Category: writeup

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2023

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

Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 40.5
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:

Band    QSOs  State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------
 80:    316       42      41    12
 40:    663       50      62    18
 20:    900       49      73    26
 15:   1102       45      84    29
 10:    513       40      72    23
------------------------------------
Total: 3494      226     332   108   Total Score = 5,545,782

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

This was a casual effort that turned serious.  Didn’t do the normal sleep and food prep for a big effort.  Was looking forward to the contest, but didn’t expect to spend full-time.  Conditions on Friday night and Saturday were great. Lots of good openings and rates.  Only slept 2 hours Friday night and 30 minute break for lunch. I would have been very happy if it ended after 24 hours.

Line at 24 hours: 2166 QSOs, 183 St, 95 Zn, 276 Cty for 2,958,914 points

The second 24 hours were a bit of a slog.  Not helped when one of my amplifiers failed about 1305z. The power output went from 1400W to 2W. After spending an hour operating with one radio and thinking about quitting, I decided to pull a spare amp out of the closet and keep going.  I was back in full SO2R mode by 1500z.

Was entertaining to watch the race between K1LZ and AA3B on the online scoreboard. They really piled up the multipliers.  At one point on Saturday, I was more than 160 mults behind AA3B.  I made it my goal on Sunday to close the gap to less than 100.  You would think available mults are somewhat fixed, and I should be able to find some that he found using the cluster.  But, no matter what I did, I never made it to under 100 mults behind.  It was good motivation to keep me tuning the bands. Running on two bands very much limits the ability to tune around. You have to hope the mults call in.

The rebuilt TH7 now has an SWR problem on 10m. The amp didn’t seem to care and I was able to work stations to the south.

Nice JA run on 15m Saturday evening.  Almost all right at the noise level. It was interesting to see how the bands opened in the morning.  20m was open well before sunrise but didn’t last long after due to absorption.  15m was the daytime money band.  10m was good on Saturday morning, but not so much on Sunday.

Spent time checking which antenna was best.  For 10m, it seemed like the high antenna at 100′ was always better than the low stack or all 3.  On 15 and 20 the stack was always best.

Spent a lot of time chasing missing states.  Thought I was going to miss RI on 20m, but found NC1CC with an hour to go.  Was missing OR on 20m until N7DB called in during the last hour.  Didn’t hear a MT station until late Sunday and then got K7QA on 2 bands.  Only worked one station in DE. No contact with VT although I heard N1IBM work someone.

Always a fun contest.  The RTTY crowd is very proficient these days.  Except for those few guys who still insist on sending everything 3 times.  The biggest impediment to rate is my ability to type.  I would mess up a letter and the station I was working would repeat their call multiple times.  My bad.

This is a new personal record for this contest.

Station

K3 + AL-1200

K3 + AL-1500/Alpha 76CA

80m: 4 square, dipole

40m: 2/2 @110’/70′

20m: 5/5 @100’/50′

15m: 5/5 @66’/33′

10m: 6/4/4 @100′,64′,32′

South: TH7DXX @40′

Rates

QSO/Zn+Dx+St by hour and band

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

D1-0000Z  --+--   38/37   60/48   --+--   --+--   98/85     98/85  
D1-0100Z    -     66/21   43/18     -       -    109/39    207/124 
D1-0200Z  24/24   21/7     3/0    21/27     -     69/58    276/182 
D1-0300Z  51/20   65/16     -       -       -    116/36    392/218 
D1-0400Z  48/16   65/9      -       -       -    113/25    505/243 
D1-0500Z  15/5    63/1     9/3      -       -     87/9     592/252 
D1-0600Z    -     18/4    66/12     -       -     84/16    676/268 
D1-0700Z    -      3/0    14/0      -       -     17/0     693/268    49
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     693/268    60
D1-0900Z   3/2    11/4    29/1      -       -     43/7     736/275    34
D1-1000Z   9/4    25/6    60/14     -       -     94/24    830/299 
D1-1100Z    -       -     40/6   105/34     -    145/40    975/339 
D1-1200Z    -       -      4/2    88/10   80/31  172/43   1147/382 
D1-1300Z    -       -       -     63/6    81/10  144/16   1291/398 
D1-1400Z    -       -       -     59/7    86/10  145/17   1436/415 
D1-1500Z    -       -       -     56/7    40/18   96/25   1532/440 
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--    3/0    28/2    21/5    52/7    1584/447 
D1-1700Z    -       -     39/5    49/9      -     88/14   1672/461    35
D1-1800Z    -       -       -     48/12   36/14   84/26   1756/487 
D1-1900Z    -       -       -     52/7    29/11   81/18   1837/505 
D1-2000Z    -       -       -     39/8    27/10   66/18   1903/523 
D1-2100Z    -       -     66/3     1/0    22/3    89/6    1992/529 
D1-2200Z    -       -     34/5    42/4     6/2    82/11   2074/540 
D1-2300Z    -     26/3    18/4    44/7      -     88/14   2162/554 
D2-0000Z  --+--   54/4    19/2     7/0     2/1    82/7    2244/561 
D2-0100Z   6/0    33/4    19/4      -       -     58/8    2302/569 
D2-0200Z  51/11   38/6      -       -       -     89/17   2391/586 
D2-0300Z  12/2    44/2    11/7      -       -     67/11   2458/597 
D2-0400Z  47/6     2/0     3/0      -       -     52/6    2510/603 
D2-0500Z  38/3     4/1      -       -       -     42/4    2552/607    26
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2552/607    60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2552/607    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    2552/607    60
D2-0900Z   5/0     1/0      -       -       -      6/0    2558/607    55
D2-1000Z   7/2    19/4    21/1      -       -     47/7    2605/614 
D2-1100Z    -     20/0    48/0    24/0      -     92/0    2697/614 
D2-1200Z    -       -     27/4    57/4      -     84/8    2781/622 
D2-1300Z    -       -      1/0    39/4     7/3    47/7    2828/629 
D2-1400Z    -       -     10/1    50/1     1/1    61/3    2889/632 
D2-1500Z    -       -       -     57/2    15/3    72/5    2961/637 
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   49/1    29/2    78/3    3039/640 
D2-1700Z    -       -     16/1    26/2     8/4    50/7    3089/647 
D2-1800Z    -       -     44/0    47/2      -     91/2    3180/649 
D2-1900Z    -       -     49/2    37/1      -     86/3    3266/652 
D2-2000Z    -       -     37/0     8/1    17/7    62/8    3328/660 
D2-2100Z    -      6/0    57/0      -      4/0    67/0    3395/660 
D2-2200Z    -     25/0    15/3      -       -     40/3    3435/663 
D2-2300Z    -     16/1    35/2     6/0     2/0    59/3    3494/666 

Total:   316/95  663/130 900/1481102/158 513/135

Best 60 minutes: 182 starting at 23-Sep-2023 12:16

Worked on 5 bands (54)

9A1A 9A5Y AA3B AA5AU C37N CR3DX CR3W DA0BCC DA0RR DD5M DH0GHU DJ3NG DK9IP DL1RTL
DL6JZ DL8TG DP6A DP6K DP7D DP9A DR3W EA4BAS ED7B EE4Y F8CRS G2U I4VEQ IQ3RK
IQ4FC K1AR K1SFA K5RZA K9CT KI1G KW1X LN8W LZ5R LZ6K N0UR N6WM NP4Z P49X PI4CC
PI4COM S50W S56A SN7Q SP50UUU TM3Z US8ICM UW1M W0LSD W6SX YO9HP

Worked on 4 bands (94)

Most worked entities

      80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total

K      166    287    239    209    105    1006
DL      44     62    122    168     91     487
I        6     41     78     98     38     261
SP       5     26     31     52     12     126
EA       6     18     26     37     31     118
PA       8     11     34     40     13     106
G        3     16     26     46     12     103
F        8     11     23     23     18      83
VE      14     30     13     15      9      81
JA              1     30     35             66
OK       3      9     19     22     13      66
UR       3     10     14     25      9      61

                    WAE DX Contest, CW - 2023

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

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 17.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:  110     0   100
   40:  225   213   111
   20:  378   434    84
   15:  451   560    88
   10:   49     0    40
-------------------------
Total: 1213  1207   423  Total Score = 1,023,660

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Part time.  I worked the fun parts of the contest.  Only used one radio + the cluster.

