Author: K5ZD

                    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
 

                CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2021
 Call: K5ZD
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Station: K5ZD
 Class: Single Op HP
 QTH: W1
 Operating Time (hrs): 11
 Summary:
 Total:  QSOs = 1054  State/Prov = 57  Countries = 43  Total Score = 366,400
 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Part time effort.  Great fun.

Missed best times for DX on first night.  Hit the jackpot on second night with 140 Europeans between 0600 and 0815z.  That really helped the multiplier.

Local line noise most of the weekend. Some combination of power line buzz and electronic power supply growl. When it was gone, I could hear well.  When it was on, the weak guys had to get lucky with QSB.  I know there were a number of stations that called that I just couldn’t hear.

Station:

K3 + AL-1200

Elevated GP

Shunt fed 90′ tower

By Continent:

       QSOs      % 
NA     888    84.3 
EU     164    15.6 
OC       1     0.1 
AF       1     0.1

Rates:

QSO/Sec+Dx by hour and band

Hour      160    Total     Cumm    OffTime
D1-2200Z  27/15   27/15     27/15     50
D1-2300Z    -      0/0      27/15     60
D2-0000Z  --+--    0/0      27/15     60
D2-0100Z  83/17   83/17    110/32     28
D2-0200Z 147/17  147/17    257/49  
D2-0300Z 148/7   148/7     405/56  
D2-0400Z  92/17   92/17    497/73  
D2-0500Z   9/1     9/1     506/74     52
D2-0600Z    -      0/0     506/74     60
D2-0700Z    -      0/0     506/74     60
D2-0800Z  --+--    0/0     506/74     60
D2-0900Z    -      0/0     506/74     60
D2-1000Z    -      0/0     506/74     60
D2-1100Z  43/0    43/0     549/74     28
D2-1200Z  57/0    57/0     606/74     10
D2-1300Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-1400Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-1500Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-1600Z  --+--    0/0     606/74     60
D2-1700Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-1800Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-1900Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-2000Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-2100Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-2200Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D2-2300Z    -      0/0     606/74     60
D3-0000Z  84/5    84/5     690/79      9
D3-0100Z  74/3    74/3     764/82  
D3-0200Z  67/1    67/1     831/83  
D3-0300Z  10/0    10/0     841/83     50
D3-0400Z    -      0/0     841/83     60
D3-0500Z  19/0    19/0     860/83     43
D3-0600Z  94/8    94/8     954/91  
D3-0700Z  82/8    82/8    1036/99  
D3-0800Z  18/1    18/1    1054/100    30

Total:  1054/100

                CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2020
 Call: K5ZD
 Operator(s): K5ZD
 Station: K5ZD
 Class: SO(A)AB HP
 QTH: MA
 Operating Time (hrs): 43
 Radios: SO2R

 Summary:
   Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
   160:  127    15       48
    80:  676    24       81
    40: 1617    32      110
    20: 1249    34      112
    15: 1181    29      108
    10:   79    20       40
 Total: 4929   154      498  Total Score = 9,245,174
 
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This is always the best contest of the year.  It has DX, activity, great ops, and usually some interesting conditions.  This year was no exception.

Full SO2R effort with the cluster.  Best motivational tool was the contestonlinescore.com online scoreboard. Kept me pushing to keep up all the way through.

Bands were open but not very deep. Worked zone 18 on 40 and 80, but not 20! Few JAs or UA9/0. Nice to see high bands open, although 10m was just marginal.  I called a bunch of mults on 10 and 160 without success. Definitely need to work on the 10m stack as I am not sure it is playing very well.

Never heard zones 23, 26, 27, 34, and 39.

Country totals would have been great if not for Covid limiting expedition travels.

Nice to have a beam again on 40m after 2 years of using a dipole.  See story at “Fixing my Intermittent 40-2CD”

Always fun to see so many skilled CW ops enjoying themselves. Thanks to all who participated.

