CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: W6QU
Operator(s): W8QZA
Station: W8QZA
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: San Diego, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 28.0
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 1
80: 22
40: 27
20: 138
15: 30
10: 4
------------
Total: 222 Prefixes = 168 Total Score = 68,040
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: 1/4 wave vertical with 3 radials
80 Meters: Inverted L
160 Meters: DX-LB trap dipole up 30 feet
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Well, I now know what it is like to work a major DX contest in a pandemic.
There were several things that were very noticeable. First, there was no cluster
of the major multi-multi stations at the bottom of the phone band. The downside
to this for my QRP station was that there were no "go to" stations
that I can always work for an extra mult. Next, there was an almost complete
absence of the top op Caribbean contest stations that I can always count on. No
8P5A, no PJ2T, no ZF1A, no VP2's or P4's ...the list goes on and on. And no
big EA8 or CT3 stations, ...in fact I never worked Africa in this contest.
Conditions were workable but not great. All my contest indices were down about
25% from last year in this contest. DXCC was a feeble 23 and WAZ was only 17.
But even with all that there were still some big thrills for me. My best Q by
far came early Friday eve when I worked RM9I in Zone 18 on 20 M. After that I
tuned up the band and got another Zone 18, RA9P. The propagation path for Zone
18 is over the pole for me and very tough.
10 M. I did hear some South America and managed to work 2 PY's and an LU.
15 M. I worked E52JD near the end of the contest. Jim was not in the contest
but was generously working stations and giving numbers. I never heard Europe or
Africa.
20 M. After getting the two Zone 18 Q's, the rest was normal for bad condx. I
could hear a lot of Europe but nothing strong enough for me to work. But I kept
at it and around noon Sunday heard a distinctly stronger S57DX and got him in
one call!! Then came YT3X and I thought this is it!! ...and, unfortunately, it
was it. I never worked another. Strange that they are both eastern Europe. I
never got either of those two strong DL station who just could not hear me.
40M. VK4HH surprised me by coming right back to me and completing our Q in one
round. And my one contest compliment came when WM9X said "Nice sig!".
Wow, 5 watts on 40. I guess sometimes the propagation is just perfect!
80M. Best Q here was JF2XGF. Very tough for me to work JA on 80 SSB.
160M. My neighbor and top contester, K6AM, provided me with my only Q on this
band. ...and even then he said my sig was weak! (Got to find a better antenna on
160!)
The station did work perfectly during the entire contest. But with QRP there
really isn't muck to break! One major landmark for me is that I finally have my
VOX working perfectly with my computer now. I have had major problems for years
setting levels etc. But with this and the ARRL SSB it seems to be all fixed.
With the pandemic, and with us living in a major metropolitan area, and us being
80 yrs old in the high risk group, I felt it was important to get sleep (lack of
sleep has been shown in some studies to weaken immune systems). So I got 5 hours
the first night divided in two segments and the same for Saturday night. That
little increase worked well and I felt much better at the end of this contest
than usual!
OK, now we relax until the end of May. I wonder where the pandemic will be then?
Almost gone? I hope so.
73 and CU in the CQ WPX CW! Bill W6QU - W8QZA
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