March 2000) at
01/11/2000 09:17:50
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CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST 2000
Call: 5X1Z Country: Uganda
Mode: SSB Category: Single Operator
Single band
High Power
Zone: 37
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES COUNTRIES
10 5169 15406 2.98 40 159
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 5169 15406 2.98 40 159 => 3,065,794
CQ WW SSB 2000 recollection from 5X1Z. 10m Single Band.
Got off to a bad start.
After arriving back in Uganda after a 12 hour flight from Geneva I managed
to get all things ready during Friday. I set all the clocks for GMT but
managed to forget the timezone shift of my alarm clock.. Alas! missed the
first hour of the contest!
Things quickly got better
The propagation was getting really good and at 10z I had the fastest run.
QSO rate of 291 during one hour was helping a lot. (The next one
was slightly slower at 285.)
During the same hour I had also completed DXCC.. Thus DXCC on single band
within 10 hours of operation. While the Zone counter was up at 30.
During this magic hour I had the fortune of being called by KL7RA, making
sure I was not going to suffer to the end to get Zone 1 in the log. This in
the middle of a European/Asian pileup. Well knowing that some of the UA0's
are very close to KL7 I was hoping for this.
At 1150z TF3A came to me giving me the other zone of worry. Zone 40.
At 1300z VO2CQ called in and gave me the illusive Zone 2.
At 1530z I secured Zone 6 from XE1IDJ. While I knew zone 6 was never a
problem I now remained with only one Zone_.. 31.
Where are the Zone 31 stations
Sitting in Uganda, this is the most difficult of them all. Knowing that I
had been so lucky in the first 15 hours of the contest I still remained
with many hours to find a KH6 or any of the other countries in Zone 31_ Not
so many of them are around in the contest and!! can be heard from Uganda.
Somehow Zone 31 is never easy compared to Zone 32_ KH8/N5OLS was featuring
in the spectrum as a solid S9 +20 beacon whenever I tuned the band even
though he is on the other side of the world from Uganda.
By 0130z the second day I had still no Zone 31 in the log and asked one of
the VK2 guys if they had heard or worked any Zone 31 stations. The answer
was. "Yeahh mate there is the odd KH6 around". So there was still hope.
It was however not until 0420z the second day that NH6YK found my pileup
and got through. Within minutes KH7JJ came in to confirm Zone 31 in my log
aswell. It meant WAZ worked in 29 hours.
Getting the Q's
At 0528z the second morning I passed 3000 QSO's. This was giving me a good
hope that I might catch 5X1T's score from 99 which was made at my station.
He had made 4517 QSO's for a total of 2.812.630 points.
Things was looking good but somehow the pileups were not getting as heavy
as during day 1. Thus it was to become a struggle!
The weather changed and I had a massive Thunderstorm just outside my
windows.. The lightning was striking about 1 km away and the static crashes
that followed was not helping. Luckilly it lasted only 2 hours and I did
not need to close down the station during this. It did though impact the
pileups and propagation in general.
At 1340z I passed Peters QSO total of 4517 but as I had only 151 Country
multipliers compared to Peter 175 I was still way lower in score.
The pileup at this time was not self going anymore. I had to use extensive
CQ calling to keep the rate up.
At 1600z the propagation died down and I had 4780 QSO's in the log. I was
"only" 80.000 points away from Peter's score. Knowing this could be an
impossible difference in score if the band did not recover somewhat. It
looks like there was plenty of time to get enough QSO's but 10 meter has a
habit of playing up with it's propagation.
I started tuning the band working what I could to get whatever points in
the log. Made some contester very happy b just showing up giving them a
double multiplier_ Some of them could not even figure out the callsign! If
I couldn't get the pileup going I was going to squezze the QSO's out of the
band until I reached Peter's score!
There was in the end no more stations to get by tuning. Not even
multipliers could be found so I went back to call CQ.
A QSO rate of 5 an hour is not a very impressive score though being in a
rare country especially not when not using a Voicerecorder.. It was tearing
up my voice.
It was 2000z and I was fighting to get some W6's through the noise. I was
obviously very much readable but I could barely get anyone out in the noise
on my side_ It was like true one-way propagation. Luckilly I remembered the
calls from several of the guys from my times in other contests and
DX-peditions so between my memory and the master data file I was getting
them confirmed. Basically I was hearing one letter guessing the call and
had the guy confirm his own callsign_ Amazingly I was not missing the calls
by far.. (You guys calls in LA I know by
heart nowJ)
In the process I though reached the first goal.. I was over Peters score
with a margin for any errors the CQWW comitte could find. So now everything
was smooth sailing from then on. I had concluded that with so short time
and the propagation (on my end) being what it was I would not reach 5000
QSO's or even get close to the 3 million mark. I was only 100 QSO a way
from the 5000 but it felt like a thousand.
The band start boiling
Every 3-5 minutes or so I got a QSO in the log.. Most of the time loud US
stations in Zone 4 or 5. At 2044z K4VUD came booming in and simply
announced on the frequency.. "5X1Z in Uganda is on the frequency why don't
you guys come and get him!"
It was like he had magic in his words because within 10 minutes the band
started boiling again, it was no longer one way propagation. The band had
opened up giving me the chance Peter never got the previous year and I had
not had the evening before. At 2130z I passed 5000 QSO's and at 2200z I
passed the 3 million mark.
At 2230 I worked HR1AAB to complete 159 DXCC multipliers. At this time the
pileup was long gone and I was again tuning the bands for the odd QSO and
multiplier. At 2330 I closed down.. there was still stations on the band
but the propagation was again changing. The last 30 minutes had only given
me 5 QSO's despite hard CQ calling.
The result
5169 valid QSO's (Raw) (5264 with dupes)
40 Zones
159 DXCC
For a total of 3,065.794 points
Statistics
Fastest minute 9 (540/hr)
Fastest 10 minute period 61 (366/hr)
Fastest hour 291
Average Rate 109 per hour
Top country scores
K 874 QSO's
JA 842 QSO's
DL 570 QSO's (at one stage it felt I was working a DL contest! They just
kept coming!)
While this is not a world record (or even African record) on 10m it is
definetly a very good result from so far south and east in Africa. I
challenge anyone to find a station and beat this "non-record" from East and
South Africa on 10m. Maybe if I can get some more antenna systems up I
could challenge ZD8Z on 10m from here it is "only" 700.000 points more
The "Super Mega" station I used consist of the following
Kenwood TS-850S with Inrad SSB Filter
C-4XL up 15 Meter
Alpha 91B
Laptop for Logging with CT
No voicekeyer!! Every single QSO and call was made on my own!
No second radio (explains low DXCC total as there must have been more
countries on.)
Final comments
Thanks for all the QSO's guys n girls.. I had superb time in the pileups
and enjoyed evey minute of this contest.
Sorry for all the guys who wanted me to move band for that elusive Zone 37
on other bands_ It was the same for everyone.. I did not favor anyone!
See you next year! If not sooner!
Mats 5X1Z (SM7PKK)
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