Went to bed at 03z each night so missed some easy mults on 80m like CT, PA, OE,and G!

15m was great both days.  10m opened well Sunday but very spotty.  Loud signals and weak ones.

Nice to see so much activity from Germany.

QSO/DXCC by hour and band

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

D1-0000Z  --+--   45/45   22/22   --+--   --+--   67/67     67/67  
D1-0100Z   5/12   23/15   30/8      -       -     58/35    125/102 
D1-0200Z  42/48   28/21    4/8      -       -     74/77    199/179 
D1-0300Z  30/28    9/9    13/12     -       -     52/49    251/228    16
D1-0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     251/228    60
D1-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     251/228    60
D1-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     251/228    60
D1-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     251/228    60
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     251/228    60
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     251/228    60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     251/228    60
D1-1100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     251/228    60
D1-1200Z    -       -       -     26/32     -     26/32    277/260    48
D1-1300Z    -       -       -    113/38     -    113/38    390/298 
D1-1400Z    -       -      2/4     6/0     1/2     9/6     399/304    51
D1-1500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     399/304    60
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     399/304    60
D1-1700Z    -       -      2/4    42/0    16/20   60/24    459/328    20
D1-1800Z    -       -     15/4    52/8     3/2    70/14    529/342 
D1-1900Z    -       -      1/0      -       -      1/0     530/342    57
D1-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     530/342    60
D1-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     530/342    60
D1-2200Z    -      5/6    55/12     -       -     60/18    590/360     7
D1-2300Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     590/360    60
D2-0000Z  --+--    3/0     4/0    --+--   --+--    7/0     597/360    41
D2-0100Z   5/4    37/3     3/0      -       -     45/7     642/367 
D2-0200Z  12/8    23/9    11/4      -       -     46/21    688/388 
D2-0300Z  15/0    15/3    12/0      -       -     42/3     730/391    15
D2-0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     730/391    60
D2-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     730/391    60
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     730/391    60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     730/391    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     730/391    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     730/391    60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     730/391    60
D2-1100Z    -       -     57/2     5/2      -     62/4     792/395    12
D2-1200Z    -       -      3/4    60/4     6/6    69/14    861/409 
D2-1300Z    -       -       -     52/2     2/2    54/4     915/413 
D2-1400Z    -       -       -       -      5/4     5/4     920/417 
D2-1500Z    -       -       -     50/2     3/0    53/2     973/419 
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   16/0    13/4    29/4    1002/423    31
D2-1700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1002/423    60
D2-1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1002/423    60
D2-1900Z    -       -     38/0    29/0      -     67/0    1069/423    14
D2-2000Z    -       -     68/0      -       -     68/0    1137/423 
D2-2100Z    -       -      9/0      -       -      9/0    1146/423    49
D2-2200Z    -       -      2/0      -       -      2/0    1148/423    60
D2-2300Z   1/0    37/0    27/0      -       -     65/0    1213/423 

Total:   110/100 225/111 378/84  451/88   49/40 

Best 60 mins: 132 QSOs starting 12-Aug-2023 12:48

Worked on 5 bands:

9A30T 9A5Y DA2X DK9PY DL2SAX DL5AXX DP6A EF5Y EI5KF HB0DX IK0EFR IR2C IR2Q OM2VL OM7M RU1A S53X SN2B SP8R TM7A

                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2023

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

Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 28.5
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   33    25
   80:  159    54
   40:  182    69
   20:  763   106
   15:  943   105
   10: 1162   103
-------------------
Total: 3242   462  Total Score = 4,493,412

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Considered going unassisted, but didn’t want to spend the weekend listening to people not send their calls…

All bands were open at the start, but I didn’t want to mess with 40.  Ended up calling CQ on 20.  Amazing where the band is open to at 00z.  A71KK called in at 59+20 and said he was running 80w.  Same with HZ1DS who was 59+ running 100w. Then a ZS. 

I did have one good run on 40m.  I was transmitting on 7205 and listening on 7089.  RW9USA called in and he was 40 over S9.  Amazing!  That was my only real success working split.  Don’t know why people don’t do that anymore.

Snow static started around 0130z.  By 0230z it was so bad I could not hear any signals on any band.  Went off to watch TV for a while.  Came back and the static was still bad. The only band with no snow static (160m) had some kind of electronic noise that was S6 across the band (probably from a neighbor).  Went to bed and hoped for better in the morning.

Saturday was fun.  Went straight to 15m at 1145z and it was off to the races. Jumped to 10m at 1246z and it got even wilder. After several hours took a break to do some errands, then took my wife out to dinner later that afternoon.  Watched the Formula 1 qualifying in the evening.  Got back on for Eu sunrise and caught up on the low band multipliers that I missed the first night. I did more CQing on 20m and was rewarded with a 3DA0 station calling in and asking what I needed for the contest.

Took a short sleep and got up to catch some of the Asia and Pacific mults on 40. The JAs were S9 on 40.

More running on Sunday morning.  Really struggled to get or keep a frequency on both 15 and 10.

The bands were slow to open.  I spent all day Sunday getting beat out by stations in PA, MD, and VA.  This makes sense since the bands were great to Italy and southern Europe all day but marginal to northern Eu.

As sunset passed to Western Eu the conditions improved.  Had a great run on 10m of stations that were solid S9 and yet many were running less than 50W.

I noticed something interesting this weekend. On Saturday morning my 10m stack at 60’/30′ was the best antenna for Europe. On Sunday, it seemed like the 6-ele at 90′ was always better. All this contest season the stack has been the winner, but not on Sunday.

I noticed something similar on 20m on both days. Normally the stack in phase (BIP) is ALWAYS the best antenna. I try out of phase (BOP) sometimes, just for fun, but it is never an improvement. Not this weekend. The BOP configuration was an S-unit louder to Europe. I guess it is true that you can never have too many antenna options.

20m was finally good for running when I went there early around 1900z. That meant I could get a frequency. Definitely helped boost the score since I was missing some easy mults there.

Spent the last part of the contest chasing multipliers.  Learned more humility. Had some great tail-end wins with HH2AA and 9V1YC. The last hour did have a good run to JA on 15m which was a pleasant surprise. Then jumped across all bands the last hour looking for anything I could work. Nice to have so many PY stations available. 

TM6M once again wins the award for widest signal.  There were lots of other wide and splattering signals from Europe.  The good propagation makes the splatter even more noticeable.  It is great for them to help keep the frequency clear, but not so good for the rest of us.  Very poor sportsmanship.

Overall a fun contest.  Thanks to those around the world that chase us across the bands.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt-fed tower
80m: 4 square, dipole
40m: 2-el @110′. 2/2 @ 110’/65′
20m: 5/5 @100’/50′
15m: 5/5 @66’/33′
10m: 6-el @100′, 4/4 @62’/32′
TH7DXX @40′ (south)

