Category: writeup

                    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

                    IARU HF World Championship - 2022

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

Class: SOAB(A)Mixed HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 21.7
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:    18     1      6        5
   80:    94    11     13       18
   40:   264    45     28       35
   20:   788   405     42       41
   15:   641   139     35       40
   10:   141    75     18       26
-------------------------------------
Total:  1946   676    142      165  Total Score = 3,024,257

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

A very entertaining contest.  Summer conditions always offer a few surprises and this contest had lots of them.

My summer project was to replace one of my towers (see https://k5zd.com/tower-replacement-project/). Things are not completely rebuilt, but I had antennas for all 6 bands.  This contest was to be a test of the new 40 and 10m beams.  Happy to report they appear to be worth the effort.

The contest started well with 10 and 15m open.  It got slow in the mid-day and then just kept getting better as Europe turned its attention to the West.

Our town had its 4th of July fireworks show Saturday evening.  I took a break to walk the 1.8 miles to the show and back.  Was a perfect evening outside and the walk cleared out the contest fatigue.  Lost just over 2 hours of prime low band mult hunting.

15m produced some deep Asians late in the evening and 20m was great all night.

Then 15m really opened the last 2 hours of the contest with the band open deep into UA/UA9!

Station

K3 + AL-1200

K3 + AL-1500

160m: 1/4-wave GP

80m: dipole @90′

40m: tower 1 40-2CD @110′, tower 2 40-2CD @109′

20m: 205CA @100′/50′

15m: 155CA @66′/33′

10m: 6-el @ 100’

South: TH7DXX @ 40′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rates

CW+PH/ZN+HQ by hour and band

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

D1-1200Z    -       -     23/4    87/19   27/11     -    137/34    137/34  
D1-1300Z    -       -       -     12/1     9/2    88/22  109/25    246/59  
D1-1400Z    -       -       -       -     77/16   70/7   147/23    393/82  
D1-1500Z    -       -       -      2/0    56/11   22/6    80/17    473/99  
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   65/5    59/10   --+--  124/15    597/114 
D1-1700Z    -       -       -     39/15   20/3    14/3    73/21    670/135 
D1-1800Z    -       -       -     40/0   107/1     5/0   152/1     822/136 
D1-1900Z    -       -       -     72/1    22/0      -     94/1     916/137 
D1-2000Z    -       -       -     89/2    28/4     5/2   122/8    1038/145 
D1-2100Z    -       -       -     93/12   39/3     2/0   134/15   1172/160 
D1-2200Z    -       -     34/21    7/1    66/0     1/1   108/23   1280/183 
D1-2300Z    -       -     70/13   27/5    42/1      -    139/19   1419/202 
D2-0000Z  --+--   --+--   14/2    --+--   --+--   --+--   14/2    1433/204    54
D2-0100Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1433/204    60
D2-0200Z  10/9    67/22     -       -      9/3      -     86/34   1519/238    21
D2-0300Z   3/1    19/5    65/10    6/1     5/2      -     98/19   1617/257 
D2-0400Z   2/1    11/2    48/4    65/4      -       -    126/11   1743/268 
D2-0500Z    -      3/2     1/1   146/6     1/1      -    151/10   1894/278 
D2-0600Z    -       -      4/2   159/1      -       -    163/3    2057/281 
D2-0700Z    -       -      7/0    86/3     3/0      -     96/3    2153/284 
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   25/1    38/0    --+--   --+--   63/1    2216/285 
D2-0900Z   4/0     5/0    12/3    86/1      -       -    107/4    2323/289 
D2-1000Z    -       -      6/2    72/5    30/3      -    108/10   2431/299 
D2-1100Z    -       -       -      2/1   180/4     9/3   191/8    2622/307 

Total:    19/11  105/31  309/63 1193/83  780/75  216/44 

                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2022

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

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 24.7
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:    0
   40:  617
   20: 1137
   15:  781
   10:   49
------------
Total: 2584  Prefixes = 973  Total Score = 6,442,233

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Just for fun.  No antennas were available for 160 or 80m.  Just a low tribander for 10m.

Thought we were going to get t-storms on Sat afternoon, but they stopped just before they got to us.

Conditions were mixed. Missed the activity and multipliers from Ukraine and Russia. Worked 2 EW stations, 5 UA, and 1 UA9. The score includes those QSOs and mults.

This will not be a golden log.  Lots of serial numbers I am not sure about.

Station

K3 + AL-1200
K3 + AL-1500
 40m: 40-2CD @110′
 20m: 205CA @100′/50'
 15m: 155ca @66′/33'
 10m: TH7DXX @ 40′
WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box 

