Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Countries Oblasts
160: 53 0 20 2
80: 326 0 52 22
40: 493 38 65 15
20: 721 143 81 50
15: 29 2 17 0
10: 2 0 2 0
Total: 1624 183 237 89 Total Score = 2,891,294
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
After two days of great conditions leading up to the
contest, it was not so good during the contest.
I did this contest for the WRTC qualifying points, and
because I needed a distraction from the medical problems of the world. Always fun to immerse in a contest and forget
about reality.
I did something wrong on 40m to be so low on oblasts.
Low bands were very quiet here. I called a number of
Russians on 160 and 80 that would just call CQ.
Not even a “?” in reply.
The 10m QSO in the middle of the night was a move of
KC1XX from 160 to get the USA mult!
Z81C in South Sudan called me on 20 meters. Said it was his first QSO with the new
license! With ham radio, you never know
who will answer a CQ.
Very happy to work XV1X on 40m LP. Could not get the attention of 9V1YC a few minutes later. 🙁
I think I was a bit burned out from big efforts in ARRL CW and SSB. Seemed to hit a wall around 0600 and decided to get some sleep. My competitors had 2 good hours after I stopped. Lesson learned!
Thanks to N2NT for the use of the station. Nothing better than being on a hill on an
island!
A few notes as I reflect on the contest:
40m beam had failed. Replacement was an Inverted vee with top at 50′. Didn’t have the same confidence without the beam, but based on the signal reports, I should have pushed the band harder.
Who knew there were so many hams in Delaware?! Or in Florida? FL must have been the landing point of the first bounce from here because they were loud on every band. And lots of them!
Power line noise sucks. It started Sat morning and lasted through Sat afternoon. Then the same on Sunday. It was only in the direction of USA and impacted all antennas. Combined with the rapid QSB, I spent a lot of time asking people to repeat their call and state. Sorry if I was an alligator on 15 and 20 at times.
I had a bit of a mental breakdown on Sat due to the line noise. It was a full breakdown on Sun morning. I decided to close up the station, drive 30 mins to my AirBnB, take a shower, then drive back. Took 75 mins total. But, when I returned I had my sanity again and was able to power through the line noise until it stopped just in time for 20m. (Getting up and down the hill is an adventure that requires all wheel drive and a road that does not permit speeding unless you want to break the suspension…)
In a bit of line noise frustration on Sat, I went to 10m and decided to call CQ. K3LR answered my first CQ. He spotted me and I was able to work K8AZ, VE3EJ and K1TTT. That was it for the band. Impressed to be found on the very first CQ.
From the DX side, this contest reminded me of Sweepstakes. There are limited mults. It is all about running guys. I think I called 3 people all weekend.
Only had one radio. Every band change was a leap into the unknown. I had to stop whatever run was happening, go to the new band, retune the amp, find a new frequency, and then hope to be spotted. This cycle took 5 to 10 minutes each time. Worst was to change bands and then have to go back and not be able to find a spot.
Great to have 20m open for the first hour. Got a fantastic start that dried up toward the end so ‘only’ a 299 hour. Best 60 mins was 312.
Worked only 4 stations on 6 bands. 141 on 5 bands.
Slept 90 mins the first night. 3 hours the second. Cost some QSOs, but was hoping to be fresh for the high bands. No telling what the line noise would have done to me without the sleep!
Really struggled for mults on 160. Missed VE2 and everything in W0 except Colorado! How could that happen?!
Writelog software worked perfectly (as always). Made a full recording of the contest in one hour mp3 files. Might be a few hours that would be fun to listen to.
Thanks to everyone who called in. Was a great experience. Doing SOAB from the DX side in ARRL DX has been a bucket list item for me. Very entertaining. Congratulations to N6MJ @ TI7W for a commanding win and to W2SC @ 8P5A for putting me back in my place.
Randy
Rates:
Click on the Listen link to hear the audio for that hour. The transmit audio is a bit stronger than the received audio – sorry about that. Didn’t have a way to check audio levels before the contest. What you hear is what I was hearing in the headphones.
ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Class: SO Unlimited HP
Operating Time (hrs): 38.3
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
160: 277 68
80: 690 89
40: 1106 103
20: 1831 115
15: 194 74
10: 18 15
Total: 4116 464 Total Score = 5,729,472
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
A few notes
Rates the first 18 hours or so were fantastic. Especially going down to 80 meters in the first hour and getting answers.
It felt like we ran out of people to work on the second day. No matter how good the low bands (and they were really good), this contest needs the easy QSOs on 10 and 15. Maybe again some day!
Amazing runs on 160. There were times Sat night when the band hiss on 80 and 160 sounded like 10m. No QRN at all.
Very nice JA opening on 20m Sat evening. I actually got answers to my CQs!