Rates

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   57/28   26/18   16/12   --+--   99/58     99/58  
0100Z   1/1    27/16    5/1    30/24   12/4    10/5    85/51    184/109 
0200Z    -      2/1     4/4    29/10    7/5      -     42/20    226/129  33
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     226/129  60
0400Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     226/129  60
0500Z  12/8    24/11   16/13    1/1      -       -     53/33    279/162  15
0600Z   3/3    19/7      -      2/1      -       -     24/11    303/173  17
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     303/173  60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     303/173  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     303/173  60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     303/173  60
1100Z    -       -      1/0      -     55/23     -     56/23    359/196  41
1200Z    -       -       -      5/1   147/18   35/17  187/36    546/232 
1300Z    -       -       -       -       -    224/29  224/29    770/261 
1400Z    -       -       -       -    128/6    58/10  186/16    956/277 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     12/4    41/7    53/11   1009/288  26
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    2/2    27/5    29/7    1038/295  43
1700Z    -       -       -     21/4    10/4   135/5   166/13   1204/308 
1800Z    -       -       -    122/19   10/3    15/3   147/25   1351/333 
1900Z    -       -       -       -    145/5     9/6   154/11   1505/344 
2000Z    -       -       -     14/1      -       -     14/1    1519/345  50
2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1519/345  60
2200Z    -       -       -     12/2     7/2    19/1    38/5    1557/350  42
2300Z    -       -      7/0    11/2     7/3    49/4    74/9    1631/359  13
0000Z  --+--    3/1    15/3     1/1     9/1    --+--   28/6    1659/365  29
0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1659/365  60
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1659/365  60
0300Z   9/7    20/7    10/8    12/4     3/1      -     54/27   1713/392   3
0400Z   2/1    17/3     4/2     2/0      -       -     25/6    1738/398  22
0500Z   3/2    41/6    14/3     4/1      -       -     62/12   1800/410 
0600Z   2/2     1/0    29/2    32/3      -       -     64/7    1864/417 
0700Z    -      2/1     2/1     1/0      -       -      5/2    1869/419  49
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1869/419  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1869/419  60
1000Z    -      1/1     7/2      -       -       -      8/3    1877/422  46
1100Z    -       -      3/1   167/3     1/0      -    171/4    2048/426 
1200Z    -       -       -     42/2    95/1     6/0   143/3    2191/429 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    117/2    14/2   131/4    2322/433 
1400Z    -       -       -       -     66/2    26/2    92/4    2414/437 
1500Z    -       -       -      3/0     8/2   138/2   149/4    2563/441 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    2/1   115/0   117/1    2680/442 
1700Z    -       -       -       -      6/0   120/1   126/1    2806/443 
1800Z    -       -       -      6/1     9/1    73/2    88/4    2894/447 
1900Z    -       -       -    132/3     8/0     1/0   141/3    3035/450 
2000Z    -       -       -     60/1     4/1    26/2    90/4    3125/454   9
2100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3125/454  60
2200Z    -       -      1/1    19/3    15/1    14/0    49/5    3174/459  21
2300Z   1/1     2/0     7/0     9/1    42/1     7/0    68/3    3242/462 

Total: 33/25  159/54  182/69  763/106 943/105 1162/103

Best 60 mins: 234 starting at 04-Mar-2023 13:13

Worked on 6 bands: 25

8P5A 9A1A 9A1P CQ8M CU2AA E7DX ED5R ED8W EI9E IO8V IR4X J68HZ KP2M NP4Z PJ2T PJ4G SP8R TI1K TM0R TM6M TM7A TO3Z VP5M ZF1A ZF5T

Worked on 5 bands: 43

Most worked entities:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
     I       2     19     21     88     99    145     374
    DL             15      9     65    101    145     335
     F       5     20     11     50     46     84     216
     G              6      8     48     60     85     207
    PA       1      3      3     55     45     91     198
    EA       1      8      8     40     36     52     145
    SP       1      7      9     34     44     30     125
    JA                     7     18     42     52     119
    UA                     4     20     40     23      87
    PY                     2     17     22     38      79

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 36.2
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   76    38
   80:  402    57
   40:  853    78
   20: 1097    87
   15: 1211    89
   10: 1318    87
-------------------
Total: 4957   436  Total Score = 6,483,756

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Conditions could not be better than this one.  All the bands were hot!

Comments:

This contest did not take the normal path. After 8k+ QSOs in January for the N1W WRTC event, WPX RTTY last weekend, plus some business travel, I hit the wall at about 0300z the first night.  Even though the conditions were terrific, I just couldn’t see pushing through.  Went to sleep for 6 hours.

When I woke up I was more than 500 QSOs behind K1ZZ and even more behind N2IC on the scoreboard.  But, I felt great and the rates Saturday morning were simply amazing with consecutive hours of 193, 218, 216, 199, 173.

The second wall hit about 2 pm so took some time off to eat.  Got back on for a while and then decided I needed to get a walk in before dark.  Returned after sunset to discover an incredible opening to Japan.  Even had some BY stations call me!  At the 24-hour mark I had as many JAs in the log than stations from Italy.  Whoa.

Saturday evening I decided to try to catch up from missing Friday night. The low bands were excellent and very quiet.  Could hear almost anything. The sunrise peak on 160 to Europe was great with 9A1A up to S9 for a while.

Was catching up to the leaders so only slept for 90 minutes and then straight on to 20m.  Rates were not as crazy, but the band was open deep with JA and BY calling in over Europe on 20m.  So many Russians!

It was fun watching the scoreboard and chasing. Decided to just power through to the end to see if I could catch the leaders.  Seeing K1ZZ, N2IC and I switching places at the top on almost every update was exciting. Thought I had passed N2IC at the end for the win, but K5GN turned in a truly amazing score from Texas that was ahead of us all.

Only SO2R here.  Tried to run on two bands when the rates slowed, but just can’t do it.  It was an experiment that lasted 10 minutes at most.

The worst signals of the weekend award go to TM6M (some kind of wide sidecars on their signal especially on 20), SN3A (very wide on 40m), and many others from Europe with strong clicks (too many to remember and name).

Having all bands open spread out the activity.  Was relatively easy to find a CQ frequency. At the same time, that plus the rates made it very difficult to find multipliers. You would tune by and just hear “599 KW” and then “TU.”  Before the cluster and RBN stations had a reason to sign their call to generate pileups. No more.

Best DX was being called by VU stations on 40-10m. HS on 10-20. V85 called in on 20 and then heard me through a big pileup on 15. VR2CO called in. Also DU3T on two bands.  Nice to have JAs calling me on 10 and 15.  The JAs were even loud on 40.

All the antenna work over the summer paid off.  The new 40m stack is significantly better to Europe than the other 40m beam. And the low stack on 10m made me feel like the king of the band.

We will likely never see conditions this good again across all of the bands in the same weekend. Too bad I didn’t make a recording of this one.

Thanks to contesters around the world for chasing us all weekend.  Especially for the number of Russian and Ukraine stations that were on. Those guys really know CW!

Station:

K3 + AL-1200

K3 + AL-1500

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

80m: 4 square, dipole

40m: 2-el @110′. 2/2 @ 110’/65′

20m: 5/5 @100’/50′

15m: 5/5 @66’/33′

10m: 6-el @100′, 4/4 @62’/32′

TH7DXX @40′ (south)

Rates

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   64/26   53/26   23/14    5/3   145/69    145/69  
0100Z    -     73/24   77/7      -      3/1     2/2   155/34    300/103 
0200Z   9/8    22/6    85/6     8/3     6/5      -    130/28    430/131 
0300Z   8/8      -     26/4    66/11     -       -    100/23    530/154 
0400Z   3/3      -      3/0      -       -       -      6/3     536/157  56
0500Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     536/157  60
0600Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     536/157  60
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     536/157  60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     536/157  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     536/157  60
1000Z   3/3    14/13   21/10   48/6      -       -     86/32    622/189  12
1100Z    -       -       -    146/18   47/24     -    193/42    815/231 
1200Z    -       -       -       -    218/17     -    218/17   1033/248 
1300Z    -       -       -       -     25/1   191/39  216/40   1249/288 
1400Z    -       -       -       -      1/0   198/6   199/6    1448/294 
1500Z    -       -       -       -      7/1   166/6   173/7    1621/301 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   88/4    63/6   151/10   1772/311 
1700Z    -       -       -       -    151/6    12/2   163/8    1935/319 
1800Z    -       -       -     21/0   114/2    22/2   157/4    2092/323 
1900Z    -       -       -     58/3     4/0      -     62/3    2154/326  34
2000Z    -       -       -     59/2      -       -     59/2    2213/328  43
2100Z    -       -       -      2/0     2/0      -      4/0    2217/328  54
2200Z    -       -       -     18/2    38/2     5/2    61/6    2278/334  26
2300Z    -       -       -       -     39/3    54/1    93/4    2371/338 
0000Z  --+--   --+--   70/1    18/6     3/2     4/2    95/11   2466/349 
0100Z    -     26/1    48/8     3/1      -       -     77/10   2543/359 
0200Z   8/6    20/4      -       -       -       -     28/10   2571/369  36
0300Z   5/3    67/2     5/1      -       -       -     77/6    2648/375  18
0400Z   4/0    92/3     8/1      -       -       -    104/4    2752/379 
0500Z  28/5    58/2      -       -       -       -     86/7    2838/386 
0600Z   7/1    23/1   115/1      -       -       -    145/3    2983/389 
0700Z    -       -    121/6     2/0      -       -    123/6    3106/395 
0800Z  --+--    1/0    59/3     2/0    --+--   --+--   62/3    3168/398  27
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3168/398  60
1000Z   1/1     1/1      -     34/0      -       -     36/2    3204/400  43
1100Z    -       -      1/1   191/2      -       -    192/3    3396/403 
1200Z    -       -      1/0    24/2   141/1      -    166/3    3562/406 
1300Z    -       -       -       -     27/0   154/6   181/6    3743/412 
1400Z    -       -       -       -      4/0   161/1   165/1    3908/413 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     18/0   132/2   150/2    4058/415 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   15/1   115/1   130/2    4188/417 
1700Z    -       -       -       -    120/1    11/2   131/3    4319/420 
1800Z    -       -       -     61/0    65/0    12/2   138/2    4457/422 
1900Z    -       -       -    120/1    13/1      -    133/2    4590/424 
2000Z    -       -       -    109/2     7/3      -    116/5    4706/429 
2100Z    -       -     28/1    49/0     1/0    11/2    89/3    4795/432 
2200Z    -       -     93/1     5/2     1/0      -     99/3    4894/435 
2300Z    -      5/0    28/1      -     30/0      -     63/1    4957/436 