Rates

QSO/Pref by hour and band

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

0000Z  -+-   --+--   87/74   --+--   15/15   --+--  102/89    102/89  
0100Z   -      -     63/49   67/41    4/4      -    134/94    236/183 
0200Z   -      -     52/37   67/40     -       -    119/77    355/260 
0300Z   -      -     66/42   46/33     -       -    112/75    467/335 
0400Z   -      -     47/28   58/24     -       -    105/52    572/387 
0500Z   -      -     42/15    5/3      -       -     47/18    619/405  30
0600Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0     619/405  60
0700Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0     619/405  60
0800Z  -+-   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     619/405  60
0900Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0     619/405  60
1000Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0     619/405  60
1100Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0     619/405  60
1200Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0     619/405  60
1300Z   -      -       -     66/30   56/21     -    122/51    741/456   7
1400Z   -      -       -     56/17   63/18     -    119/35    860/491 
1500Z   -      -       -      1/1    57/17   33/21   91/39    951/530 
1600Z  -+-   --+--   --+--   29/8    48/20   --+--   77/28   1028/558  21
1700Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1028/558  60
1800Z   -      -       -     79/29   19/3      -     98/32   1126/590  19
1900Z   -      -       -    104/31   11/3      -    115/34   1241/624 
2000Z   -      -       -    103/46   10/7      -    113/53   1354/677 
2100Z   -      -       -     62/19   47/25     -    109/44   1463/721 
2200Z   -      -       -     16/8     9/3      -     25/11   1488/732  39
2300Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1488/732  60
0000Z  -+-   --+--   --+--    3/2     1/0    --+--    4/2    1492/734  58
0100Z   -      -     29/13   26/7      -       -     55/20   1547/754 
0200Z   -      -     79/17   14/8    11/2     5/2   109/29   1656/783 
0300Z   -      -     25/10   36/14     -       -     61/24   1717/807  14
0400Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1717/807  60
0500Z   -      -      1/1    23/4      -       -     24/5    1741/812  47
0600Z   -      -     18/3    51/17     -       -     69/20   1810/832   6
0700Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1810/832  60
0800Z  -+-   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1810/832  60
0900Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1810/832  60
1000Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1810/832  60
1100Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1810/832  60
1200Z   -      -       -      1/0     1/0      -      2/0    1812/832  56
1300Z   -      -       -      1/0   130/11     -    131/11   1943/843 
1400Z   -      -       -     23/4    72/11     -     95/15   2038/858 
1500Z   -      -       -     12/4   100/16     -    112/20   2150/878 
1600Z  -+-   --+--   --+--   37/12   51/2    --+--   88/14   2238/892 
1700Z   -      -       -     11/7    13/5     4/1    28/13   2266/905  31
1800Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2266/905  60
1900Z   -      -       -     43/13   17/5      -     60/18   2326/923   6
2000Z   -      -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2326/923  60
2100Z   -      -      1/1    30/6    23/8     7/2    61/17   2387/940   3
2200Z   -      -     16/8    55/15   11/3      -     82/26   2469/966 
2300Z   -      -     91/4    12/3    12/0      -    115/7    2584/973 

Total: 0/0    0/0  617/302 1137/446 781/199  49/26

                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2022

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

Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 29.4
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   38    27
   80:  185    58
   40:  271    80
   20: 1084   113
   15:  932   103
   10:  151    49
-------------------
Total: 2661   430  Total Score = 3,432,690

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

A few quick observations.

Activity seemed to be way down the first day.  Especially from Europe.  A bit better on Sunday.

Sunday morning was strange.  I had a long stretch on 20m where there were no signals in my passband.  Lots of unanswered CQs followed by loud Europeans calling in.

Could not get a frequency on 15 meters Sunday morning.  Even when I got one I wasn’t getting answers.  Kept having to go back to 20m.

Felt like I was 100 miles too far north all weekend.  The guys down south were first through all the pileups.  Even on the low bands.

So many South American stations on 10m!  Great to see.

Operated more than I meant to.  Mixed with the poor conditions were some really interesting openings.

I did record the contest and have posted the log and audio files on my website.

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′/50′
15m: 155ca @66′/33′
10m: 6-el @ 90’
South: Th7DXX @ 40′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rates

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   14/12    7/7    23/15    1/1    --+--   45/35     45/35    25
0100Z   3/3    26/13   31/16   30/10     -       -     90/42    135/77 
0200Z   4/4     3/2    30/18   11/3      -       -     48/27    183/104   15
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     183/104   60
0400Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     183/104   60
0500Z   3/3    28/6     8/6     7/3      -       -     46/18    229/122   23
0600Z   6/6    11/5    63/15    3/1      -       -     83/27    312/149
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     312/149   60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     312/149   60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     312/149   60
1000Z   2/2     4/3     8/4    55/22     -       -     69/31    381/180    9
1100Z    -       -      1/1   162/13     -       -    163/14    544/194
1200Z    -       -       -    105/9    31/23     -    136/32    680/226
1300Z    -       -       -     11/1   119/32    5/3   135/36    815/262
1400Z    -       -       -       -    145/15   21/8   166/23    981/285
1500Z    -       -       -       -       -      3/2     3/2     984/287   58
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    5/0     9/6    14/6     998/293   52
1700Z    -       -       -       -    123/3    31/16  154/19   1152/312
1800Z    -       -       -     51/2    66/3     6/3   123/8    1275/320
1900Z    -       -       -     88/8    15/6     9/0   112/14   1387/334
2000Z    -       -       -      1/1     2/1     4/0     7/2    1394/336   41
2100Z    -       -       -      3/3     6/3      -      9/6    1403/342   43
2200Z    -       -       -     28/1    15/1    11/4    54/6    1457/348    8
2300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1457/348   60
0000Z  --+--    2/1    --+--   10/1    --+--   --+--   12/2    1469/350   43
0100Z   1/1     5/1     6/1     3/2      -       -     15/5    1484/355   37
0200Z    -      4/1     4/0      -       -       -      8/1    1492/356   51
0300Z   8/3     4/0     9/2      -       -       -     21/5    1513/361
0400Z   4/3    27/7     6/3      -       -       -     37/13   1550/374
0500Z   4/1    40/6     2/0      -       -       -     46/7    1596/381
0600Z   2/0     8/0      -       -       -       -     10/0    1606/381   46
0700Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1606/381   60
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1606/381   60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1606/381   60
1000Z   1/1     3/1     3/0    51/1      -       -     58/3    1664/384   26
1100Z    -       -      3/0   104/5      -       -    107/5    1771/389
1200Z    -       -       -    120/3     7/0      -    127/3    1898/392
1300Z    -       -       -     53/1    23/2     1/1    77/4    1975/396
1400Z    -       -       -     45/2    36/4      -     81/6    2056/402
1500Z    -       -       -     17/0    21/0    12/1    50/1    2106/403
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--  151/1     8/3   159/4    2265/407
1700Z    -       -       -       -    106/4     1/0   107/4    2372/411
1800Z    -       -       -     14/0     9/1     7/1    30/2    2402/413   29
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2402/413   60
2000Z    -       -       -     58/2     9/1     7/1    74/4    2476/417   10
2100Z    -       -       -     17/4    21/1    15/0    53/5    2529/422
2200Z    -       -     84/6     1/0     2/0     1/0    88/6    2617/428
2300Z    -      6/0     6/1    13/0    19/1      -     44/2    2661/430