I had planned a semi-serious effort to go for WRTC qualifying points. Decided before the contest I would sleep both nights. First night went according to plan, but didn’t expect 20 to open so early. It was already rocking when I got there. I had planned to sleep Sat evening when the Europeans were sleeping. That worked out well, but I could see on the scoreboard that AA3B gained 150+ QSOs during that time. I made it my mission on Sunday morning to try to close the gap.
I had also planned to sleep Sun morning at 09z. About that time I came down with some kind food poisoning. Had to take a number of unplanned breaks for that. Thought about quitting many times… Thanks to the incredibly close scoreboard competition with AA3B (we were trading places every hour or so) I was motivated to keep pushing. At the finish we are too close to call.
10m was completely empty on Saturday. Was surprised to see spots on Sunday morning. It must have been e-skip because propagation was very spotlight. 8P5A and VP2MSS were in all the time. Everyone else was nil until their 5 minutes of propagation appeared.
DX contests are funny. I can run guys like crazy and then when I tune around a call people, I am always getting beat out and have to stand my turn in line. DXers are loud!
Fun contest. Thanks to everyone around the world who spent their weekend chasing W/VE stations. You make the contest fun.
CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2020
Call: AK1W
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 20.3
Radios: SO2R
Band QSOs
80: 423
40: 595
20: 726
15: 38
10: 0
Total: 1782 Prefixes = 777 Total Score = 3,982,125
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Always fun. Love
all the multipliers.
Started strong and was almost keeping up with AA3B. Then remembered that ARRL CW is next weekend
so didn’t want to get burned out. Still
operated a lot, but also got some sleep.
Didn’t hear a JA until Sunday evening.
15m did open to Europe… for a few minutes. 9A1A was loud.
CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: Single Op HP
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 872 State/Prov = 52 Countries = 55 Total Score = 344,647
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Station:
K3 + AL-1200
1/4-wave GP, shunt fed tower
Comments:
Always a fun way to spend a winter weekend. Although it was so nice outside both days it felt like Spring!
Not a serious effort. Took plenty of time off during the evenings to binge watch some TV shows. Stayed up too late, then tried to get up for sunrise. Then tired all day. 🙂
Seemed to be able to hear Europeans most of both evenings, but they couldn’t always hear me. Called lots of guys with no response. Must have been crowded in Eu because was very difficult to find a clear frequency enough to get answers.
Can’t believe I missed NV, SD, ND, and WY. We sure missed VY2ZM to hand out the PEI mult too.
Got up at sunrise both mornings, but not much to show for it except the KH6 mult.
Thanks to all for the QSOs. Amazing how activity on Top Band keeps getting bigger and better. Some of the country counts are amazing.
Breakdowns:
By Continent:
160 Total %
NA 711 711 81.5
EU 149 149 17.1
SA 4 4 0.5
AF 6 6 0.7
OC 1 1 0.1
AS 1 1 0.1
ARRL RTTY Roundup - 2020
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: Single Op HP
Operating Time (hrs): 9.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band RTTY Qs Dig Qs
80: 196
40: 389
20: 323
15: 45
10: 0
Total: 953 0 State/Prov = 54 Countries = 50 Total Score = 99,112
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Always fun. Agreat way to spend a winter weekend.
Put a new 80m dipole up on Sat morning. It is a keeper. Had some of my best 80m runs ever. Band was really good too.
Had trouble getting RTTY to work correctly at the start of the contest. Finally re-registered OMMT.ocx and then everything started working. Another challenge from a recent hard disk crash and having to rebuild the computer.
Thanks to everyone for the QSOs. I love how the operating speed and savvy keeps getting better every year.
With so many breaks I have no idea how this log will fit within the limit of only 2 off-times!
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2019
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Station: K5ZD
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
160: 267 17 77
80: 655 27 101
40: 979 34 134
20: 1691 34 146
15: 202 24 87
10: 36 11 25
Total: 3830 147 570 Total Score = 7,769,412
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
I wanted to do the contest, but didn’t do the mental prep work to commit for a full effort. I “quit” for the first time after just 4 hours. But, as always, the contest and online scoreboard sucked me in.
Didn’t hurt that the weather outside was raining and cold. That meant no line noise for most of the contest, but we did have severe rain static on Sunday afternoon. Part of my 40m run during that time was listening on a dipole that was up 30 feet.
Slept 90 mins the first night. Then 3 hours early Sat evening and then another 90 mins before sunrise.
There were no other daytime bands besides 20m so spent most of my time there. Lots of spot chasing on the second radio.
That was surely the best 160m conditions we have ever had
for a WW CW. I had some short runs to Eu both nights. Sat night the signal levels were great and
there was NO noise. Even the last hour
had good signals from Eu. Sure never
expected to have a better line score on 160 than on 15!
As good as 80m was at Eu sunrise, what happened to
40m? It was empty even as I worked
Europeans on 160 and 80 well past their sunrise.
