CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: N2IC
Operator(s): N2IC
Station: N2IC
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 34 13 25
80: 232 28 69
40: 1135 34 106
20: 778 34 104
15: 1285 35 121
10: 1060 35 113
------------------------------
Total: 4524 179 538 Total Score = 9,280,848
Club:
Comments:
I have been waiting a year for this contest. Last year, the blower in one of my
venerable Alpha 76's completely died during the 04Z hour. That took away any
chance of doing SOAB with adequate SO2R capabilities, so I switched to
single-10. Still fun, but not the same. (Note: This year, I borrowed an amp for
a spare. Good insurance against an Alpha failure that didn't happen. Thanks,
NM5SD)
I almost convinced myself to operate in the assisted category this year. With
the solar flux forecasted to drop into the 110 range, I didn't think there was
any chance of coming close to the W5 record, set by my long-time friend K5GN
last year. Well, the forecasters had it wrong - the flux held in the 180 area
all week, and the graph of solar flares was practically a flat line, both
promising excellent conditions. The decision was made Friday morning - SOAB,
unassisted.
Very little last minute work to the station. N5FO came over on Wednesday to
help me put down more 160 radials. On this rocky hilltop, with lots high grass,
shrubs and beargrass, that is no easy task. Thanks, Sam !
The contest started out "as expected". From here, that means run JA
on the highest open band (10), and seek out Asian mults on the next band down
(15). When 10 closes, shift to 15/20. The first real test of conditions happens
when 20 becomes unproductive, and I have to go to 40 - will it be runnable to
Europe ? Horray ! 40 was in great shape, and stayed good to EU until 10Z. 80
was marginal to EU - Worked only zone 14 and IO5O. 160 was good to the
Carribean, but nothing heard towards the east beyond VP9/N3AD. 40 was good to
JA at the same time as EU was playing, so it was good to split power between
the big beam on Europe, and the "Sweepstakes" low wire beam oriented
to the northwest. 80 was very good to JA Saturday morning, but BY5CD was the
only other Asian worked in that opening. Before I made the QSY to the high
bands, 160 was very poor to JA. Maybe it improved closer to sunrise, but I'll
never know. Didn't stick around the low bands much past 1300Z, as 20 was
already open to EU. With sunrise a few minutes away and I needed to get to 15
and 10 as soon as propagation allowed. When you're SOAB here in the western
USA, you can't afford to play low band DXer at sunrise.
The 10/15 EU opening was both exhilarating and frustrating. Great rates, great
fun, but not for long enough to do either band justice. From here, you are
lucky when 15 opens by 1400Z, 10 opens by 1430Z, and the EU party is over only
3 hours later. I rate the "quality" of the 10 meter opening by how
deep it is. If I work UA3's, it's a great opening - The sun has already set in
UA3 before the sun is up here. On Saturday, I split the EU running time this
way:
Start 15: 1338Z
Start 10: 1447Z
End 10: 1717Z
End 15: 1804Z
Yes, I did work a number of zone 16 stations on 10, but no zone 17.
When 15 closed to EU, I was expecting a slow afternoon. From this far south and
west, 20 is not usually productive for running. The daytime absorption is too
high. This is one big difference comparing New Mexico with my old station in
Colorado, 550 miles to the north. However, surprise, 20 was excellent to
Europe, and I was able to run for the next 3 hours.
The last 3 hours of day 1 were familiar. Run JA on 10 and 15, scour 10, 15 and
20 for mults.
At the 24 hour mark, I had just over 4 million points. The K5ZD axiom is that
your final score will be double your 24 hour score. Hmmmm.. 8M. Just over the
current W5 record, but, just under after accounting for log checking. My
multipliers were not good at 24 hours. Maybe if I really push for mults in the
last 24 hours I can clear that record. At the same time, I made the decision to
go the full 48 hours, with no break. I would hate to miss the W5 record just
because I slept a few hours. Of course, the best laid plans could easily go
awry - equipment failure, operator fatigue, poorer conditions.