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', diople at 60'
 20: 205CA @ 100'/50'
 15: 155CA @ 66'/33'
 10: 6-ele @ 90'
 South: TH7DXX @ 40'

Rates:

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

Hour   160M     80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm   Off
0000Z  --+--   --+--  111/50   20/29   --+--   --+--  131/79    131/79  
0100Z  10/14   54/25   49/15    2/0      -       -    115/54    246/133 
0200Z    -     68/31   41/6      -       -       -    109/37    355/170 
0300Z    -     89/5    46/17     -       -       -    135/22    490/192 
0400Z  25/23   36/2    44/6      -       -       -    105/31    595/223 
0500Z  12/9    37/10   15/2    14/14     -       -     78/35    673/258 
0600Z   4/3    84/2    18/4      -       -       -    106/9     779/267 
0700Z    -     16/9   144/5      -       -       -    160/14    939/281 
0800Z   3/3     4/2    88/9     7/6    --+--   --+--  102/20   1041/301 
0900Z   1/1     6/2    72/5      -       -       -     79/8    1120/309 
1000Z    -      4/0     4/2    21/13     -       -     29/15   1149/324     16
1100Z    -       -      6/1   137/15     -       -    143/16   1292/340 
1200Z    -       -      1/2   194/8    21/22     -    216/32   1508/372 
1300Z    -       -       -     83/9   123/21     -    206/30   1714/402 
1400Z    -       -       -      6/5   179/8    15/21  200/34   1914/436 
1500Z    -       -       -     52/7   104/29     -    156/36   2070/472 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  123/3    18/10    6/2   147/15   2217/487 
1700Z    -       -       -    106/6    12/8      -    118/14   2335/501 
1800Z    -       -       -     11/4    15/10   21/7    47/21   2382/522    11
1900Z    -       -     14/0     5/4    11/7     7/5    37/16   2419/538    10
2000Z    -       -     46/2     4/4      -      2/2    52/8    2471/546    15
2100Z    -       -    145/0     4/3      -       -    149/3    2620/549 
2200Z    -      1/2   100/0     9/2      -       -    110/4    2730/553 
2300Z  16/3      -     54/0    10/2      -       -     80/5    2810/558 
0000Z   1/0    21/3    49/4    --+--   --+--   --+--   71/7    2881/565 
0100Z  32/4     6/5    26/2      -       -       -     64/11   2945/576 
0200Z   1/0    79/4     4/2      -       -       -     84/6    3029/582 
0300Z   6/2     3/1     1/1      -       -       -     10/4    3039/586    40
0400Z   1/1    17/2    51/0      -       -       -     69/3    3108/589 
0500Z  11/0     6/0    64/0      -       -       -     81/0    3189/589 
0600Z   2/0    77/0    11/1      -       -       -     90/1    3279/590 
0700Z    -     52/0    23/0      -       -       -     75/0    3354/590 
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    3354/590    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3354/590    60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3354/590    60
1100Z   1/0     1/0     6/0   101/0      -       -    109/0    3463/590 
1200Z    -       -       -    121/2    49/7      -    170/9    3633/599 
1300Z    -       -       -      1/2   174/7     2/4   177/13   3810/612 
1400Z    -       -       -       -    166/0     6/6   172/6    3982/618 
1500Z    -       -       -     35/1   106/0     4/5   145/6    4127/624 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  136/0    11/6   147/6    4274/630 
1700Z    -       -       -     86/1    41/2     2/0   129/3    4403/633 
1800Z    -       -       -     72/2    14/0     2/0    88/2    4491/635 
1900Z    -       -       -     15/2     5/3     1/2    21/7    4512/642    27
2000Z    -       -    104/1     4/0     2/1      -    110/2    4622/644    14
2100Z    -       -    105/1     2/0     5/2      -    112/3    4734/647 
2200Z    -      5/0    97/3     4/2      -       -    106/5    4840/652 
2300Z   1/0    10/0    78/1      -       -       -     89/1    4929/653 
Total 127/63 676/105 1617/142 1249/146 1181/137 79/60 

Best 60 mins: 220 starting 28-Nov-2020 11:54     

Worked on 6 bands (11):