Total: 38/27  185/58  271/80 1084/113 932/103 151/49 

Best 60 minutes: 202 @ 05-Mar-2022 13:32

Worked on 6 bands (16):

CQ8M ED5R ED7W ED8W FY5KE HI3T IB8A PJ2T PJ4G TI7W TM6M TO3Z V26K VP5M ZF1A ZF5T

Worked on 5 bands: 25

Most Worked Countries

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
     I       3     15     28    133    129      8     316
    DL       1     21     25    108    128      1     284
     F       4     15     17     63     73      3     175
     G       2     10     14     62     70            158
    EA       3      8     16     59     57      3     146
    PA              5      8     88     43            144
    PY              2     10     37     33     45     127
    SP       1     14     12     40     25             92

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2022

Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD

Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 37
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  129    44
   80:  401    60
   40:  941    86
   20: 1410    93
   15: 1303    95
   10:   81    32
-------------------
Total: 4265   410  Total Score = 5,245,950

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

This was intended to be a casual fun effort. I started the contest calling JAs on 15m rather than running on 40.  Once I did get to the low bands and started running, I was blown away by the rates.

Got to 160 at 0305z and called CQ.  Could not believe how loud the Europeans were. It was a continuous run for the next 40 mins.

40 did its usual thing of staying open to Europe well past Eu sunrise.  As a result, I stayed awake too long.  So only got 90 minutes of sleep before I was up again.  A quick sweep of the low bands and then arrived at a wide-open 20m at 1109z. Three straight hours over 200!

I was watching the scoreboard and keeping tabs on AA1K and K1ZZ along with AA3B. I seemed to be keeping up with them so that doubled my motivation.  I had intended to stop around 1700z but had such a pileup on 20 that I couldn’t leave. Then was going to stop at 2000 QSOs, but still, guys were calling.  Finally, took a break at 1849z with over 2300 QSOs.  I guess you could call contesting an addiction for me…

Cooked dinner and had intended to go for a walk, but a snow squall came through. Looked nasty outside so got back on the radio. (Of course!)  CQing on 20 with a steady rate and finally some time to use the second radio to tune for mults.

It is frustrating to tune around because no one seems to send their call anymore.  It is just a steady stream of stations sending “TU”.  Not a problem when operating with the cluster/RBN, but definitely a challenge without.  I would work stations and try to get them to send their call.  Sometimes I would have to wait several minutes to figure out who I had worked.  Argh.  (I have to confess that there were times when I had big pileups that I just sent TU at the end.  It is a time-saver, but once rates slow down there really is no advantage.)

I was looking forward to getting going on 40, but another snow squall was generating so much static that I couldn’t hear anything.  Spent 20 minutes watching the Olympics while waiting for it to end.

Was feeling pretty tired since I had not really planned my life around a full-out effort.  Took a 3-hour break at 0200z.  Came back on at 0500z to find 160 again in very good shape. Gave me another good run of stations including a lot of 100W guys and even a few QRP. 80 was good late with some Eu stations calling in almost an hour after their sunrise. 40m seemed a bit muffled, but still had stations to work until I finally stopped at 0830z. 

Another short sleep and back on at 1030z. Worked two JA on 80 straight away. That woke me up! Got to 20m at 1043z and it was already packed with signals. By this point, I was looking competitive on the scoreboard so I focused on running as much as possible. 20m was open deep into Asia. Made the jump to 15m at 1224z and it was off to the races again.

10m had been open on Saturday morning.  Mostly for calling the few south Europeans that showed up. Sunday seemed a little better. EF7N was loud and calling lots of unanswered CQs.  I tried CQing with the second radio but not much luck. Did have HB0A call in so that was a good one. Since it didn’t seem like it was going to produce any rate, I turned my focus to running on 15 and 20.