15 opened very early both mornings, then faded, and then
came back as sunset passed the eastern stations. Glad I got most of my mults on Sat, because
was not as good on Sun morning.
Never felt loud all weekend. And never had the really big rates, but it
was always interesting and entertaining.
Had to keep reminding myself not to fall into DXing. Rate is king in this contest!
The list of broken stuff keeps getting longer. No rotatable antenna on 15m. Direction indicator on the tribander is out. Tri-bander showed high SWR on 20m Sunday (never had that before). 20m stack system has a control cable short somewhere. 40m antenna is intermittent on receive due to corrosion at the feedpoint… I should have addressed all this during the nice Summer and Fall weather, but what’s the fun in that?
I did record the contest if anyone wants to hear
something.
Thanks to everyone who traveled to give out a multiplier. I have never had anywhere close to 140 countries on a band as a single op – and half the world was out of range due to propagation. Missed zones 23, 24,28 and 34.
Final score after log checking applied:
Band QSOs QTCs Mul
80 m 109 29 128 Lost:
40 m 198 225 168 Lost:
20 m 222 663 124 Lost:
15 m 40 58 34 Lost:
10 m 0 0 0 Lost:
Total 569 975 454 ==> 700.976
The score reduction in percent is: -1.22%
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: Single Op HP
Operating Time (hrs): 19.8
Summary:
Band QSOs
---------------
160: 0
80: 275
40: 485
20: 355
15: 38
10: 0
---------------
Total: 1153 Sections 83 Total Score 191,398
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
My 43rd consecutive year with more than 1000 QSOs in SS CW!
After 8400 QSOs in WW SSB last weekend, it was hard to get motivated to do the slow rates of SSCW. Focused on continuing my streak – now 43 consecutive years with more than 1000 QSOs in SS CW!
Put the station back together on Friday afternoon. Some of it had been disassembled for the trip down to V4 for CQWW. Also discovered high SWR on the 80m 4-square. Turned out to be a broken wire at one of the feed points. Easily repaired.
Contest started OK, but it felt like activity was not as high as in past years. This really showed up when rates slowed late Sat evening.
Sunday was the usual grind with everyone on 20m. Would go 7 minutes with no answer and then get 3 in a row.
Still one of my favorite contests due to the need to actually copy info. Always a thrill to get all of the info from a weak station in one pass. Mixed with the agony of needing just one thing and the guy sending his whole exchange again, only to miss that one thing again…
Thanks to everyone who got on. Special thanks to KV0I for NE, N5NA for WTX, N7IV for ND, and VY1AAA for NWT.
Had to end early to pick my wife up at the airport. I didn’t mind missing the end… it was getting slow. 🙂
Call: V47T
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
160: 51 13 33
80: 525 17 67
40: 1930 28 100
20: 2501 27 99
15: 3156 27 104
10: 126 16 45
Total: 8389 128 448 Total Score 11,604,672
Club: None
Comments
Doing a competitive SOAB in CQWW SSB has been a dream of mine. Amazingly lucky to go from a seat request on the cq-contest reflector a few weeks ago to fulfilling that dream from V47T.
The original plan was to do MS with NP4Z, but Felipe ran into some work conflicts and offered me the chance to do a single op. N2NT and NP4Z had planned a trip to do station repairs. I felt like a rock star when they picked me up at the airport and helped get everything set up for the contest! It was lonely when they left for home on Wed. Gave me some time to enjoy the beach and drive around the island.
The station is on a hilltop at about 1000 feet ASL. It is a steep drop toward Europe down to the ocean about a mile away. Not bad to USA either. It requires an AWD vehicle to reach the station.
There a million stories and comments I could report but will have to wait for another day. Still in recovery mode.
Slept 3 hours Sun morning. Rates were getting slow and I knew I would need it to push through another day of QSO making on the high bands.
Was completely isolated in a concrete bunker for the weekend with a single window to see if it was daylight or dark. For 48+ hours I did not think about anything except where the next QSO was coming from.
A bit disappointed with the mults, but conditions just weren’t open very deep. So went with a run at all times strategy. Never heard zones 19, 23, 24, 29, or 34.
Hilltops on islands in the Caribbean rock.
Amazing all the activity that shows up on the bands during CQWW. Thank you all for making it the best radio weekend of the year. And again, thanks to N2NT and NP4Z for use of the station and V44KAI for local support.
Some numbers…
QSOs by Continent/Band
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
NA 130 404 1179 1665 1572 42 4992 59.5
SA 4 14 42 33 41 26 160 1.9
EU 15 96 647 740 1480 45 3023 36.0
AF 1 6 10 9 18 11 55 0.7
AS 0 2 27 48 30 2 109 1.3
OC 0 3 25 6 14 0 48 0.6