Total: 76/38  402/57  853/78 1097/87 1211/89 1318/87 

Best 60 minutes: 228 @ 18-Feb-2023 11:45z

Worked on 6 bands (43):

9A1A 9A3XV CR3W DD1A DD2D DQ2C DR4A E7DX ED1R F6FYA G5W G6XX HB9AMO HG5D HG6N II2S IK1PMR IQ8SN KP4AA LN8W LZ2RS NP4Z OL3Z OM0R OM4MW OR3A OZ5W P40N PJ2T PJ4A S53M SN7O SN7Q SP4Z SP8R SP9ATE T48K TI7W TM6M TO4A V3T VP5K ZF1A

(This alone tells you how great all bands were!)

Most worked entities:

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL      10     60    134    156    156    213     729
     I       4     27     65     73     89     91     349
    UA             18     36     70     97    108     329
    SP       5     26     40     44     43     73     231
    OK       3     31     49     46     49     50     228
    PA       1     11     35     61     41     71     220
    JA              1     16     48     97     53     215
     G       3     12     41     38     44     48     186
     F       4     19     48     36     30     46     183
    EA       3     14     34     46     40     34     171
    HA       2     17     34     35     39     43     170
    SM       1     10     20     31     32     41     135
    UR             15     18     26     35     40     134
    OH       1     10     13     24     28     25     101

Hour-by-hour comparisons with K1ZZ and N2IC (from contestonlinescores.com)

                    CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2023

Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 28
OpMode: 2BSIQ

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  204
   40:  543
   20:  494
   15:  769
   10:  609
------------
Total: 2619  Prefixes = 900  Total Score = 6,745,500

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This is a fun contest. Never intended to do a full effort, but operated more than expected.

The first 8 hours were full-on. Things started slow but picked up as Europe woke up. Could not keep up with AA3B.  Bud is amazing at working on 2 bands AND chasing multipliers.

Took some sleep and then continued.  Could never really get good runs on 2 bands at the same time. It was almost like the bands were too open.  Activity was really spread out.

Did my Sat morning errands. Weather was very nice outside.  Got back on the radio, but the nice weather was calling.  Took time off Sat afternoon to play 18 holes of golf.  Got on for a while and discovered one of the best JA openings on

10 and 15 that I have experienced in a contest. My family called for me to cook dinner.  Worked a bit more but was too sleepy to continue late.

Woke up Sunday morning and pushed hard for another 8+ hours. Managed to catch most of the guys who had gotten ahead of me.  Was going to stop for the Super Bowl, but just kept going right to the end of the contest.

Station

K3 + AL-1200

K3 + AL-1500

80m: 4 square, dipole

40m: 2-el @110′. 2/2 @ 110’/65′

20m: 5/5 @100’/50′

15m: 5/5 @66’/33′

10m: 6-el @100′, 4/4 @62’/32′

TH7DXX @40′ (south)

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rates

QSO/Pref by hour and band

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

D1-0000Z  --+--   67/58    3/2    31/25    8/8   109/93    109/93  
D1-0100Z   8/7    52/39   27/19    3/3      -     90/68    199/161 
D1-0200Z  55/33   51/34     -       -       -    106/67    305/228 
D1-0300Z  41/9    46/31     -       -       -     87/40    392/268 
D1-0400Z  25/9    74/36     -       -       -     99/45    491/313 
D1-0500Z  19/5    60/29    2/1      -       -     81/35    572/348 
D1-0600Z  16/6    43/27   10/5      -       -     69/38    641/386 
D1-0700Z    -     25/11   15/8      -       -     40/19    681/405    32
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     681/405    60
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     681/405    60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     681/405    60
D1-1100Z    -      1/1     7/2    17/10     -     25/13    706/418    48
D1-1200Z    -       -     47/21   82/27     -    129/48    835/466 
D1-1300Z    -       -      5/2    47/14   80/19  132/35    967/501 
D1-1400Z    -       -       -     53/12   63/26  116/38   1083/539 
D1-1500Z    -       -       -     39/5    22/9    61/14   1144/553    26
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1144/553    60
D1-1700Z    -       -       -     36/10   44/13   80/23   1224/576    21
D1-1800Z    -       -       -     19/5    31/12   50/17   1274/593    27
D1-1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1274/593    60
D1-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1274/593    60
D1-2100Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1274/593    60
D1-2200Z    -       -       -     28/19   33/21   61/40   1335/633    23
D1-2300Z    -       -      7/2    55/20   29/15   91/37   1426/670     2
D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1426/670    60
D2-0100Z    -       -     12/2    13/3      -     25/5    1451/675    47
D2-0200Z    -     17/4    46/15    7/0      -     70/19   1521/694 
D2-0300Z  19/5    31/12   20/4      -       -     70/21   1591/715 
D2-0400Z   9/5     3/3      -       -       -     12/8    1603/723    45
D2-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1603/723    60
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1603/723    60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1603/723    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1603/723    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1603/723    60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1603/723    60
D2-1100Z   3/0     1/0    20/8    30/5      -     54/13   1657/736    28
D2-1200Z    -       -     52/8    45/6      -     97/14   1754/750 
D2-1300Z    -       -      6/0    22/5    47/10   75/15   1829/765 
D2-1400Z    -       -       -     46/11   85/10  131/21   1960/786 
D2-1500Z    -       -       -     32/10   65/9    97/19   2057/805 
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   20/3    16/5    19/3    55/11   2112/816 
D2-1700Z    -       -     10/0    58/6    26/6    94/12   2206/828 
D2-1800Z    -       -      3/1    27/8    47/11   77/20   2283/848 
D2-1900Z    -       -     53/10    9/2      -     62/12   2345/860    13
D2-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2345/860    60
D2-2100Z    -       -     59/8    21/2      -     80/10   2425/870    16
D2-2200Z    -      9/2    31/6    33/4    10/1    83/13   2508/883 
D2-2300Z   9/1    63/10   39/6      -       -    111/17   2619/900 

Total:   204/80  543/297 494/133 769/217 609/173

Best 60 minutes: 144      @11-Feb-2023 13:08

Worked on 5 bands:

9A1A AC0C C37N CR3DX DJ4MX DK8ZZ DP7D DP9A DQ2C HA3DX IQ4FC MM9I N5YT NC0DX OK7W S51A TM3Z UW1M W9DCT

Most worked entities:

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total

     K     109    259    202    161    119     850
    DL      20     51     37    101     89     298
     I       9     34     28     59     48     178
    JA                     5     60     24      89
     G       3      9     15     36     23      86
    EA       2     18     16     19     20      75
    SP       1     12     11     27     15      66

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD KW1X
Station: K5ZD

Class: M/S HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 24.2

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW: 1152   146    (81 DX, 65 states/prov)
  SSB:  849   123    (62 DX, 61 states/prov)
-------------------
Total: 2001   269      Total Score = 1,693,314

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

A casual multi-single effort.  Wanted to give Mark KA1YQC a chance to use the antenna system he had helped me build over the summer.  Mark did a lot of the CW operating while I covered phone.