5T3WW CR3DX CR3W CR6K FY5KE KP3DX LZ9W P40W TI7W V31MA ZF1A

Worked on 5 bands (23)

Most worked countries:

      160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total 
DL       5    125    261    199    195            785  
I        5     17    122     75     94      1     314  
G        6     30     69     61     89      1     256  
F        2     38     72     46     73      1     232 
UA       2     23     72    101     32            230 
SP       4     31     89     51     53            228 
OK       2     33     77     45     47            204 
EA       2     15     71     56     53      2     199 
UR       2     13     71     57     29            172 
PA       2     19     49     36     55            161 
VE      26     44     37     20     15      2     144 
S5       2     24     43     29     23            121  
K       17     21     44     27      9      2     120 
HA       1     20     45     33     20            119

WAE DX Contest, RTTY - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD

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

Summary:
Band    QSOs   QTCs  Mults
80:      212   184    184
40:      412   589    231
20:      302   555    166
15:      265   515    130
10:        5     0      6
Total:  1196  1709    717   Total Score = 2,082,885

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This was a very entertaining contest!  I forgot the contest started Friday evening so missed the first few hours.  Was just going to play around, but found the low bands to be very good.  Then 15m was very good Sat morning.  Started watching the scoreboard and found myself returning to the radio to work more stations and receive more QTCs!

I thought 15m was not open very well on Sunday. I even saw several spots and could not hear them. Then realized the 15m beam was still pointing west. Argh! It was great to see 10m open on Sunday afternoon. Would have missed that completely if not for the cluster.

I tried to receive QTCs as much as possible since I only have the opportunity to send them for CW and SSB. Some QTCs come through perfectly and others get messed up for one QTC and seem to take several more before clear copy resumes. The low bands were so good I was able to exchange QTC with Europe on 40 and 80.

Only used one radio.  Didn’t feel like warming up the room with the second amp. And with QTC activity, plus use of the cluster, didn’t feel like I needed it that much.

JH4UYB was very loud on 40m Sunday morning at sunrise. He was the only JA I heard on 40. VK3JA had a great signal on 40m LP on Sunday evening.

Excellent activity from Germany and other Western EU.  Worked very few UA/UA9 stations.

Not sure the scoring is correct.  Writelog seemed to count 11 QTC for every 10 received. Otherwise, it worked perfectly.

Thanks to everyone who made the weekend so much fun.

Station

Elecraft K3 + Ameritron AL-1200

80M: 4 square, dipole
40M: 40-2CD @ 110′
20M: 205CA @ 100’/50′
15M: 155CA @ 66’/33′
10M: 6-el @ 90′
10-20m South: TH7DXX @40′

Rates

QSO/DXCC by hour and band
 Hour      80M     40M     20M     15M     10M    Total     Cumm    OffTime