Took a break at 1815z to make lunch and go for a walk.  Nothing clears the cobwebs like 4 miles in 30-degree weather! Back on at 1955z to chase mults and eek out a slow run on 20m. One last break at 2130z and then it was a push to the end.

40m started out well, but then I just ran out of stations to work.  Many unanswered CQs. Not much going on 80 either. Discovered the JAs were loud on 15m so used the second radio to chase them.

What had started out as a part-time effort with a goal of maybe 3000 QSOs ended up a pretty intense effort with over 4200! Much of it is thanks to the incredible activity from Europe.  Especially the high number of QRP (5W) callers. And the ability to track the competition on https://contestonlinescore.com/

I did record the contest and have posted the log and audio on my website.

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′/50′
15m: 155ca @66′/33′
10m: 6-el @ 90’
South: Th7DXX @ 40′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rate

QSO/DX by hour and band

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

0000Z  --+--   --+--   92/24    8/8    12/4    --+--  112/36    112/36 
0100Z    -     44/22   64/8    16/6      -       -    124/36    236/72 
0200Z    -     62/7    39/13     -       -       -    101/20    337/92 
0300Z  55/30   33/4     6/1      -       -       -     94/35    431/127
0400Z   6/3    50/4    45/3      -       -       -    101/10    532/137
0500Z   5/1    37/3    18/2      -       -       -     60/6     592/143   10
0600Z    -     18/6    97/6      -       -       -    115/12    707/155
0700Z    -     11/3    84/2      -       -       -     95/5     802/160
0800Z   2/2     5/2    60/5     1/0    --+--   --+--   68/9     870/169   10
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     870/169   60
1000Z   1/1     1/0      -     42/16     -       -     44/17    914/186   35
1100Z    -       -      7/3   163/15     -       -    170/18   1084/204
1200Z    -       -       -     92/6   125/29     -    217/35   1301/239
1300Z    -       -       -     11/2   200/17     -    211/19   1512/258
1400Z    -       -       -     28/0   166/7     8/6   202/13   1714/271
1500Z    -       -       -       -    151/3    12/7   163/10   1877/281
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   55/1    89/3    11/3   155/7    2032/288
1700Z    -       -       -    158/7     6/2      -    164/9    2196/297
1800Z    -       -       -    103/2    11/0      -    114/2    2310/299   10
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2310/299   60
2000Z    -       -       -     30/2    13/5      -     43/7    2353/306   28
2100Z    -       -       -     59/4    11/6    11/4    81/14   2434/320
2200Z    -       -     54/2     5/3     2/0      -     61/5    2495/325   26
2300Z    -       -     86/4    10/4     3/0      -     99/8    2594/333
0000Z   1/0    37/1    21/3     8/2    --+--   --+--   67/6    2661/339
0100Z  11/3    18/1    12/3      -       -       -     41/7    2702/346    5
0200Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2702/346   60
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2702/346   60
0400Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2702/346   60
0500Z  45/4      -     53/1      -       -       -     98/5    2800/351    1
0600Z    -     52/1    53/3      -       -       -    105/4    2905/355
0700Z   1/0    19/3    46/0      -       -       -     66/3    2971/358
0800Z   2/0     1/0    19/0    --+--   --+--   --+--   22/0    2993/358   31
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2993/358   60
1000Z    -      3/1     1/0    50/0      -       -     54/1    3047/359   29
1100Z    -       -      1/0   182/5      -       -    183/5    3230/364
1200Z    -       -       -     69/0   112/1     3/2   184/3    3414/367
1300Z    -       -       -       -    165/4     8/3   173/7    3587/374
1400Z    -       -       -      7/0   113/2     6/3   126/5    3713/379
1500Z    -       -       -    113/1    21/1      -    134/2    3847/381
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   70/1    46/2    --+--  116/3    3963/384
1700Z    -       -       -     62/1    24/3     6/1    92/5    4055/389
1800Z    -       -       -       -       -      8/2     8/2    4063/391   47
1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      5/0     5/0    4068/391   55
2000Z    -       -       -     53/2    11/6     2/0    66/8    4134/399
2100Z    -       -      5/0    12/5      -       -     17/5    4151/404   19
2200Z    -       -     60/3      -     17/0     1/1    78/4    4229/408
2300Z    -     10/2    18/0     3/0     5/0      -     36/2    4265/410

Total: 129/44 401/60  941/86 1410/93 1303/95   81/32 

Best 60 minutes:

228 @19-Feb-2022 12:11

Worked on 6 bands (16):

CR3W DJ5AN ED1R ED7W EF7N IR2Q KH6LC KP4/KO1A LZ5R NP4DX PJ2T TM2Y TM6M TO4A ZF1A ZF5T

Worked on 5 bands: 69

Most worked countries

          160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
    DL      10     50    104    178    200      2     544
     I      12     30     91    115    121      3     372
    UA       2     20     46    106     81            255
     F       6     20     59     61     64      6     216
    UR       3     24     42     72     61            202
    OK      10     18     49     57     53            187
    SP       7     23     38     65     48            181
    EA       5     16     43     51     46      7     168
...
    JA              2      3     50     28             83

                    CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2022

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

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 27.1
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  241
   40:  385
   20:  483
   15:  527
   10:   68
------------
Total: 1704  Prefixes = 733  Total Score = 3,360,072

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Bud AA3B has proven he can whip me in any RTTY contest so I was looking to try something different this year.  With the improving solar cycle, I was hoping the high bands would be good enough to support some fun operating as low power. Unfortunately, they weren’t that good.