Mark just received his new call – KW1X – on Friday.

Bands opened to Europe within minutes of sunrise on both mornings.  Things got slow in the afternoons when it was all South America and stations in Colorado and Texas.  Weird that the opening to the Pacific Northwest never seemed to get very good.

We did well on chasing multipliers.  Best QSO of the weekend was having JE1CKA call in on Sunday evening after dark.  Another thrill was getting a very weak VY1JA through a huge pileup. With the 6-el, I really have to move it to work JA, KL7, and VY1.

Nice to see the sunspots bringing higher MUFs.

No big monster rates.  Just a continuous stream of callers or S&P QSOs.

We used N1MM+ for the weekend at Mark’s request.  First real contest I have used it. Definitely some challenges due to keystrokes and software behavior not being like my usual software, but we lived through it.

Very happy with how the 10m array was working all weekend.

6-el @100′
4-el @63′
4-el @32′

Spent most of the time running Europe on the lower two antennas.

By Continent

         10M CW 10M PHO   Total      %

    NA     629    606    1235    61.7
    OC      11     12      23     1.1
    EU     473    165     638    31.9
    AF       5      5      10     0.5
    AS       4      1       5     0.2
    SA      30     60      90     4.5

Rates

QSO/Sec+Dx by hour and band

 Hour       CW     SSB    Total     Cumm    OffTime

D1-0000Z  24/15  112/26  136/41    136/41  
D1-0100Z  57/10     -     57/10    193/51     33
D1-0200Z  11/2    28/2    39/4     232/55  
D1-0300Z   3/1     3/0     6/1     238/56     49
D1-0400Z    -       -      0/0     238/56     60
D1-0500Z    -       -      0/0     238/56     60
D1-0600Z    -       -      0/0     238/56     60
D1-0700Z    -       -      0/0     238/56     60
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--    0/0     238/56     60
D1-0900Z    -       -      0/0     238/56     60
D1-1000Z    -       -      0/0     238/56     60
D1-1100Z  20/9      -     20/9     258/65     48
D1-1200Z  63/18   15/10   78/28    336/93  
D1-1300Z  73/13     -     73/13    409/106 
D1-1400Z 150/8      -    150/8     559/114 
D1-1500Z  83/6      -     83/6     642/120 
D1-1600Z  46/10   49/17   95/27    737/147 
D1-1700Z  12/7    93/16  105/23    842/170 
D1-1800Z  26/6      -     26/6     868/176    38
D1-1900Z  43/9    36/10   79/19    947/195 
D1-2000Z  69/8      -     69/8    1016/203 
D1-2100Z  29/2    54/2    83/4    1099/207 
D1-2200Z   5/1    36/3    41/4    1140/211 
D1-2300Z   3/1     1/0     4/1    1144/212    46
D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--    0/0    1144/212    60
D2-0100Z   3/0     1/0     4/0    1148/212    54
D2-0200Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-0300Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-0400Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-0500Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-0600Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-0700Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--    0/0    1148/212    60
D2-0900Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-1000Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-1100Z    -       -      0/0    1148/212    60
D2-1200Z  35/3    44/18   79/21   1227/233    17
D2-1300Z  69/2      -     69/2    1296/235 
D2-1400Z  49/3    48/5    97/8    1393/243 
D2-1500Z  16/2   107/8   123/10   1516/253 
D2-1600Z  50/1    24/1    74/2    1590/255 
D2-1700Z  36/0      -     36/0    1626/255 
D2-1800Z  36/0     7/0    43/0    1669/255    33
D2-1900Z  71/0     8/0    79/0    1748/255 
D2-2000Z  12/4    96/2   108/6    1856/261 
D2-2100Z  14/3    64/2    78/5    1934/266 
D2-2200Z  35/1    23/1    58/2    1992/268 
D2-2300Z   9/1      -      9/1    2001/269     20

Total:  1152/146 849/123

Most worked entities

         10M CW 10M PHO  Total

     K     566    560    1126
    DL      95     20     115
    EA      36     27      63
    VE      40     21      61
     I      29     26      55
     F      31     17      48
    PY      10     37      47
    PA      28     17      45
     G      29     15      44

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2022

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

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 42.2
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   88    15       51
   80:  504    22       87
   40: 1453    32      118
   20: 1103    38      127
   15: 1115    31      121
   10:  759    28      110
------------------------------
Total: 5022   166      614  Total Score = 11,311,560

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Another amazing CQWW CW. So much more fun with sunspots and a bonus to have the low bands be so quiet and open.

The 40m stack that I worked so hard on all summer had the top antenna fail a few weeks before the contest. With help from KA1YQC I thought we had it fixed last weekend. Nope. That had me a little down, but it is CQWW so decided to get on and see how it all goes.

Wow. The QSOs just kept coming. Always enjoy the tension between multiplier spots and the need to maintain a run frequency and the rate. Managed to stay focused on rate most of the weekend.

Once again I operated more due to the online scoreboard. Something about seeing how other people are doing that fires me up. I was amazed to see K1AR killing me on mults the first day. At one point he was almost 100 ahead. That became a focus to try and catch him. Finally did that and saw K1ZZ climbing the leader board with an even bigger mult. So started trying to reel him in. Keeps my BIC…

The top antenna of the new 40 stack didn’t work, but the bottom one seemed to play well. When I checked it was always better than the old 40. And the new 10m antenna arrangement was also a big improvement over what I had before. So felt much better about all the work after the contest.

Great start. Took 2 hour sleep the first night so I could be fresh for the rate on Sat morning. It worked as I had 3 hours in a row over 200.

10m was slow to open, but once it did there was rate to be had. I tried to always be running on one band and chasing multiplier spots on the other. Conditions were perfect for trying 2BSIQ, but I just don’t seem to have the skills for that.

I have never felt so weak on 160 as I did the first night. I could hear lots of stations, but they could not hear me. It was much better the second night and I was able to rescue the multiplier total.

Not much from JA the first 24 hours, but better the second day. I did get JA3YBK to copy K5 on 80, but then he disappeared so missed my chanced. Only two JA on 40. 20 had great signals to Asia on Sunday evening and was even able to call some BY stations and have them come back to me! Even worked a bunch of JA on 15m.

I took a lunch break with 4 hours to go and figured there was no chance to make it to 5000 QSOs. Got a nice frequency on 40 and was able to S&P across 10, 15, and 20 to keep filling in missing band slots with the expeditions. My first ever CQ WW from home with over 5k QSOs.

Some of the pileups were a mess. 3B9KW was on 80 at his sunrise and had a great signal. In 10 minutes he managed to make 1 QSO because both EU and NA stations would never stop calling. I know split is not ideal in contests, but this was a time it was necessary. 7Q6M was running split on 10m and was cranking out the QSOs, but he would never announce that he was split. So took some time to figure it out.

Nice to have all the bands open so people could spread out. There were still plenty of people asking QRL? just seconds after I would finish a CQ, but there were also long stretches where it felt like I had the frequency all to myself.

Thanks to everyone around the world who gets on the air and helps make CQWW the best. Special thanks to all the travelers who add to the country total.

Special thanks to W2ID for loaning me a K3S so my K3 could go in for repair. Was quite interesting to see how much “quieter” the K3S was than the K3 due to the improved receiver. Can’t wait to try a K4 sometime.

