      -       -     93/18   2574/930 
0200Z   -    97/12   21/4      -       -       -    118/16   2692/946 
0300Z   -    45/6    38/5      -       -       -     83/11   2775/957 
0400Z  3/1    4/0    86/13    1/0      -       -     94/14   2869/971 
0500Z  2/0   15/0    35/7      -       -       -     52/7    2921/978   27
0600Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2921/978   60
0700Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2921/978   60
0800Z --+--  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2921/978   60
0900Z   -    15/1     4/1      -       -       -     19/2    2940/980   42
1000Z   -     5/0    13/2    63/21     -       -     81/23   3021/1003
1100Z   -      -      4/0    65/37    1/1      -     70/38   3091/1041
1200Z   -      -       -     40/11   46/6      -     86/17   3177/1058
1300Z   -      -       -      2/1    81/5    11/1    94/7    3271/1065
1400Z   -      -       -       -      9/0     1/0    10/0    3281/1065  48
1500Z   -      -       -     38/2    24/1      -     62/3    3343/1068  15
1600Z --+--  --+--   --+--   20/4    11/3    --+--   31/7    3374/1075
1700Z   -      -       -     24/3     8/1      -     32/4    3406/1079  60
1800Z   -      -       -     54/4     6/2      -     60/6    3466/1085
1900Z   -      -       -     62/8     3/1      -     65/9    3531/1094
2000Z   -      -      5/0    65/8      -       -     70/8    3601/1102
2100Z   -      -     17/2    50/8      -       -     67/10   3668/1112
2200Z   -      -     10/0    79/11     -       -     89/11   3757/1123
2300Z   -      -     62/9     3/0      -       -     65/9    3822/1132

Total: 9/3  293/68 1081/376 1742/543 588/125 109/17 

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
     K       5    163    530    615    351    104    1768
    DL             26     79    164     35            304
    UA              1     25    118     12            156
    VE       4     20     46     44     16      2     132
    UR              1     39     59     14            113

46% of QSOs were with USA!

Best 60 minutes:

182 at 30-May-2020 02:16 (dual CQ on 20/40)

Worked on 5 bands:

K9NW KC7V KE1J KM9P W9AV WO1N WW1X

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

Comments:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun!

Rates:

QSO/Pref by hour and band

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

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

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

Best 60 minutes: 206

Worked on 6 bands: none

Worked on 5 bands: NP2P

Most worked countries:

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

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

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

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs!

Rates:

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

Russians worked

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

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

Comments:

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

A few notes as I reflect on the contest:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Randy

Rates:

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

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