10 and 15 both closed to Asia earlier on Saturday night, but 20 meters was
better, with more JA's than I expected. I went straight to 80 at 04Z, and,
surprise, it was much better than the first day. All the big guns in zones 14
and 15 were strong (by New Mexico standards) and easily worked, sometimes
beating out stations from the eastern USA. Too bad the good EU opening didn't
extend to 160. My only European on 160 was Terry, G4AMT. Terry has a fine
transatlantic QTH, and great ears.
40 was again excellent to Europe and Asia, simultaneosly, between 08Z-10Z.
Gerd, V31YN, called on 40, and we successfully moved to 80 and 160. This
started a trend of successful moves with other good DX that continued through
the remainder of the contest. 20 teased me all night. It never closed, but when
the big guns are only S7, instead of the usual S9+20, it's tough. Maybe if I had
a stack on 20 I could play with the big boys, but not with a single monobander.
There were a few brief periods during the night when it would be truly open and
I could run, but just as quickly, the switch would turn "off". 9K2HN
was a beacon all night, both nights, frequently the strongest station on the
band.
80 was poor to JA. However, magic happened just before sunrise. Heard a very
strong HS0ZAR doing S&P, coming in on the SW antenna. Unfortunately, in the
few minutes I had before moving to the high bands, I never heard Fred running.
However, that gave me the idea that I should look for long path Europe. That
turned out to be very rewarding - OH, ES, YL, LA, zone 17. All new mults. The
last station worked on 80 was BG9XD in zone 23. I had been trying to work him
sporadically for about 15 minutes. Lots of multipath and no definite peak
between the NW and SW antennas.
Moved to 15 at 1347Z. The pileups seemed more intense than Saturday, and there
was multipath on zone 16 stations, making copy difficult. I was anxious to get
to 10 meters, but it was late opening. I moved there at 1458Z, but the pileups
didn't follow. That made it more pleasant to operate, but it didn't take long
to be getting unanswered CQ's. When I was working only zone 14 and Italian zone
15 stations, I knew the party was over. Back to 15 at 1620Z.
The last 6 hours seemed very familiar. 20 was only average to Europe, and later
on, 15 and 10 were pretty worked out to JA. The runs were really walks, but that
made it easier to use the 2nd radio, and because the run rates weren't high, I
was more patient working through pileups for new mults than I was the first
day. Many thanks to VK6VZ and 9M6XRO for their multi-band QSY's in the last few
hours for new mults.
It was a great contest. I cannot remember a CQWW CW with all bands playing so
well. Going into the contest, I couldn't imagine breaking 8M. My 7M 2012 effort
was a personal best (and W5 record at that time), and I didn't think I would
ever do better. I'm still in shock about breaking 9M.
Despite the diligent use of the 2nd radio for S&P, it always surprises me
the easy stuff I miss: A71BX never heard anywhere, XE and zone 2 on 20, ZD8O on
15,...
Thanks for all the QSOs. Also, thanks to 99.9% of the non-USA stations who
signed their calls frequently.
Station:
Radios: TS-590S x 2
Amps: Alpha 76CA, Alpha 76PA
Software: N1MM Logger+
Antennas:
160: Shunt-fed tower, sloping dipole
80: 2 el wire inverted-vee beam switchable NE/SW @ 105', rotatable dipole @
115'
40: 4el M2 40M4LLDD @ 110', 2 el wire beam NW @ 50'
20: 5 el @ 60', KT-36XA @ 75'
15: 6 el @ 32', KT-36XA @ 75'
10: 6 el @ 30', KT-36XA @ 75'
Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat
CALLSIGN: N2IC
CONTEST: CQ-WW-CW
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
OPERATORS: N2IC
--> TX8C has an unknown country prefix.
--> E6XG has an unknown country prefix.
--> Z61DX has an unknown country prefix.