Station

Station:
K3S + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
160m: 1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
80m: 4-square, dipole
40m: 40-2CD @ 110', 40-2CD @ 70'
20m: 5/5 @ 100'/50'
15m: 5/5 @ 66'/33'
10m: 6-el @ 100', 4/4 @ 60'/30'
South: TH7DXX @ 40'

WriteLog software + MK2R+

Rates

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   77/36   40/45   --+--   --+--  117/81    117/81  
0100Z    -     20/20  115/14    4/1      -       -    139/35    256/116 
0200Z    -    110/21   33/14     -       -       -    143/35    399/151 
0300Z   7/11   68/32   21/9     8/9      -       -    104/61    503/212 
0400Z  10/7    11/1    44/25   11/10     -       -     76/43    579/255 
0500Z   3/1    47/6    15/8     2/0      -       -     67/15    646/270 
0600Z   3/1    61/6    35/1      -       -       -     99/8     745/278 
0700Z   1/0    12/5    98/12     -       -       -    111/17    856/295 
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--    1/0    --+--   --+--    1/0     857/295  58
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     857/295  60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     857/295  60
1100Z    -       -      7/4   114/31     -       -    121/35    978/330   5
1200Z    -       -       -     48/9   172/46     -    220/55   1198/385 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    194/11   31/37  225/48   1423/433 
1400Z    -       -       -      5/5   118/7    81/10  204/22   1627/455 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     15/9   183/16  198/25   1825/480 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   76/11   73/16  149/27   1974/507 
1700Z    -       -       -       -     68/11   33/15  101/26   2075/533  16
1800Z    -       -       -     82/6    19/23   10/7   111/36   2186/569   6
1900Z    -       -       -    125/7    14/13    4/3   143/23   2329/592 
2000Z    -       -    119/3     8/9      -      5/2   132/14   2461/606 
2100Z    -       -    122/1      -     10/7     1/0   133/8    2594/614 
2200Z    -       -    102/3    10/5     7/2      -    119/10   2713/624 
2300Z    -     16/7    80/1    13/3     1/2      -    110/13   2823/637 
0000Z  18/15   27/1    17/3    --+--   --+--   --+--   62/19   2885/656 
0100Z   8/5     8/4    13/5      -       -       -     29/14   2914/670  15
0200Z   6/7    45/1     3/1      -       -       -     54/9    2968/679 
0300Z    -       -       -      1/0      -       -      1/0    2969/679  60
0400Z   9/8    14/0      -      3/0      -       -     26/8    2995/687  35
0500Z   6/1    34/0    54/4      -       -       -     94/5    3089/692 
0600Z   9/4      -    102/0     8/3      -       -    119/7    3208/699 
0700Z   6/6    12/0    81/0      -       -       -     99/6    3307/705 
0800Z  --+--    2/2    17/3    25/4    --+--   --+--   44/9    3351/714  17
0900Z    -       -     16/0     4/1      -       -     20/1    3371/715  19
1000Z   1/0     2/2     7/0     1/0      -       -     11/2    3382/717  53
1100Z   1/0      -       -    122/1     4/3      -    127/4    3509/721 
1200Z    -       -       -     75/3    95/0     6/5   176/8    3685/729 
1300Z    -       -       -       -    107/2    89/4   196/6    3881/735 
1400Z    -       -       -       -      1/0   160/7   161/7    4042/742 
1500Z    -       -       -      4/1   103/3    42/6   149/10   4191/752 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   74/4    55/1     7/1   136/6    4327/758 
1700Z    -       -       -    146/2     9/0     1/0   156/2    4483/760 
1800Z    -       -       -     94/2    11/1     5/2   110/5    4593/765 
1900Z    -       -       -     37/0      -     17/4    54/4    4647/769  27
2000Z    -       -     91/0     4/1      -      3/2    98/3    4745/772 
2100Z    -       -     84/0      -      7/0     8/1    99/1    4844/773 
2200Z    -      2/1    65/2     3/0    29/0      -     99/3    4943/776 
2300Z    -     13/0    35/1    31/3      -       -     79/4    5022/780 

Total: 88/66 504/109 1453/150 1103/165 1115/152 759/138

Best 60 minutes: 232      26-Nov-2022  from 12:11              to 13:11

Worked on 6 bands:

9A1A C6AGU CN3A CR3DX CR3W CR6K DF0HQ DK3QZ DP6A E7DX ED1R EF2X EF6T ES9UKR FY5KE HB9IJC HQ9X II8K II9P IO3F KH6LC LA4C LN8W LY4A LZ9W M6T OT7T PI4CC PJ2T PJ4A PJ4K SM2U SP1AEN SP8R TK0C TM6M TO5Z V26K V47T VP5Y YT5A ZF1A

Most worked countries:

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

    DL       5     72    214    187    176    166     820
     I       3     20    111     70     74     51     329
     G       4     17     79     63     57     39     259
    SP       1     41     74     49     58     28     251
     F       3     11     62     40     55     41     212
    PA       1     12     47     51     59     43     213
    OK       2     23     64     45     41     35     210
    EA       2     12     62     47     45     29     197
    VE      15     38     64     18     14      9     158
*
    UR       1      5     21     17     16      2      62

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

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 20.4
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  307
   40:  180
   20:  308
   15:  273
   10:   43
------------
Total: 1111  Sections = 84  Total Score = 186,648

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

My 46th consecutive year of more than 1000 QSOs in Sweepstakes CW.

After 10,000 QSOs last weekend from V4 (contest + playing around) and late return home on Tue night, I struggled to get motivated for this contest. I reassembled my station on Sat morning and decided I would see how it went.

The first 3 hours were great. Maybe best ever.

Not sure what happened to 40m. 10-20 were great, but 40 was long well before I got there. Retreated to 80 and it was good. The band was quiet and long.

But, by 0300z, I could tell the activity was not high enough to avoid the grind. By 0500z I was dragging so I decided to break early and go for a longer period of sleep than usual. (I remember years ago when you almost had to do the first 12 hours solid to be competitive.)

Rates were not better in the morning. Everyone on the live scoreboard seemed to be locked into a slow-motion rate of about 30 per hour. I decided to go for my goal of making 1000 QSOs and call it good.

Easy clean sweep. Had the hard ones out of the way early. Just needed NL and found VO1BQ on 20m Sunday morning. Always a relief to get that one out of the way. Last California section was LAX. Would never have expected that!

Mission accomplished. I ended on a round number of 1111 QSOs with 2 hours still to go.

Was entertaining to watch the scoreboard as AA3B raced off to a big lead and then N2NC @ N2NT slowly reeled him in. Even when I was pushing at my hardest it seemed that NC would make 1-3 more QSOs per hour than I did.

Rates

QSO/Sec by hour and band

Hour     80      40      20      15      10    Total     Cumm    Off 
                                                                        
2100Z    -       -     19/18   61/30   10/3    90/51     90/51       
2200Z    -       -     10/2    89/10    4/1   103/13    193/64       
2300Z    -       -     50/3    40/3      -     90/6     283/70       
0000Z  --+--   20/1    52/3    --+--   --+--   72/4     355/74       
0100Z  52/4    16/0    13/0      -       -     81/4     436/78       
0200Z  83/2     6/2      -       -       -     89/4     525/82       
0300Z  49/0    11/0      -       -       -     60/0     585/82       
0400Z  49/0     4/1      -       -       -     53/1     638/83       
0500Z  29/0    18/0      -       -       -     47/0     685/83       
0600Z   6/0      -       -       -       -      6/0     691/83     48
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     691/83     60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     691/83     60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     691/83     60
1000Z   1/0      -       -       -       -      1/0     692/83     58
1100Z  20/0    18/0      -       -       -     38/0     730/83       
1200Z   9/0    27/0     2/1      -       -     38/1     768/84       
1300Z    -     16/0    22/0      -       -     38/0     806/84       
1400Z    -      6/0    37/0      -       -     43/0     849/84       
1500Z    -      9/0    20/0     4/0      -     33/0     882/84       
1600Z  --+--   --+--   24/0    11/0    --+--   35/0     917/84       
1700Z    -       -     31/0    14/0      -     45/0     962/84       
1800Z    -       -      2/0     3/0      -      5/0     967/84     53
1900Z    -       -      4/0    23/0    13/0    40/0    1007/84      7
2000Z    -       -       -      8/0    11/0    19/0    1026/84      3
2100Z    -       -      1/0    13/0     5/0    19/0    1045/84     60
2200Z    -     16/0    13/0     4/0      -     33/0    1078/84       
2300Z    -      7/0     2/0     3/0      -     12/0    1090/84     41
0000Z   8/0     4/0     6/0    --+--   --+--   18/0    1108/84     18
0100Z   1/0     2/0      -       -       -      3/0    1111/84     52
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1111/84     60
                                                                        
Total: 307/6  180/4   308/27  273/43   43/4

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2022

Call: V47T
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: V47T

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 45.2
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   41     6       14
   80:  617    17       71
   40: 1385    26       80
   20: 2009    34       97
   15: 2339    29       93
   10: 3111    25       96
------------------------------
Total: 9502   137      459  Total Score = 13,526,816

Club: None

Comments

The contest began a week before on Saturday with a 3am departure from home to make a 5:45 am flight out of Boston. Met up with N2NT in Miami and on to St Kitts. We got right to work and in 3.5 days had fixed some antennas and added new ones. It was warm and humid. We then spent another day getting the shack arranged with new antenna switching automation from Green Heron Engineering. I dropped Andy off at the airport on Thursday at noon so he could fly home and then join the K3LR team for the contest.

