CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: W6QU
Operator(s): W8QZA
Station: W8QZA
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: San Diego, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 23.4
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 6 4 4
40: 32 12 14
20: 43 11 21
15: 142 21 53
10: 61 15 26
------------------------------
Total: 284 63 118 Total Score = 130,320
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
STATION:
Radio: Elecraft K-2, 5 Watts.
Antennas:
10-15-20 Meters: 3 el Stepp-IR up 32 feet
40 Meters: DX-LB trap dipole up 30 feet
40-80 Meters: Butternut HF-2V Vertical with 3 radials
160 Meters: Inverted L
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Interesting. 10 Meters was MUCH better than the RTTY weekend where I only had
four QSOs on 10 Meters! But overall conditions were much worse and I only had
4 QSOs into Europe in this contest!! And those were CR, CT, EA, and TF, the
western edge of Europe.
I discovered that my Butternut HF-2V vertical has a 2.3 to 1 SWR on 40 M. So
all day Friday I cleaned and scraped, but everything I did actually seemed to
make things a bit worse. Very frustrating!!! Never the less, it seemed to
work reasonably well during the contest. My 160 went south and I never did
solve the problem, so no Qs on 160. ...but I have had SSB contests where it
worked great and I never made any Qs on 160 anyway with my 5 watts!
I finally heard and worked the three Europeans on 15 M late Sunday morning. The
TF was on 20. Cool, because I almost never get Zone 40 in a contest.
DXCC was 58, down from peak years of high 70s to the 90s. WAZ was 23 down from
peak times of 27 to 31.
I did have some great Qs, however, and even broke a pile or two.
10 M: ZD8W whose great sig was the only sig on the band early on Sunday! Also
CE0Y/NO9E in the final minutes of the contest. He was strong and calling blank
CQs so I actually turned on the computer to spot him (I am non-assisted).
15M: V6Z, ZL7G, ZD8W, A31MM,and T32AZ.
20M: T32AZ, ZD8W, and TF3CW.
Nothing special on 40 and 80 with my poor antennas.
Only 4 Qs into Europe (1.8%) compared to 28 (8.5%) in the RTTY contest last
month and 35% in the best years. Losing Europe cuts down on Qs but really
hurts my mults.
I did not CQ at all in this contest. In WPX I can effectively CQ but not in a
contest like this or the ARRL DX where US stations are not worked.
I noticed that N1MM reports my op time as 23.4 hours. It sure seemed like I
spent a lot more time than that in the chair! In checking, I found that in this
contest, N1MM counts any time over 30 minutes with no Qs as being "off
time". It is common for me to go at night for 45 minutes or so on 40 and
80 with no Qs. When I counted only times over 1 hour as "off time" my
op time increased to 30.7 hours which seems far more realistic. However, to be
consistent, I'll continue to report the N1MM time.
Anyway, another great contest. My worst day contesting is better than my best
day working, as the saying goes! See you in the CW contest next month!
73, Bill Parker W8QZA - W6QU qrp
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