Started 30 minutes late. The contest was a grind from the beginning. Very few sustained runs all weekend.  Spent a lot of time calling people.  Lots of guys CQed in my face.  Meant to stop before the end to watch the Super Bowl pre-game, but did that while operating.  Some good mults called in during the last hour on 40m.

It felt like activity was down, but you wouldn’t know it from the QRM on 20m. I know my station is very loud on 20m.  I couldn’t make a dent. Band was loaded from 14078 to 14150. Skip was short so the Europeans were having their own contest. I tried CQing high and low with no real success. Ended up calling a lot of guys.

Best part of the weekend was the openings to Japan.  15 meters was great both Sat and Sun evening. Even better on 15 than on 20.

As always, it was fun and motivating to watch the online scoreboard. The scores in WPX go up exponentially so when you get behind, it is hard to catch up!

Kudos and respect to all you guys that do RTTY contesting with 100 watts. I don’t think I have the patience for it.  🙂

Station

2x K3

80m: 4 square, dipole

40m: 40-2CD @110′, sloping diploe to west

20m: 205CA @100′/50′

15m: 155ca @66′/33′

10m: 6-el @ 90’

South: Th7DXX @ 40′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rates

QSO/Pref by hour and band

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

D1-0000Z   5/4    15/15    1/1    --+--   --+--   21/20     21/20     30
D1-0100Z    -     36/30   32/29     -       -     68/59     89/79  
D1-0200Z  23/15   41/28    5/3      -       -     69/46    158/125 
D1-0300Z  28/12   66/39     -       -       -     94/51    252/176 
D1-0400Z  37/10   35/19     -       -       -     72/29    324/205 
D1-0500Z  31/12   20/7      -       -       -     51/19    375/224 
D1-0600Z  19/14   14/10    1/1      -       -     34/25    409/249 
D1-0700Z   2/2     1/0      -       -       -      3/2     412/251    52
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     412/251    60
D1-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     412/251    60
D1-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     412/251    60
D1-1100Z   4/1     8/4    18/13     -       -     30/18    442/269    22
D1-1200Z    -      8/4    40/29   13/9      -     61/42    503/311     8
D1-1300Z    -      1/1      -      1/0      -      2/1     505/312    60
D1-1400Z    -      4/0    26/14   72/41     -    102/55    607/367 
D1-1500Z    -       -     26/12   53/26    4/1    83/39    690/406 
D1-1600Z  --+--   --+--    8/3    29/14   16/7    53/24    743/430 
D1-1700Z    -       -      5/3    31/12   15/11   51/26    794/456 
D1-1800Z    -       -     20/11    7/1     1/1    28/13    822/469    31
D1-1900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     822/469    60
D1-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0     822/469    60
D1-2100Z    -       -     38/11   25/14     -     63/25    885/494     9
D1-2200Z    -       -     16/10   28/19    9/1    53/30    938/524 
D1-2300Z    -       -      7/2     3/2      -     10/4     948/528    49
D2-0000Z  --+--    4/4     5/1    --+--   --+--    9/5     957/533    51
D2-0100Z  38/5    25/5     4/1      -       -     67/11   1024/544 
D2-0200Z  23/8    27/13     -       -       -     50/21   1074/565 
D2-0300Z   1/1     5/5      -       -       -      6/6    1080/571    46
D2-0400Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1080/571    60
D2-0500Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1080/571    60
D2-0600Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1080/571    60
D2-0700Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1080/571    60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    1080/571    60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1080/571    60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1080/571    60
D2-1100Z  17/0     8/1     5/3      -       -     30/4    1110/575    22
D2-1200Z   7/2     6/1    31/15    2/0      -     46/18   1156/593 
D2-1300Z    -       -     28/11   19/9      -     47/20   1203/613 
D2-1400Z    -       -     12/2    69/24     -     81/26   1284/639 
D2-1500Z    -       -     15/6    56/14     -     71/20   1355/659 
D2-1600Z  --+--   --+--   11/2    47/9    --+--   58/11   1413/670 
D2-1700Z    -       -     34/9    27/4     3/1    64/14   1477/684 
D2-1800Z    -       -     33/8    11/4    14/5    58/17   1535/701 
D2-1900Z    -       -      7/2     9/0      -     16/2    1551/703    44
D2-2000Z    -       -       -       -       -      0/0    1551/703    60
D2-2100Z    -       -      6/0     2/2     4/2    12/4    1563/707    43
D2-2200Z    -      8/1    36/5    22/5     2/1    68/12   1631/719 
D2-2300Z   6/1    53/10   13/3     1/0      -     73/14   1704/733 

Total:   241/87  385/197 483/210 527/209  68/30

Best 60 mins: 102 starting at 12-Feb-2022 13:59

Worked on 5 bands:

9A1A CR3DX IT9MBZ K9CT KB9YOJ KY0W

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021

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

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 41.8
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  124    16       58
   80:  564    25       87
   40: 1323    32      112
   20: 1426    32      113
   15: 1115    29      115
   10:   77    19       38
------------------------------
Total: 4629   153      523  Total Score = 9,082,736

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Another amazing CQ WW CW!  So much activity from so many interesting places.

