CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2019
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 9
80: 452
40: 605
20: 2079
15: 44
10: 4
------------
Total: 3193 Prefixes = 1151 Total Score = 10,887,309
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
I operated more than 36 hrs but this score is what I had at the 36 hour mark.
After the devastating January 20 ice storm I lost ALL of my wire antennas and
sustained damage to many of my yagis. They were not built to withstand 1"
radial ice combined with 50 + mph wind gusts and temps of -10 F. My qth
averages 6 ice storms per year but normally with less ice and less wind - and it
makes a big difference. With trees crashing all around and no power and no way
to get the generator out of the garage onto the 1" of skating rink ice on a
tilted driveway, antenna and station rebuilding are impossible and impractical.
Even two months later the solid ice remained underneath and when it rained it
froze on top of the original ice making it even slicker than before. I couldn't
even safely get out to the tree that fell and crushed my 80 meter 4-square until
5 days before the WPXSSB, at which time it warmed up and the tree work and brush
clearing for all of my antennas began. Every day I chainsawed, brush cleared,
slingshotted and / or rebuilt antennas. The good news was that I got into
somewhat better shape, the bad news was that I did not have enough time to fix
everything. It did not matter. ARRLDXSSB had awful cndx and the WPXSSB was 4
weeks later, precisely when the poor cndx were expected to return, and return
they did. There was no mercy from the poor geomagnetic cndx or the sunspots.
SSB, which unlike CW, is all about being loud, is punishing if you are not loud
enough on the open bands to run. Loud enough means that you are SO loud that
you can be heard above the din, splatter, intermod, and mega amps that are used
to get ones signal above the general noise level on the ONE open band. The
disparity in scores this weekend made it clear who was loud enough and who was
not.
HIGHLIGHTS of the weekend:
1) I was able to do the chainsawing of the trees destroyed in the ice storm,
clear most of the brush and logs and then fix or rebuild most of the antennas.
So I had some form of antenna on each band.
2) My body held up after the intense physical work of the previous 6 days and,
somewhat toughened, helped me endure the full 36 hours. That was a major
victory this weekend. But all that work and no rest really hurt my body, and
THEN I had to set up the station on Friday.
It was nice this year, unlike last year, to NOT have major surgery 2 1/2 weeks
before the contest. However, I may not be so lucky next year as I have a very
major and challenging abdominal surgery coming up after CQWWCW this Fall.
3) I have never heard so many world class stations and operators operating in
the SOABHP NON-assisted category in the contest. It was even more competitive
than CQWWSSB! WPXSSB has finally come of age. AWESOME!
4) It was WPXSSB weekend - LOTS of stations to work, lots of qso's with old and
new friends and lots of great prefixes!
LOWLIGHTS
5) I had a great frequency on 40 just before the start of the contest, and then,
exactly THREE minutes before, two incredibly loud Italians began a ragchew on
top of me in Italian - they were both 20 over S9 and I could not hear anything
through them. I lost my run freq and was not able to get another as the entire
world was on 40 SSB. I went to 80 but there was not much to work and the EU
stations were much weaker than on 40. 20 of course was virtually dead. I was
immediately behind and losing 50 - 80 qso's per hour to the competition. I was
non-competitive right from the beginning. The fact that I didn't have a
rotatable 40 meter yagi like everyone else just killed me this weekend.
6) I was not being heard well on 20 for most of the weekend. With ZERO sunspots
and a K=4, I am too far West on 20 - 160 to be heard well relative to the
Eastern New England stations. I can be competitive on some bands but that is it
- certainly not loud most of the time. Phone is about being loud and running
fast. You need to be heard over the din in order to run well, unlike cw where
you mostly just need to be heard. This happens at the bottom of every sunspot
cycle when being in Eastern New England REALLY matters - ESPECIALLY on 40 -
160.
7) Cndx were so poor and the qrm level was so bad at times that stations that
would normally work me cqed on top of me and ran on top of me. An amazing
example of this was when I was struggling to run high in the band on 20 on
Sunday morning and, in the space of ONE HOUR, first 8T8A started running EU on
top of me, then after he left A61FK showed up and started to run EU on top of
me. He was LOUD here and he refused to move for 20 minutes. Eventually he
qsy'ed but then YB2IQ showed up and he was running JA AND EU over me. He peaked
S9 and had a roaring pileup! I had to move - I couldn't copy the EU stations
through him. It was just bizarre - like the propagation gods decided to torture
me this weekend ;-) Under more normal cndx these guys call me or at least they
qsy when I ask them. But not this weekend.
8) Cndx were awful here. On 40, a 3L wire beam at 50’ on 40 at the bottom of
cycle cndx with a K = 4, means that I just get obliterated. I couldn’t run
– my signal was too weak. The contest was effectively over for me at 0000z on
Friday night. Very discouraging. 20 wasn’t much better. It was the most
frustrating WPX SSB ever for me. The days of attempting to compete against the
mega stations with their 40 meter stacked yagis with my puny low wire beam are
long in the past. You can’t be 2 – 3 s-units weaker than your competition
on a super crowded band and hope to run and compete.
This will be very different in a few years when the sunspots return and 40 and
80 become somewhat less prominent and the stations spread out across the 2 or 3
open bands rather than the ONE open band.
9) Hellacious line noise. All weekend to the South and Northeast peaking S9 at
times. And then when it started to rain and get windy on Saturday night, the
loading badly changed on the 80 meter 4-square and no EU stations were hearing
me. I found out why on Monday morning – one element of the antenna was not
where I had put it. And that heavy rain caused the dreaded “beating Tom Tom
drums” on 20 with S9 + 20 noise level and you can’t hear anyone or anything
until the rain subsides.
It was a pretty miserable experience and if I didn’t love this contest so much
I would have quit.
9) I made some key operating mistakes. Lesson to the wise - you can operate the
same DX contest for 40+ years and still screw up BIG.
My station needs major work and I need a 40 meter beam on the tower and a better
place for my 80 M 4-square. I also need receiving antennas. And I need to
somehow find and track down and eliminate the longstanding sources of noise that
plaque me.
10) Some of the most rapid and deep qsb that I could ever remember. Some
stations faded from S9 to S0 before they finished giving their call once! Almost
every qso needed multiple repeats of callsign or number or both. I don't think
that I even went more than 3 qso's without a repeat. The vast majority of qso's
were a struggle - it was some of the toughest operating that I can recall -
slow, difficult and frustrating.
There were some great scores this weekend - my congratulations to Velimir K3JO
posting that outstanding score from K1LZ!
The WPXSSB is wildly popular with incredible activity especially in Europe and
doing better than ever. That makes me VERY happy!
Tnx for the qso's and the mults!
73
Bob KQ2M
kq2m@kq2m.com
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