D1-0000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
D1-0100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
D1-0200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0       0/0      60
D1-0300Z  65/92     -       -       -       -     65/92     65/92     13
D1-0400Z  21/12   36/60     -       -       -     57/72    122/164 
D1-0500Z    -     60/33     -       -       -     60/33    182/197 
D1-0600Z  22/20   24/21     -       -       -     46/41    228/238 
D1-0700Z   4/8    38/15     -       -       -     42/23    270/261     4
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     270/261    60
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     270/261    60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     270/261    60
D1-1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     270/261    60
D1-1200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     270/261    60
D1-1300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     270/261    60
D1-1400Z    -       -       -     44/28     -     44/28    314/289    16
D1-1500Z    -       -       -     37/18     -     37/18    351/307 
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   55/36   21/4    --+--   76/40    427/347 
D1-1700Z    -       -     51/38     -       -     51/38    478/385 
D1-1800Z    -       -     24/8      -       -     24/8     502/393    16
D1-1900Z    -       -     23/12    4/8      -     27/20    529/413    60
D1-2000Z    -     45/18    4/4    11/12     -     60/34    589/447 
D1-2100Z    -      6/0      -       -       -      6/0     595/447    48
D1-2200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     595/447    60
D1-2300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     595/447    60
D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     595/447    60
D2-0100Z    -     14/15     -       -       -     14/15    609/462    42
D2-0200Z  24/20    4/9      -       -       -     28/29    637/491    24
D2-0300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     637/491    60
D2-0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     637/491    60
D2-0500Z    -      1/0      -       -       -      1/0     638/491    56
D2-0600Z  23/12   34/21     -       -       -     57/33    695/524 
D2-0700Z  16/8    30/6      -       -       -     46/14    741/538 
D2-0800Z   1/0    14/3    --+--   --+--   --+--   15/3     756/541    37
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     756/541    60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     756/541    60
D2-1100Z    -      3/3     8/6      -       -     11/9     767/550    48
D2-1200Z    -       -     46/24    8/6      -     54/30    821/580 
D2-1300Z    -       -     18/2    38/22     -     56/24    877/604 
D2-1400Z    -       -     18/6    36/14     -     54/20    931/624 
D2-1500Z    -       -     23/6    45/8      -     68/14    999/638 
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--    1/2    14/2    --+--   15/4    1014/642    40
D2-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1014/642    60
D2-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1014/642    60
D2-1900Z    -     13/9     2/4     6/6     1/2    22/21   1036/663    25
D2-2000Z    -     22/6     9/4     1/2     4/4    36/16   1072/679     2
D2-2100Z   1/0    13/0    14/12     -       -     28/12   1100/691    60
D2-2200Z   9/0    34/9     6/2      -       -     49/11   1149/702 
D2-2300Z  26/12   21/3      -       -       -     47/15   1196/717 

Total:   212/184 412/231 302/166 265/130   5/6  

Best 60 mins: 80 @ 14-Nov-2020 03:14  

Worked on 4 bands (28):

9A7T DA0BCC DC6O DF4XG DG0OKW DJ8VH DK2OY DK7HA DL3ABL DL7VOG DL7YS DQ9Y DR6K F8CRS GW0A HG1G IK2TDM IQ8XF IV3HAX KO7SS MM9I OK1KSL OK4GP OM5M ON6NL UY5VA V31MA WT9U

Most worked countries:

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL      75     99     67     98            339
     K      61     81     52     13            207
     I       5     30     29     30             94
    PA       1     20     15     11             47
    SP       2     17      8      7             34
    VE      11     10      7      4             32
    UR       5     14      4      4             27
     F       6      8      4      8             26
    EA       2      8      9      6             25

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW - 2020

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

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  522
   40:  424
   20:  363
   15:   44
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1353  Sections = 84  Total Score = 227,304

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

First 20 hours were fun.  The rest was work.

40m went really long early on Sat evening so went to 80 very early.  Ended with with a 6 hour run on one frequency! 

Worked multiple stations in every section except PEI (thanks VY2ZM) and YT. I had given up on finding a VE8 when VY1KX called in late on 20m.  Always nice to get the sweep.

Seemed to be relatively easy to find a frequency.  There was lots of activity, but maybe not as many CQing?

Thanks to everyone for helping me achieve the 1000 QSO mark for the 44th consecutive year.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