In the days leading up to the contest, I was not sure which category I wanted to enter. I considered SO, and SOA, even QRP. In the end, I decided that having fun was the most important so Single Op All Band Assisted was the way to go.

The bands did not sound good at the start. I actually began the contest doing S&P on 80m, then on 40m. I finally landed on 3535 as a run frequency while making second radio QSOs on 40.

I got to 160 at the end of the second hour and found plenty of European signals. As usual, they were mostly working each other, but I got lucky with a few. At 0230 I finally made my first QSOs on 20 – with South Americans – before returning to 80m.

I just kept cycling through the bands. Trying to call CQ as much as possible while also chasing multipliers that were spotted. 160 continued to provide QSOs. I heard the other single ops CQing on 80 and figured I was probably losing out, but just didn’t seem to be able to get much going there. Besides, the goal was to have fun and working mults was fun!

The 05z hour was great on 40m working Europeans. This continued until about 0630z when the rate really slowed down. I managed to stay in the chair until 0840z when I decided it was now or never for grabbing some sleep. I have learned that taking a 90-minute nap during these slow pre-sunrise hours pays off during the high rate times as the high bands are opening.

I came back on a little earlier than I had intended at 1035z. 40m was still open to northern Europe! Worked two JAs on 80 ( a rare treat)! Got to 20m around 1100z and it was open, but not great. Tuned up the band calling stations for 20 minutes until I found a hole at 14037. Then it was off to the races! The pileup was incredible. I barely had time to chase a few multiplier spots on the second radio.

20 just kept going deeper and deeper with European and Asiatic Russians calling in. It really helps the scores when we get access to all the Russian activity.

I was able to squeeze in some second radio QSOs and mults on 15 meters during the 12 and 13 Zulu hours. This is where the second radio really pays off because I could know the band was open, but not quite enough to abandon 20. I finally made the jump at 1334z and enjoyed another great pileup. I tried a few minutes of CQing on both 20 and 15, but the pileups were too much (and my skills too limited) to pull it off.

The rate was so good, and there were so many mults on 20, that I didn’t even think of listening to 10m until 1449z where I heard CR6K and some other southern Europeans. It wasn’t great, but spent some time with the second radio since I wasn’t sure 10 would open again on Sunday. In the meantime, 15m just kept producing QSOs.

I finally got back to running on 20m around 1719z. Lots of Europeans went in the log while I also chased cluster spots on 15m.

By 19z I was worn out and hungry. Took a break to grab some food and stretch my legs. On returning, I tried a few CQs on 40 meters and was rewarded with a nice run of Europeans. This is a great time to be a W1 as we seem to have the band to ourselves while the rest of the USA is still on the higher bands.

By 2120z I hit my usual dilemma of having 20 and 40 on the same mast and rotator. Do I stay with 40m to Europe, or turn the beam toward Japan and go to 20. Again, with fun in mind, I took the choice to go to 20 and see what kind of Asian QSOs I could find. With the low beam to Europe and the top antenna to Japan, it resulted in a nice mix of QSOs. Plus the odd VK/ZL on LP calling in.

By 2300z things had slowed down and I was back to 40m. That didn’t produce so was forced down to 80. The contest halfway mark is always a low point. The rate slows down, you are tired, and you face the realization that there are still 24 more hours to go! Ugh. Time for some dinner.

The rates are slow and packet spots are starting to get a bit unruly. I decided some sleep would be good so took a nap during the 03z hour. It costs a few QSOs, but is well worth it in the mental health department. I came back on at 0400z and chased what I could find on the low bands.

I like to watch the contestonlinescores.com scoreboard during the contest. It has a mode where you can mix the SO and SOA scores together. Gives me more people to chase. I selected K1ZZ as the guy I wanted to use as my standard. I could see I was doing well, but not sure it was enough to win. Back to focusing on fun! Luckily, 80 and 40m kept producing some rate. 40m was amazingly good with Russians calling in well after their sunrise (sometimes 2.5-3 hours after). After a long run on 7022, I finally called it quits at 0745z to get some sleep.

Back on at 1105z my first contact was LA1MFA on 80m. Whoa. That was followed by VR2KW on 40m long path. He seemed to be the only one that could hear me in that direction. Then found ZM4T on 160. Great ears on his end. Those 3 QSOs are the way to wake up and get back in the game!

20m seemed a bit slower to open than it had on Saturday. Got a good run going around 1130z. Lots of Russians again. Second radio mult chasing on 15m during the 12z hour. I often like to stay on 20 a bit longer Sunday morning. Gives a chance to work more deep Russians while the QRM is down with most of Western Eu headed to 15m. I made the jump to run on 15m at 1303z. Big pileup!

10 meters opened earlier and better on Sunday morning. No rate, but different big guns from each country would show up and go in the log. All while still running on 15m. This continued until 1550z when I made the jump back down to 20m. The rate was excellent and gave me some time to “relax” a bit. <F1>, type call, <insert>, <+>. Repeat.