I spent the rest of the day fighting software conflicts and peculiarities. Things that seemed simple at home are not the same once you have taken them apart and tried to reassemble them in a new environment. One discovery was that the Green Heron server needed to be started before the Microham router.

I had to use DXLog because it worked with the Green Heron switching. I took a crash course in learning the software the week before I left home. It worked flawlessly. The main issue was the op not being able to type fast enough or falling asleep between QSOs.

I got good sleep during the week but was feeling the effects of the station-building efforts as the contest approached. Decided to power through the first night and then make the decision if I would sleep the second night. In retrospect, I could
have skipped two slow hours for a 90-minute nap and made up for it during the high rates on Sat morning. I started to get loopy on Sat evening around 0100z. I kept zoning out in the middle of a QSO. Even so, it looks like I worked more than a hundred QSOs that I don’t really remember.

Bands were slow to open on Sat so got to spend an hour or so on 20, then 15, and then finally to 10m. Kept working between 10 and 15, but probably should have committed to the endless stream of stations on 10m. Sunday was better with 10m open just 30 mins after sunrise.

Rates were incredible. QRM was the biggest limiting factor. Had a great frequency on 10m Sunday morning until TM0DX decided to land about 5 Khz away with his 10 Khz of splatter.

Some line noise had appeared as we were setting up on Wed afternoon. The power company came out Thu (amazingly!) and was able to cut the lines until they found the source. It was down the road, but the noise was radiating the most from the dead-end pole closest to the station. The noise was annoying on all bands except for a period on Sunday morning, but I could usually find an antenna that could hear. This did make me a bit of an alligator on 20m.

Always amazing how many YB stations call in. It seems that path is open across all bands at any time. Even worked one on 75m.

Even though I had two radios, DXLog reported only 120 S&P QSOs. I was almost entirely in run mode and used the second radio to scope out frequencies for band changes.

On Sunday morning I was starting to feel pain in my throat from all the talking. Tried to use the voice keyer more, but still had to say all the callsigns.

Where were the Africans? Mostly worked EA8 stations + CN3A and a 5R. That was it!

One of the new antennas we put up was a Double L for 160m. We had hoped to hang it from an 80′ tower but discovered the top of the tower was too rusted to safely climb. Decided on hanging from 60′. The SWR curve was perfect. We did work two Europeans on Wednesday evening. But, conditions on 160 during the contest were terrible. I worked all multipliers that I heard but did not feel loud. Need another contest to determine if this antenna is a keeper or not.

Hard to complain or make excuses about a contest where you make 9500 QSOs! Even so, sure would like to have made it to 10k. A bit less line noise and it may have been possible. High level contesting is all about hearing the weak guys and it was tough at times.

Thanks to Andy N2NT for allowing me to use the station. He has done an incredible amount of work to build and maintain the place. It is a dream radio location on a 1200′ hill just a mile or so from the ocean with a horizon view from North to East.

The station is very isolated. After the contest, I packed everything up and was ready to come down to town, but the jeep would not start. V44KAI saved the day by driving up and cleaning the corrosion off the battery cables. Whew. Would have been a tough place to get AAA…

Looking forward to seeing other single-op scores from the region to see what I may have missed. Doing 45 hours of running, you get a very small view of the full contest activity and propagation. I had a blast doing the contest and will be very happy with any result. Thanks to everyone that called in.

The full contest was recorded and is available at the link below. You can enjoy my struggles with the QRM and line noise while hearing how your station sounded on my end.

Recording

Audio recordings of the full operation are available here.

Statistics

QSOs By Continent

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

    NA      37    371    981   1519   1314   1559    5781    60.8
    EU       0    228    334    363    920   1462    3307    34.8
    SA       3     10     22     62     35     30     162     1.7
    AS       0      1     25     28     37     31     122     1.3
    AF       1      4      5     11      6     16      43     0.5
    OC       0      3     17     25     26     12      83     0.9

Rates

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  302/57    1/2    --+--  303/59    303/59  
0100Z    -       -       -    302/14     -       -    302/14    605/73  
0200Z    -       -    142/26   85/3      -       -    227/29    832/102 
0300Z    -       -    268/18     -       -       -    268/18   1100/120 
0400Z    -     37/20  152/31     -       -       -    189/51   1289/171 
0500Z    -    165/39   29/4      -       -       -    194/43   1483/214 
0600Z   7/10   84/11   54/5      -       -       -    145/26   1628/240 
0700Z    -     35/2    86/8      -       -       -    121/10   1749/250 
0800Z   3/3    11/2    37/3     1/1    --+--   --+--   52/9    1801/259 
0900Z  12/2      -     21/5     9/2      -       -     42/9    1843/268   11
1000Z    -     41/2      -    115/15   38/26     -    194/43   2037/311 
1100Z    -       -       -       -    258/40    3/6   261/46   2298/357 
1200Z    -       -       -       -       -    290/44  290/44   2588/401 
1300Z    -       -       -       -       -    287/13  287/13   2875/414 
1400Z    -       -       -       -       -    266/13  266/13   3141/427 
1500Z    -       -       -       -    109/7   126/4   235/11   3376/438 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  247/10    5/2   252/12   3628/450 
1700Z    -       -       -       -       -    240/9   240/9    3868/459 
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -    227/2   227/2    4095/461 
1900Z    -       -       -       -    285/7     1/1   286/8    4381/469 
2000Z    -       -       -       -    306/9      -    306/9    4687/478 
2100Z    -       -       -     40/3   182/4    10/5   232/12   4919/490 
2200Z    -       -       -    217/14     -       -    217/14   5136/504 
2300Z    -       -       -    233/2      -       -    233/2    5369/506 
0000Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  242/4    --+--   --+--  242/4    5611/510 
0100Z    -       -       -     63/1     4/2      -     67/3    5678/513   23 
0200Z    -       -    199/4      -       -       -    199/4    5877/517 
0300Z    -       -    193/3      -       -       -    193/3    6070/520 
0400Z    -    105/5    63/1      -       -       -    168/6    6238/526 
0500Z  18/4    98/4     3/1      -       -       -    119/9    6357/535 
0600Z    -       -    126/3     2/2      -       -    128/5    6485/540 
0700Z    -       -      9/0     3/0      -       -     12/0    6497/540   50
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    6497/540   60
0900Z    -     40/2     1/0      -       -       -     41/2    6538/542   45
1000Z    -       -       -      2/0   169/6      -    171/6    6709/548 
1100Z    -       -       -       -     97/3   135/3   232/6    6941/554 
1200Z    -       -       -       -       -    237/5   237/5    7178/559 
1300Z    -       -       -       -      7/0   188/5   195/5    7373/564 
1400Z    -       -       -       -    182/2    28/1   210/3    7583/567 
1500Z    -       -       -       -     23/1   169/1   192/2    7775/569 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  244/1   244/1    8019/570 
1700Z   1/1     1/1     1/1      -       -    214/4   217/7    8236/577 
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -    262/2   262/2    8498/579 
1900Z    -       -       -       -     48/0   168/0   216/0    8714/579 
2000Z    -       -      1/1    44/2   179/1      -    224/4    8938/583 
2100Z    -       -       -    166/7      -       -    166/7    9104/590 
2200Z    -       -       -      6/0   188/2    11/0   205/2    9309/592 
2300Z    -       -       -    177/4    16/0      -    193/4    9502/596 

Total: 41/20 617/88 1385/114 2009/131 2339/122 3111/121

Best 60 mins: 312 between 29-Oct-2022 19:37 and 20:36

Worked on 6 bands

AA3B AB3CX AG4Q D4Z FM5KC K1LZ K3LR K3WW K4AB K4ZW K8AZ K9CT KP3DX KP4AA N2LBR
N5OT NA2U P40L PJ2T PJ4G VE3EJ W3LPL WA2JQK ZF1A

Most Worked Countries

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
     K      26    336    885   1364   1217   1447    5275
    DL             27     38     58    146    242     511
     I             27     49     27    113    158     374
    VE       2     11     64    126     72     84     359
     G             15     18     34     70    160     297
    EA             17     30     23     58    118     246
     F             25     25     19     68    105     242
    PA              8     11     21     39     83     162
    SP             10     10     13     49     54     136
    OH              9     17     14     33     31     104

Postscript

The final results came out and, as expected, I finished #2 in the World behind N6KT at PJ4K. Very proud of the effort.