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

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

QSO/Sec by hour and band

 Hour      80      40      20      15     Total     Cumm    OffTime
D1-2100Z    -       -     79/34   35/21  114/55    114/55  
D1-2200Z    -     13/1    70/6     5/1    88/8     202/63  
D1-2300Z  30/4    46/4     3/0      -     79/8     281/71  
D2-0000Z  75/0    12/1     2/0    --+--   89/1     370/72  
D2-0100Z  79/3    12/1      -       -     91/4     461/76  
D2-0200Z  78/1    15/0      -       -     93/1     554/77  
D2-0300Z  72/1    13/0      -       -     85/1     639/78  
D2-0400Z  47/0    34/1      -       -     81/1     720/79  
D2-0500Z  20/0    43/0      -       -     63/0     783/79  
D2-0600Z  16/1    19/0      -       -     35/1     818/80  
D2-0700Z  16/0    13/0      -       -     29/0     847/80      7
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     847/80     60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -      0/0     847/80     60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -      0/0     847/80     60
D2-1100Z  21/0     1/1      -       -     22/1     869/81     35
D2-1200Z  16/1    23/0      -       -     39/1     908/82  
D2-1300Z  15/0    20/0     5/0      -     40/0     948/82  
D2-1400Z    -     15/0    18/0      -     33/0     981/82  
D2-1500Z    -     27/0    13/0      -     40/0    1021/82  
D2-1600Z  --+--   27/0     6/0    --+--   33/0    1054/82  
D2-1700Z    -      3/0    34/0     1/0    38/0    1092/82  
D2-1800Z    -      2/0    41/0      -     43/0    1135/82  
D2-1900Z    -      5/0    39/0     3/0    47/0    1182/82  
D2-2000Z    -      6/0     9/1      -     15/1    1197/83     35
D2-2100Z    -     15/0    28/0      -     43/0    1240/83  
D2-2200Z    -      3/0    12/1      -     15/1    1255/84     33
D2-2300Z    -     14/0     4/0      -     18/0    1273/84     25
D3-0000Z  16/0    19/0    --+--   --+--   35/0    1308/84  
D3-0100Z   5/0     3/0      -       -      8/0    1316/84     47
D3-0200Z  16/0    21/0      -       -     37/0    1353/84  

Total:   522/11  424/9   363/42   44/22

                 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP

Operating Time (hrs): 34

Summary:
Band    QSOs Zones Countries
160:     54    9     24
80:     318   13     57
40:     355   21     71
20:    1671   29    104
15:    1409   25     98
10:     172   11     36
Total: 3979  108    390     Total Score = 5,609,472

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Conditions were so bad 28 days earlier for CQ WW RTTY, I did not have high expectations for this one.  Wow, was I wrong.  Conditions exceeded my wildest hopes.

Operated in Classic mode for the whole contest.  One radio.  No cluster.

Since I was focused on a Classic entry I took 2 hours off to watch a movie Friday night. When the rates exploded on Sunday morning, I went from #50 on the scoreboard to closing in on the top ten.  That changed my attitude and I shifted from managing off times to trying to make the best score.

The contest was obviously different with fewer multi-ops and no expeditions. It was a bit easier to find a frequency on 20 and 40.  (Just a little, those bands were still crowded!)  But, it really hurt the multiplier.  Decided I would just focus on QSOs. Was still fun to have to make operating decisions about when to run and when to tune for mults – the way contesting was before the cluster connected everyone to everything.  Missed some mults as a result, but figured if I could keep close the assisted guys on the scoreboard I would be ok.

The rates on Sat morning were amazing.  It matched what I did from the Caribbean last year. Thanks to all the Italians, Germans, and Netherlanders that filled the log.  Not many Russians or JAs as the band just didn’t open that deep.

Was running so much I didn’t even check 10m on Sat morning.  I did happen to go there on Sun morning and was amazed to find some Eu signals. VO1CH was pinning the s-meter so it must have been sporadic E.  It sure sounded like a VHF contest for awhile with lots of QSB and spotlight openings.  Sure helped the score and was fun to run without splatter.

Managed to get a frequency around 7132 during the last 30 minutes of the contest. It produced a bunch of new multipliers. Why does no one listen split on 40m any more?

CQ WW is always amazing and fun.  Thanks to everyone who helped fill the bands with excitement.