Around 1800z 20m started to lose its mojo. Band was open, but you run out of people to work. This provided lots of time to engage in some hard-core cluster pileups on Africans, South Americans, and the Caribbean. It’s like being locked in a cage match with the same dozen hyper-aggressive guys pileup after pileup.

After grinding it out for a few hours, it was time for one last push on 40m. The band produced more QSOs than expected and I was able to run almost to the end of the contest. One of the things I like about using the cluster is seeing JW7QIA spotted on 160m at 2300z and being able to work him! Then a few minutes later GM3POI for another 160 mult.

It is always fun to race to the end of the contest and see what the final score will be. My goal in the morning had been to get to 8 million. I then raised that to 8.5, By the end, I was pushing to see if I could clear the 9 million mark. And I did it! Amazing how quickly you forget all the pain and suffering of the early morning hours when you reach the end of the contest.

The CQWW is always an amazing experience. The activity levels and variety of DX are unmatched. Thanks to all that traveled to activate countries and improve all of our scores.

See you next year!

Recording

Audio recordings of the full operation are available here.

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′/50′

15m: 155ca @66′/33′

10m: 6/4/4 @ 90’/60’/30′

WriteLog software, MK2R+ SO2R box

Rate Sheet

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

0000Z  --+--   81/42   38/34   --+--   --+--   --+--  119/76    119/76  
0100Z  10/13   36/13   55/35     -       -       -    101/61    220/137 
0200Z  19/13   46/1    14/5     7/8      -       -     86/27    306/164 
0300Z  27/16   46/11   29/8      -       -       -    102/35    408/199 
0400Z  17/8    21/10   54/10     -       -       -     92/28    500/227 
0500Z  14/6     8/2   111/5      -       -       -    133/13    633/240 
0600Z   4/3    22/8    73/9      -       -       -     99/20    732/260 
0700Z   2/0    51/4    30/10    3/6      -       -     86/20    818/280 
0800Z   1/1    12/5     8/4    --+--   --+--   --+--   21/10    839/290  18
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0     839/290  60
1000Z    -      8/4    15/2      -       -       -     23/6     862/296  36
1100Z    -      3/1     2/2   155/39     -       -    160/42   1022/338 
1200Z    -       -       -    182/9    17/23     -    199/32   1221/370 
1300Z    -       -       -     96/4   109/32     -    205/36   1426/406 
1400Z    -       -       -     13/14  175/5     4/8   192/27   1618/433 
1500Z    -       -       -      5/3   158/8     9/11  172/22   1790/455 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   13/7    84/27   18/11  115/45   1905/500 
1700Z    -       -       -    135/7    26/7     1/1   162/15   2067/515 
1800Z    -       -       -     49/3    19/11     -     68/14   2135/529  25
1900Z    -       -      3/2    22/15    5/4     5/6    35/27   2170/556  12
2000Z    -       -     98/2     6/3    10/5      -    114/10   2284/566 
2100Z    -       -     18/2    39/9     9/3      -     66/14   2350/580 
2200Z    -       -      8/2    39/5     4/0      -     51/7    2401/587 
2300Z    -     31/0    35/4      -       -       -     66/4    2467/591 
0000Z   2/1     7/5    --+--    1/1    --+--   --+--   10/7    2477/598  30
0100Z   6/2    31/2    25/4      -       -       -     62/8    2539/606 
0200Z   9/4     1/1    69/1      -       -       -     79/6    2618/612   3
0300Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    2618/612  60
0400Z    -     75/2    18/0      -       -       -     93/2    2711/614   2
0500Z   6/0    40/0    80/0      -       -       -    126/0    2837/614 
0600Z   1/1     9/0   131/0      -       -       -    141/1    2978/615 
0700Z   3/2     8/1    51/0      -       -       -     62/3    3040/618  13
0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0    3040/618  60
0900Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3040/618  60
1000Z    -       -       -       -       -       -      0/0    3040/618  60
1100Z   1/2     1/0     2/2   111/0      -       -    115/4    3155/622   5
1200Z    -       -       -    170/0    17/2      -    187/2    3342/624 
1300Z    -       -       -     11/4   176/3     5/4   192/11   3534/635 
1400Z    -       -       -      6/4   153/4    10/5   169/13   3703/648 
1500Z    -       -       -     34/0   112/1    10/3   156/4    3859/652 
1600Z  --+--   --+--   --+--  159/0     3/2     3/2   165/4    4024/656 
1700Z    -       -       -     75/1     9/4     6/2    90/7    4114/663 
1800Z    -       -       -     24/0     6/0      -     30/0    4144/663  34
1900Z    -       -       -     47/0     7/0     4/2    58/2    4202/665 
2000Z    -       -     87/0     8/1     6/0      -    101/1    4303/666 
2100Z    -       -    105/0     1/0    10/3     2/2   118/5    4421/671 
2200Z    -       -     73/0    14/1      -       -     87/1    4508/672 
2300Z   2/2    27/0    91/1     1/1      -       -    121/4    4629/676 

Total:124/74 564/112 1323/144 1426/145 1115/144 77/57 

Best 60 minutes: 216 @ 27-Nov-2021 13:11 to 14:11

Worked on 6 bands (16 stations):