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 0 0 9 148 157 157 3.5
0100 0 0 0 0 53 78 131 288 6.4
0200 0 0 0 15 123 4 142 430 9.5
0300 0 0 39 42 8 0 89 519 11.5
0400 0 20 50 5 0 0 75 594 13.1
0500 12 0 55 0 0 0 67 661 14.6
0600 2 20 47 0 0 0 69 730 16.1
0700 4 9 81 0 0 0 94 824 18.2
0800 1 7 82 4 0 0 94 918 20.3
0900 2 4 101 1 0 0 108 1026 22.7
1000 2 6 108 3 0 0 119 1145 25.3
1100 1 70 34 0 0 0 105 1250 27.6
1200 0 30 74 0 0 0 104 1354 29.9
1300 1 0 13 57 44 0 115 1469 32.5
1400 0 0 0 4 88 52 144 1613 35.7
1500 0 0 0 0 23 139 162 1775 39.2
1600 0 0 0 0 58 62 120 1895 41.9
1700 0 0 0 0 84 29 113 2008 44.4
1800 0 0 0 98 20 5 123 2131 47.1
1900 0 0 0 110 20 0 130 2261 50.0
2000 0 0 0 43 6 27 76 2337 51.7
2100 0 0 0 32 12 31 75 2412 53.3
2200 0 0 0 0 12 90 102 2514 55.6
2300 0 0 0 6 40 56 102 2616 57.8
0000 0 0 0 20 84 9 113 2729 60.3
0100 0 0 10 8 57 31 106 2835 62.7
0200 0 0 2 68 38 0 108 2943 65.1
0300 0 0 17 85 0 0 102 3045 67.3
0400 0 26 7 3 0 0 36 3081 68.1
0500 3 16 34 0 0 0 53 3134 69.3
0600 3 10 42 0 0 0 55 3189 70.5
0700 0 1 74 4 0 0 79 3268 72.2
0800 1 1 57 0 0 0 59 3327 73.5
0900 1 2 74 0 0 0 77 3404 75.2
1000 1 1 43 0 0 0 45 3449 76.2
1100 0 1 22 68 0 0 91 3540 78.2
1200 0 0 58 30 0 0 88 3628 80.2
1300 0 8 11 2 25 0 46 3674 81.2
1400 0 0 0 0 162 7 169 3843 84.9
1500 0 0 0 0 0 158 158 4001 88.4
1600 0 0 0 0 91 37 128 4129 91.3
1700 0 0 0 5 82 11 98 4227 93.4
1800 0 0 0 13 41 0 54 4281 94.6
1900 0 0 0 7 7 16 30 4311 95.3
2000 0 0 0 24 13 11 48 4359 96.4
2100 0 0 0 11 31 0 42 4401 97.3
2200 0 0 0 4 5 48 57 4458 98.5
2300 0 0 0 6 49 11 66 4524 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 34 232 1135 778 1285 1060 4524
Gross QSOs=4575 Dupes=51 Net QSOs=4524
Unique callsigns worked = 3091
The best 60 minute rate was 174/hour from 1413 to 1512
The best 30 minute rate was 180/hour from 1443 to 1512
The best 10 minute rate was 204/hour from 1503 to 1512
The best 1 minute rates were:
5 QSOs/minute 9 times.
4 QSOs/minute 119 times.
3 QSOs/minute 484 times.
2 QSOs/minute 823 times.
1 QSOs/minute 905 times.
There were 820 bandchanges and 386 (8.5%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 23 44 99 78 110 76 430 9.5
South America 6 13 19 23 37 44 142 3.1
Europe 1 72 503 475 666 455 2172 48.0
Asia 1 91 480 183 436 431 1622 35.9
Africa 1 6 14 11 12 10 54 1.2
Oceania 2 6 19 8 22 44 101 2.2
??? 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 34 232 1135 778 1285 1060 4524
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 54
4 886
5 1406
6 2095
7 17
8 55
9 6
10 5
------------------ C o u n t r y S u m m a r y ------------------
Country 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------------
3B8 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
3D2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
3V 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
3W 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
4L 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
4O 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
*4U1V 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
4X 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
5B 0 0 1 1 3 1 6 0.1
5W 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
6W 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
6Y 1 1 2 1 1 0 6 0.1
8P 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.1
8Q 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
9A 0 2 9 6 10 8 35 0.8
9K 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
9M2 0 0 0 2 1 1 4 0.1
9M6 0 0 2 1 3 1 7 0.2
9V 0 0 1 0 3 2 6 0.1
9Y 1 0 1 1 1 0 4 0.1
A2 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
A7 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
BV 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
BY 0 2 13 5 26 12 58 1.3
C6 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
CE 0 1 1 1 1 5 9 0.2
CM 1 0 2 3 3 2 11 0.2
CN 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 0.1
CT 0 1 1 1 1 2 6 0.1
CT3 0 2 2 2 2 1 9 0.2
CU 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 0.1
CX 0 2 0 1 3 2 8 0.2
D2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
DL 0 14 112 82 99 91 398 8.8
DU 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
E5/s 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.0
E7 0 0 0 2 2 3 7 0.2
EA 0 4 14 13 23 16 70 1.5
EA6 0 0 2 2 2 0 6 0.1
EA8 0 1 3 3 2 3 12 0.3
EA9 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.0
EI 0 2 3 3 4 3 15 0.3
ER 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0.1
ES 0 1 2 1 3 2 9 0.2
EU 0 0 4 1 9 2 16 0.4
EX 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
F 0 4 22 14 29 14 83 1.8
FG 0 1 1 0 0 1 3 0.1
FM 1 1 0 1 1 1 5 0.1
FY 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.0
G 1 7 48 26 42 28 152 3.4
GD 0 0 1 0 2 1 4 0.1
GI 0 0 1 0 1 1 3 0.1
GJ 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
GM 0 1 3 1 9 2 16 0.4
GU 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
GW 0 0 2 0 3 2 7 0.2
HA 0 3 11 15 21 15 65 1.4
HB 0 0 7 4 12 7 30 0.7
HC 1 2 2 2 3 3 13 0.3
HH 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0.1
HI 0 1 0 1 1 1 4 0.1
HK 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 0.1
HK0/a 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
HL 0 0 12 1 9 4 26 0.6
HP 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
HR 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 0.1
HS 0 0 1 2 4 1 8 0.2
HZ 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.0
I 0 7 32 33 36 28 136 3.0
IS 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
*IT9 0 1 1 5 5 3 15 0.3
J3 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
J6 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
J7 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
JA 1 85 428 113 365 396 1388 30.7
JW 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
K 1 4 23 23 31 16 98 2.2
KG4 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 0.0