Station

Elecraft K3 + Ameritron AL-1200

80M: 4 square, dipole
40M: 40-2CD @ 110′
20M: 205CA @ 100’/50′
15M: 155CA @ 66’/33′
10M: 6-el @ 90′
10-20m South: TH7DXX @40′

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

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

0000Z   1/2    25/20   40/32    9/13   --+--   --+--   75/67     75/67  
0100Z   6/6    27/9     8/1    19/5      -       -     60/21    135/88  
0200Z    -      5/2      -       -       -       -      5/2     140/90     55
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     140/90     60
0400Z  11/8     4/2    77/20     -       -       -     92/30    232/120     1
0500Z  15/9    35/12   25/5      -       -       -     75/26    307/146 
0600Z   8/3    61/5      -       -       -       -     69/8     376/154 
0700Z    -      7/2    27/12   40/25     -       -     74/39    450/193 
0800Z   1/1     2/0    54/6    17/6    --+--   --+--   74/13    524/206    13
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     524/206    60
1000Z   2/1     1/2     3/0     1/0      -       -      7/3     531/209    49
1100Z    -       -      5/0   159/17    5/7      -    169/24    700/233 
1200Z    -       -       -    155/5    38/15     -    193/20    893/253 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    225/19     -    225/19   1118/272 
1400Z    -       -       -       -    212/11     -    212/11   1330/283 
1500Z    -       -       -       -    224/11     -    224/11   1554/294 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   85/20   12/8    97/28   1651/322 
1700Z    -       -       -    104/5    32/1     6/0   142/6    1793/328 
1800Z    -       -       -    186/4      -       -    186/4    1979/332 
1900Z    -       -       -     86/11   30/5     3/0   119/16   2098/348 
2000Z    -       -       -    133/9      -       -    133/9    2231/357 
2100Z    -       -       -    145/4     5/3      -    150/7    2381/364 
2200Z    -       -     13/0    16/4     4/5      -     33/9    2414/373    21
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2414/373    60
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2414/373    60
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2414/373    60
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2414/373    60
0300Z   5/2    20/5    14/4      -       -       -     39/11   2453/384     3
0400Z    -       -      6/1      -       -       -      6/1    2459/385     1
0500Z   2/1    81/5      -       -       -       -     83/6    2542/391    60
0600Z    -     47/5    10/2      -       -       -     57/7    2599/398 
0700Z    -      1/0      -       -       -       -      1/0    2600/398    58
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2600/398    60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2600/398    60
1000Z   3/0     2/1      -       -       -       -      5/1    2605/399    52
1100Z    -       -      2/0   130/6      -       -    132/6    2737/405 
1200Z    -       -       -     36/0    97/8      -    133/8    2870/413 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    177/9      -    177/9    3047/422 
1400Z    -       -       -       -     14/1    99/24  113/25   3160/447 
1500Z    -       -       -       -    131/2     4/1   135/3    3295/450 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  104/4     1/0     8/2   113/6    3408/456 
1700Z    -       -       -     21/1    56/1     7/6    84/8    3492/464 
1800Z    -       -       -       -     13/1    25/4    38/5    3530/469   25
1900Z    -       -       -     12/0    39/4     5/2    56/6    3586/475    
2000Z    -       -       -    134/2      -       -    134/2    3720/477 
2100Z    -       -       -     94/3    10/0     3/0   107/3    3827/480 
2200Z    -       -       -     59/7     7/0      -     66/7    3893/487 
2300Z    -       -     71/9    11/2     4/0      -     86/11   3979/498 

Total: 54/33  318/70  355/92 1671/133 1409/123 172/47 

Best 60 mins: 230 QSOs (24-Oct-2020 13:20 to 24-Oct-2020 14:19)

Worked on 6 bands: TM3R

Worked on 5 bands: CR6K DF0HQ DL0CS DM1A DP7D E7DX EA2W EC2DX EW5A F6KOP G0BNR G6XX GM6NX HG5A HG7T II2S IQ4FA P40W PA9M PI4COM PJ4DX TM5A TM6M VE5MX VO1GRC ZF1A

Most worked countries:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL       4     36     27    235    237     22     561
    EA       3     27     24    104    101     10     269
     F       1     28     32     64     82     23     230
     G       2     17     20    151    147      8     345
     I             25     28    147    169      8     377
     K       9     16     33     75     20      3     156
    ON       2     11      3     50     40      6     112
    PA       1     14      3     69     53      7     147
    SP       1      9      9     42     45      1     107
    VE      14     26     28     29     19      1     117

                    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