3B8M CR3W CR6K EA5RS EA6FO FY5KE M6T NP4Z P44W PJ2T PJ4A PJ4K TI7W TK0C TO7A XE2X

Worked on 5 bands (42 stations):

9G5FI CR3DX DH0GHU DR4A E7DX EA8RM ED7R ES9C EW5A F5FDC F6KOP G4BUO HA5PP HG6N HQ9X II9P IO3F KH7M LA8OM LN8W LT1F LZ9W NH7T OH0V OL3Z OQ5M PT4A PZ5CO RT4F RU1A SK3W TM2Y TM3R TM6M UF5D UT4U V26K VA2UR VE2IM VE6SV VP9I ZF1A

Most Worked Entities

        160M    80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total
  DL       6     76    202    220    182            686
  UA       4     36    109    133     34            316
   I       1     26     85     90     65            267
   G       4     16     45     55     83      2     205
  SP       5     30     59     60     45            199
  PA       2     16     48     70     60      1     197
   F       2     18     47     54     56      6     183
  UR       4     18     64     56     38            180
  EA       1     12     45     60     38      9     165
  OK       3     26     48     50     35            162
  VE      20     35     39     29     17      2     142
  HA       2     17     41     32     30      1     123

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

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 23.2
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  199
   40:  582
   20:  402
   15:   53
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1236  Sections = 84  Total Score = 207,648

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

Exceeded my goal of 1000 QSOs.  45th consecutive year of doing so…

First 8 hours was truly fun.  The last 8 hours was not fun at all.

Lost my motivation on Sunday morning when it was so slow.  No matter what I tried, N2NT and AA3B kept getting 1-3 more QSOs per hour.  There was no off-time strategy.  Took breaks when I couldn’t take it anymore.

Felt like I had more dupes than usual. Lots of guys must have busted my call the first or second time.  I worked all who called. 

This contest puts a premium on good copy.  Almost hated to work some guys when they were weak knowing they would be loud on another band later.  I was looking for KL7SB on 40 when he called me on 80.  That is not a band where you want to try to copy the exchange of a new/rate multiplier.  I called him later on 15m for insurance and he said worked before.  The same thing happened with VY1AAA.

First QSO was very marginal.  Second time I could hear him much better and he would not work me again.  Would hurt to “work” a guy twice and lose the mult if I missed the number.  Such is the game.

Great contest. Nothing needs fixing except the activity level.  We just aren’t making CW traffic handlers like we used to.

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

Rate Sheet

 Hour      80      40      20      15     Total     Cumm    OffTime

D1-2100Z    -       -     79/28   25/18  104/46    104/46  
D1-2200Z    -       -    101/15    3/2   104/17    208/63  
D1-2300Z    -     42/4    35/4     2/1    79/9     287/72  
D2-0000Z  --+--   68/0     9/1    --+--   77/1     364/73  
D2-0100Z   8/1    78/1     1/1      -     87/3     451/76  
D2-0200Z  17/0    69/1      -       -     86/1     537/77  
D2-0300Z  16/3    60/1      -       -     76/4     613/81  
D2-0400Z  29/0    29/0      -       -     58/0     671/81  
D2-0500Z  39/0    17/1      -       -     56/1     727/82  
D2-0600Z  16/0    16/0      -       -     32/0     759/82  
D2-0700Z  15/1    13/0      -       -     28/1     787/83     12
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--   --+--   --+--    0/0     787/83     60
D2-0900Z    -       -       -       -      0/0     787/83     60
D2-1000Z    -       -       -       -      0/0     787/83     60
D2-1100Z  13/0    13/0      -       -     26/0     813/83     26
D2-1200Z  13/0    34/0      -       -     47/0     860/83  
D2-1300Z    -     27/0     8/0      -     35/0     895/83  
D2-1400Z    -     16/0    17/0      -     33/0     928/83  
D2-1500Z    -     28/0    11/0      -     39/0     967/83  
D2-1600Z  --+--   21/0     6/1     3/0    30/1     997/84  
D2-1700Z    -      2/0    17/0      -     19/0    1016/84     38
D2-1800Z    -       -     22/0    15/0    37/0    1053/84  
D2-1900Z    -       -     14/0     1/0    15/0    1068/84     30
D2-2000Z    -      2/0    33/0     4/0    39/0    1107/84     10
D2-2100Z    -      5/0    29/0      -     34/0    1141/84  
D2-2200Z    -     17/0    12/0      -     29/0    1170/84      4
D2-2300Z    -       -       -       -      0/0    1170/84     60
D3-0000Z   5/0    10/0     8/0    --+--   23/0    1193/84      3
D3-0100Z   8/0     5/0      -       -     13/0    1206/84     34
D3-0200Z  20/0    10/0      -       -     30/0    1236/84  

Total:   199/5   582/8   402/50   53/21

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2021

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

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

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

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recording

Audio recordings of the full operation are available here.

Station

K3 + AL-1200

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

80m: 4 square, dipole

40m: 40-2CD @110′

20m: 205CA @100′

15m: 155ca @66′

10m: 6-ele @90′ TH7DXX @ 40′

Rates

QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band

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

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

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

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

Worked on 6 bands:

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

Most worked countries:

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