CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: C4Z
Operator(s): 5B4AIZ
Station: 5B4AIZ
Class: SOSB/10 HP
QTH: LARNACA
Operating Time (hrs): 25
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 1637 37 124
15:
10:
------------------------------
Total: 1637 37 124 Total Score = 717,500
Club: UKEICC
Comments:
Congrats SM2WMX at SJ2W to achieve 4042 q's 20mtrs S/B whilst needing to S&P
as an unassisted op then finding and contacting 140 country mlts plus all 40
zones is an incredible achievement. I note that none of the MM or big gun M2,
M/S stns with their teams of 5 or more did not get anywhere near that number of
contacts on that band. sJ2w is hardly an exotic call which will brings hordes of
pileups to to their qrg. SM2WMW was granted a spotlight by the propagation Gods
and made the utmost of it - well done.
The Aurora assistance mentioned by SJ2W, and also MZ5A & MZ5B from their
Northerly location had the opposite effect here. The band was unstable, I would
get rates of 2/3/4 per minute then zilch for periods up to 5 minutes. Stns would
call then disappear before they finished sending their call, I always do my best
to persist but don't recall abandoning so many incomplete contacts previously. I
guess the higher bands were pretty much the same and this year will throw up a
greater number of busted calls than previous recent years on this band anyway..
Best times here were mornings, it was notable how cndx started to deteriorate
after local noon and the band closed pretty quickly after sunset which comes
shortly after 14.30z here. After that we are left with propagation to Africa
(poorly represented) South America (as far as I could tell those guys, in the
mass, took a rain check on WW this year) and Carrib. There are so many
available mlts from Carrib and Central America so it was disappointing that the
whole weekend I didn't hear one strong signal from that region, they were scarce
and, without exception, extremely weak. It does occur to me that the scarcity
was due to the fact that most of that area ops are single op stns and would be
working the higher bands making the most of the propagation and when they get
back down to 20m it is too late here.
It has been some years since I did an S/B on 20m and I have lost touch with
propagation on that band, it took some time to find my feet, I had forgotten
just how long a period of time the Long Path from Asia and Oceania is open. The
Short Path to those areas was not great, JA's were weak and tropical belt
countries mainly absent, I worked more of the latter on the LP. I spent an
Ocean of time calling TX8D in z32 never getting close and couldn't figure why
the central and west Eu's were making it, deciding to try the LP was a
revelation in increased sig strength and needed very few calls. I am too used
to doing the single bands in recent years on either 10 or 15m where sigs are SP
in late morning.
Useful time spent was 22 hrs plus a couple of hours or so evenings when the
band opened briefly for short periods, Saturday evening was a write off, I
hadn't anticipated that the XYL's 'X Factor' singers talent show on TV was to
be the highlight of my evening!
Missing Zones were z2 (was there anybody there?) z10 + z23. never came across
them, surprised about z23 as I usually get JT plus the Chinese and Russian stns
based in that zone.
Highlights - Being called by KH6, RI1 (the Russian Antartic base), no less than
four Alaskans and, best of all, a call from XE2B for a double mlt, especially
pleasing as z6 is always a black hole for me.
Lowlights - No doubt about it that S&P is getting harder. In addition to
the non-signers there has been such an increase in undisciplined operating by
continuous callers so even where the dx stn is signing we cannot get the call
due to the noise those lids make, Just what is the point of calling when they
do not listen? Next - a rhetorical question - how do we get the big amp bully
boys who land or your qrg, and ignore your requests to move, to learn some
manners?.
Finally - not a complaint but an observation. Have you noticed how often, on
second day, when you get two callers, work the first then anticipating the
second caller find that he is not there! Any theories about those guys?, for
sure they are not contesters, are they out for a Sunday stroll and have a very
short boredom factor or are they miffed that they were not selected first
because their antenna must be better or amp bigger, ignoring so many other
reasons why the human ear detects what it does.
Despite band condx WW is a great contest and will always be a deal of fun -
thanks guys for your company and contacts.
73 Brian C4Z. / 5B4AIZ.
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