CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: W6QU
Operator(s): W8QZA
Station: W8QZA
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: San Diego, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 29.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 1 1 1
80: 34 11 13
40: 44 11 18
20: 147 25 56
15: 44 16 28
10: 1 1 1
------------------------------
Total: 271 65 117 Total Score = 127,218
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
STATION W8QZA:
Radio: Elecraft K-2, 5 Watts.
Antennas:
10-15-20 Meters: 3 el Stepp-IR up 32 feet
40 Meters: Butternut HF-2V Vertical with 3 radials
80 Meters: Inverted L with 2 radials
40 & 160 Meters: DX-LB trap dipole up 30 feet
----------------------------------------------------
60 years ago, I sent in my first contest entry ever to the CQ World Wide DX CW
contest. It is still one of the highlights of my year and always full of fun and
challenge!
What a change over the years. Back then it was a bunch of paper log pages
stapled to a cover sheet and stuffed into a manila envelope and mailed off after
a trip to the post office and licking lots of stamps. Now its a few clicks of a
mouse with nearly instant confirmation of submission.
The big story for me was converting my useless 160 Meter inverted L to 80
Meters. Suddenly 80 Meters is a working band for me! My 80 M Qs jumped from 8 or
10 to 34 and my 80 M DXCC jumped from 4 or 5 to 13.
10 Meters: I never heard a station except when N6CW graciously answered one of
my many blank CQs to give me my double mult. Thanks Terry!
15 Meters: I never heard a single European station. All Qs were SA, Caribbean,
and the Pacific.
20 Meters: This band had incredible openings to Europe both days from about
15:00 to 16:30 Z. Almost all my 48 Euro Qs were in these times. On Sunday, I
seemed to have the Euro stations to myself getting many on the first call.
40 Meters: I rarely heard Europe, but managed to get EA8, CN, and CR3. This is
the next antenna that needs work, the Butternut HF-2V just doesn't perform.
80 Meters: I managed to get into the Caribbean, the very north part of SA, and
the Pacific as I said above. Best Q was EF8R.
160 Meters: The DX-LB barely gets me out of my back yard. Thanks again to N6CW
for the double mult!
Best Q was ZR2A calling blank CQs up the band on 20 early Sunday afternoon.
THANKS for the mighty struggle to pull me out! Also some European countries I
seldom get to work including 9H and TK0C.
My DXCC was 62 and my WAZ was 26, up from 55 and 22 last year. 175 of my 271 Qs
were off continent.
I used Winkeyer to send my CW for the first time in this contest. When I used an
ordinary USB to serial port converter, it sent CW but it was "sketchy"
and irregular. This solved that problem completely.
Murphy took a vacation, and all my stuff worked. When I think of everything that
has to work during a contest (radio, laptop, Winkeyer, rotator, SteppIR motors
etc.etc.) it is a wonder that it all works so well!
On the other hand, despite my warnings, the grandkids needed watching on
Saturday afternoon and I missed about 6 hours of prime op time, ...about the
same lost time as a major rig malfunction! I have learned that when 5 and 3 year
old grandsons come over, it is almost impossible to work a DX contest!
See you in the ARRL DX contests. I think the ARRL 10 Meter is destined to be a
bust.
Bill Parker W6QU - W8QZA
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