KH0 0 0 1 0 1 1 3 0.1
KH2 0 0 2 0 1 1 4 0.1
KH6 2 4 3 3 5 9 26 0.6
KH8 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
KL 1 1 4 1 3 6 16 0.4
KP2 2 2 2 2 3 2 13 0.3
KP4 2 2 3 1 2 1 11 0.2
LA 0 1 12 9 6 4 32 0.7
LU 0 0 1 2 3 9 15 0.3
LX 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
LY 0 1 9 10 8 6 34 0.8
LZ 0 2 8 6 6 4 26 0.6
OA 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
OE 0 1 3 1 6 4 15 0.3
OH 0 3 13 17 15 8 56 1.2
OH0 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 0.1
OK 0 5 20 17 38 34 114 2.5
OM 0 0 6 7 8 8 29 0.6
ON 0 1 10 10 15 13 49 1.1
OX 0 1 1 0 1 1 4 0.1
OZ 0 1 6 8 7 1 23 0.5
P4 1 3 1 2 2 3 12 0.3
PA 0 2 18 21 26 18 85 1.9
PJ2 1 1 1 1 2 1 7 0.2
PJ4 1 2 2 2 2 2 11 0.2
PY 0 1 5 6 13 15 40 0.9
PZ 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
S5 0 1 17 15 19 11 63 1.4
S7 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
SM 0 2 12 19 12 19 64 1.4
SP 0 0 20 22 34 32 108 2.4
SV 0 0 1 2 3 2 8 0.2
SV9 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
TA 0 0 2 1 0 1 4 0.1
TF 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
TI 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
TK 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
UA 0 0 31 57 63 18 169 3.7
UA2 0 0 1 0 2 1 4 0.1
UA9 0 4 19 43 20 10 96 2.1
UN 0 0 1 5 0 0 6 0.1
UR 0 0 13 13 41 22 89 2.0
V2 0 1 1 0 1 1 4 0.1
V3 1 1 1 1 0 0 4 0.1
V4 1 0 1 1 2 1 6 0.1
V5 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0.0
VE 5 18 47 35 47 25 177 3.9
VK 0 2 4 2 3 17 28 0.6
VP2E 0 0 2 0 1 2 5 0.1
VP2M 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
VP5 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
VP9 1 1 0 0 1 1 4 0.1
VR 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0.1
VU4 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
XE 3 2 2 0 1 3 11 0.2
YB 0 0 5 1 5 5 16 0.4
YL 0 1 5 8 7 0 21 0.5
YN 0 1 1 2 2 1 7 0.2
YO 0 0 7 7 9 8 31 0.7
YS 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
YU 0 1 10 7 15 7 40 0.9
YV 0 0 2 3 1 2 8 0.2
Z3 0 0 1 0 3 0 4 0.1
ZB 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
ZD8 0 1 1 1 0 1 4 0.1
ZF 1 1 2 2 1 2 9 0.2
ZL 0 0 1 1 3 6 11 0.2
ZP 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0.0
ZS 0 0 4 0 2 1 7 0.2
??? 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 34 232 1135 778 1285 1060 4524
------------ M u l t i p l i e r S u m m a r y ------------
Mult 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
25 1 85 440 114 374 400 1414 31.3
14 1 42 276 216 295 225 1055 23.3
15 0 28 161 170 237 173 769 17.0
16 0 0 47 69 113 42 271 6.0
04 4 13 33 30 35 22 137 3.0
08 10 14 19 14 22 19 98 2.2
20 0 2 19 19 23 17 80 1.8
03 1 4 19 16 20 10 70 1.5
05 2 5 17 13 23 8 68 1.5
24 0 1 14 5 28 12 60 1.3
09 5 7 9 10 11 9 51 1.1
19 0 3 12 11 12 9 47 1.0
11 0 1 5 6 15 15 42 0.9
28 0 0 8 4 12 9 33 0.7
18 0 0 4 20 7 1 32 0.7
33 1 4 7 7 6 5 30 0.7
17 0 1 6 21 2 0 30 0.7
31 2 4 3 3 5 9 26 0.6
13 0 2 1 3 6 11 23 0.5
30 0 1 4 1 2 15 23 0.5
07 2 3 3 4 4 5 21 0.5
32 0 0 3 1 5 9 18 0.4
01 1 1 4 1 3 7 17 0.4
10 1 2 3 3 4 4 17 0.4
26 0 0 1 4 5 1 11 0.2
38 0 0 5 1 3 2 11 0.2
06 3 2 2 0 1 3 11 0.2
12 0 1 1 1 1 5 9 0.2
40 0 1 2 1 3 2 9 0.2
27 0 0 3 0 2 3 8 0.2
21 0 0 1 5 1 1 8 0.2
29 0 1 0 1 1 2 5 0.1
35 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
36 0 1 1 1 0 2 5 0.1
02 0 1 1 0 1 1 4 0.1
39 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.1
23 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 0.0
22 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 34 232 1135 778 1285 1060 4524
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 2220
2 bands 511
3 bands 207
4 bands 113
5 bands 31
6 bands 9
The following stations were worked on 6 bands:
JA3YBK VC7M PJ2T NP2X HR2J CN2AA
KH7XX HD2A HK1NA
------- S i n g l e B a n d Q S O s ------
Band 160 80 40 20 15 10
----------------------------------------------
QSOs 6 77 554 355 686 542
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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