Rank    Call    Cty     Category        Score           QSOs    Zones   Cty     Hours   Op
1	PJ4K	PJ4	SO HIGH ALL	16,224,072	9,386	153	444	44.6	N6KT	
2	V47T	V4	SO HIGH ALL	13,340,329	9,403	137	462	45.4	K5ZD

The band breakdowns were interesting to see both in how they are similar, yet different.

Call	   160M	     80M	 40M	       20M	     15M	10M	
PJ4K	130/10/17  524/22/64  1,126/26/82  2,226/33/84  2,361/35/97  3,019/27/100	
V47T	 41/ 6/14  613/17/71  1,367/26/89  1,992/34/98  2,319/29/93  3,071/25/ 97

The impact of the 2-point vs 3-point scoring in CQWW is significant. I have access to the CQWW logs and log checking software so I made a few tests to see how the scores compare if we were both on the same continent. It would have been close!

For example, if both of us were in South America

              QSOs  QPts    Zone  Cty   Mult     Score
V47T          9403  27603   137   462   599    16,534,197
PJ4K          9386  27170   153   444   597    16,220,490

If we were both in North America

V47T          9403  22262   137  462   599    13,334,938
PJ4K          9386  21683   153  444   597    12,944,751

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2022

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

Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 36.5
OpMode: 2BSIQ

Summary:
  Band  QSOs  State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------
   80:  287       48      39    14
   40:  654       50      63    18
   20: 1148       51      80    28
   15:  926       44      78    24
   10:  119       19      30    17
------------------------------------
Total: 3134      212     290   101  Total Score = 4,386,825

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

I was looking forward to this contest.  Conditions are improving as the sunspot numbers rise.  And it was a good chance to evaluate the results of 6 months of antenna work (new 2/2 stack on 40m).  Very happy with the results – the antenna seems to work better than my old 2-el.

The contest started well.  After a nap in the wee hours, woke up to bands that seemed broken. 15m was really a struggle to work anything.  Almost quit, but took a break and decided to get back in the game.

Conditions improved dramatically through Sat afternoon.  Sunday was very good with even a 30-minute opening on 10m to southern Europe.  Nice to work so many loud JA on 20 and 15m.

Spent (wasted) a lot of time calling HS5NMF on 20.  Couldn’t get through the European pileup.

I had intended to sleep from 02-04z on Sunday, but when the alarm went off, I decided sleep was more fun than grinding QSOs. I woke up late, worked an hour, then went back to bed.  So I felt great on Sunday but gave up some low band points and mults.

Enjoyed watching the scoreboard race between AA3B and K1LZ.  I could keep up with them for QSOs, but they just kept getting farther and farther ahead for multipliers.  Shows the value of having access to spots.

I was CQing as much as possible.  Often on 2 bands when there were two open. That really helped the rate although I never had any giant hours. It is kind of like playing a video game with the occasional mangled callsign to figure out.

My biggest surprise was working a KL7 on 80m.  Followed by having VJ5W call in.

The only state that I missed was MT.  Never heard one.  Thanks to K1AR for moving to 10m to give me NH on that band.  Missed CT on 10 and 15.

I continue to be impressed by how RTTY operating is becoming more and more efficient.  Except for those loud guys that insist on sending their call 6 times (all of them printing perfectly…).

Personal best score ever for me in this contest.

Rates

QSO/Zn+Dx+St by hour and band

Hour    80M      40M      20M      15M     10M    Total     Cumm    Off
                                 
0000Z  --+--    --+--    68/42    42/25   --+--  110/67    110/67  
0100Z    -      63/49    43/26      -       -    106/75    216/142 
0200Z  44/36    65/19    12/6       -       -    121/61    337/203 
0300Z  55/17    66/12      -        -       -    121/29    458/232 
0400Z  26/8     64/12     3/3       -       -     93/23    551/255 
0500Z  52/14    38/5       -        -       -     90/19    641/274 
0600Z  25/15    50/6       -        -       -     75/21    716/295 
0700Z   1/0     28/3      1/0       -       -     30/3     746/298  29
0800Z  --+--    --+--    --+--    --+--   --+--    0/0     746/298  60
0900Z  10/3      5/7     27/9       -       -     42/19    788/317  29
1000Z  21/2      3/0     86/14      -       -    110/16    898/333 
1100Z    -       6/0     58/8     18/21     -     82/29    980/362 
1200Z    -      13/1     54/2     18/9      -     85/12   1065/374 
1300Z    -        -      23/0      5/4    16/17   44/21   1109/395 
1400Z    -        -      57/3     16/11    2/0    75/14   1184/409 
1500Z    -        -      15/3     24/7     2/3    41/13   1225/422  36
1600Z  --+--    --+--    --+--    66/7    26/15   92/22   1317/444 
1700Z    -        -      28/1     54/10    2/1    84/12   1401/456 
1800Z    -        -      66/4     10/2      -     76/6    1477/462 
1900Z    -        -      81/2     53/9      -    134/11   1611/473 
2000Z    -        -      59/1     19/1    23/4   101/6    1712/479 
2100Z    -        -      55/6     15/2    12/6    82/14   1794/493   1
2200Z    -        -        -        -       -      0/0    1794/493  60
2300Z    -      31/4     14/3       -       -     45/7    1839/500  32
0000Z  --+--    40/3      9/3     16/5    --+--   65/11   1904/511 
0100Z  23/4     36/3       -       4/3      -     63/10   1967/521 
0200Z  10/0      5/1       -        -       -     15/1    1982/522  47
0300Z    -        -        -        -       -      0/0    1982/522  60
0400Z    -        -        -        -       -      0/0    1982/522  60
0500Z    -        -        -        -       -      0/0    1982/522  60
0600Z    -        -        -        -       -      0/0    1982/522  60
0700Z   6/2     17/4       -        -       -     23/6    2005/528  22
0800Z   3/0      7/0     --+--    --+--   --+--   10/0    2015/528  44
0900Z   2/0     10/0      5/0       -       -     17/0    2032/528  35
1000Z    -       2/0     39/0      3/1      -     44/1    2076/529  20
1100Z    -        -      49/3     38/4      -     87/7    2163/536 
1200Z    -        -      24/0     53/4     3/4    80/8    2243/544 
1300Z    -        -      33/5     83/5      -    116/10   2359/554 
1400Z    -        -       8/0     78/2    11/9    97/11   2456/565 
1500Z    -        -       6/0     63/2     9/4    78/6    2534/571 
1600Z  --+--    --+--    23/0     68/1    --+--   91/1    2625/572 
1700Z    -        -       6/3     31/0     8/2    45/5    2670/577 
1800Z    -        -      18/1     28/3      -     46/4    2716/581  45
1900Z    -        -      37/4     51/2     2/1    90/7    2806/588 
2000Z    -        -      46/0     29/2     3/0    78/2    2884/590 
2100Z    -        -      46/0     29/3      -     75/3    2959/593 
2200Z    -      54/0     20/2     12/1      -     86/3    3045/596 
2300Z   9/0     51/2     29/5       -       -     89/7    3134/603 

Total: 287/101 654/131 1148/159 926/146 119/66 

Best 60 minutes

138        @ 19:01 24-Sep-2022

Worked on 5 bands

AA3B CR3DX CR3W EC2DX HI3MM IQ4FA IZ4BOY K0TG K1LZ K1SFA K7BTW KP2B KS9W KT7E N6WM NJ4P W7RN

Most worked countries

           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
     K     157    283    281    216     56     993
    DL      29     65    175    135      1     405
     I       8     44    115     92      5     264
     G       8     23     47     46            124
    PA       4     15     53     27             99
    VE      21     32     18     14      3      88
*
    UR       1      4      6      7             18