CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2020
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 19.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 18 9 13
80: 134 9 35
40: 596 23 67
20: 471 21 56
15: 506 18 62
10: 14 8 13
------------------------------
Total: 1739 88 246 Total Score = 1,695,718
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Good conditions, excellent participation from home stations during the pandemic
and the inherent fun of CQWW CW made for a great weekend. Family commitments
precluded a full effort, but was I able to squeeze out enough hours here and
there for decent Classic effort.
Conditions weren't great on the low bands Friday night and my time was limited
to 3-4 hours, so I hoped conditions would be better by the first morning. And
they were -- despite getting on a little late (1242z), rates were consistently
185-200/hour on 20. I lingered a little due to the late start, then jumped to 15
at 1400z, where the rate meter took off immediately, pushing 175-195/hr. It's
been a long time since we've had rates like that on 15. I hoped this meant 10
would open to EU as well, but if it did I never caught the opening. 10 was
somewhat open to the South, so I was able to pick off a few multipliers through
the day. Family commitments forced a break at 1600z, about an hour earlier than
I would have liked, and I wasn't able to get back on until 2044z, when 40 was
rocking, and missed a lot of high afternoon rate on 20, as well as any JA action
if there was some. Had to leave again at 0000z, and didn't return until 0500z,
when I spent a couple of hours picking off mults on 160, 80 and 40, as well as
doing some running on 80. I didn't hear a whole lot of stations on 160, but was
able to work almost all of those I heard. My new 160 inverted vee at 90 feet,
which replaced the trapped 80/160 vee I've been using for 23 years, seems to
work pretty well on transmit -- a good companion to the Beverage.
On the second morning I got to the radio by 1122z and was able to work JA, UA9
zones 17 and 18, KH, VK, VK6, and ZL on 40. The signals weren't very strong and
there were some serious pileups on these stations. Maybe I would have done
better had I started 20 minutes or so earlier. I heard several BY stations but
none of them heard me. Went to 20 at 1213z, and the rate meter took off again.
Not quite as much as the first morning, but still really good. Jumped to 15 at
1334z, with excellent rate there too. Once again I had to get off the radio
early, at 1441z, and missed the rest of the opening on 15 and all of the
afternoon opening on 20 again. My biggest regret of the contest was not being
able to catch the afternoon openings on 20. Missed a lot of rate and mults. It
was about 2030z when I got back to the radio, and I might have been able to
squeeze some rate out of 20 at that time, but 40 was already fully open to EU
and I decided to go there. Might have been a mistake not grabbing a little time
on 20 before going to 40. Spent the rest of the contest on 40, except for
quickly grabbing a few more mults on 15 and running about 35 JAs on 20 starting
about 2200z.
Though 40, 20 and 15 were packed when they were open, I managed to find spots to
run without too much delay. Only one or two stations plopped down on me and
ignored my pleas to QSY. Had one funny experience when I realized late in the
contest that I hadn't gotten zone 5 on 20 yet! Totally slipped my mind, and by
that time the skip was so long that I had trouble finding a zone 5 station. I
finally found a W3, who I called, and after going back and forth a few times
because he had trouble hearing me, I got "DX only DX only". Sheesh.
Golden rule of contesting that I follow: work everyone who calls, regardless of
whether they'll generate points for you. First, they may need you. Second, you
want them to work you when you need them. Third, they may need you for an award.
Besides, it takes less time to work them than to tell them to go away. Luckily,
I found K1ZZ moments later, who worked me without blinking. Thanks, Dave!
Got through my fix-it list by the end of October this year, so all the antennas
and station equipment worked flawlessly. Any diminution in score was strictly
the fault of the operator.
Great fun, as always. Can't beat that short, mostly predictable exchange and the
massive participation. I like the option of operating Classic, though I miss
being able to do SO2R. That makes things more interesting and gives me more to
do than just hitting F1. I understand that Classic has the challenge of deciding
when to run and when to S&P, and there are already a *lot* of categories,
but I miss the challenge of listening to two radios at once, even when I can
only compete in the 24-hour category.
Thanks for the Qs and see you next time.
73, Dick WC1M
Antennas:
160M - inverted vee @90'
80M - delta loop @75'
40M - Cal-Av 2D-40A @110', 4-square (used together for Diversity RX)
20M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 4-el @72'
15M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 5-el @50'
10M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50'. 6-el @115'
Tower#1: Force 12 EF-610, Cal-AV 2D-40A, 4-el SteppIRs, 160 inverted vee
770-MDP: Force-12 EF-420
AB-577 #1: Force-12 EF-515
AB-577 #2: Force-12 C3E
Delta loop hung from a tree
dual 580' beverage aimed 20/220 degrees
Equipment:
Elecraft K3/P3 + Alpha 87A, Writelog, YCCC SO2R Box (never switched for
Classic), homebrew Windows antenna switching/tuning software
("AntennaMaster"), 8" Windows tablet Pro running AntennaMaster
station software for wireless touch-screen "button box", K1XM MOAS II
USB Switch, TopTen and KK1L SO2R switches (second radio not used), Green Heron
and Hy-Gain rotor controllers, microHam Stack Switch and StackMax
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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