CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2020
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 42
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 55 13 31
80: 727 19 61
40: 1131 27 86
20: 1035 33 88
15: 1404 23 89
10: 55 15 27
------------------------------
Total: 4407 130 382 Total Score = 6,377,472
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Every contest at my qth has a story. Occasionally I re-read some of them to
remember interesting band openings, strategies and mostly to re-learn what I
have forgotten from past cycles. But this contest was different. A Tornado
ripped through my qth in August and the gone were many of the trees that I used
to support my wire antennas. This meant finding new trees to use and/or
shifting the wire antennas to my tower, something that I had avoided for years.
The COVID pandemic made it impossible to get help with my trees much less get
my power equipment repaired, and getting basic supplies like thousands of feet
of rope and wire was extremely hard – very little was being milled and
transported and delays were months long.
Working 80+ hours per week normally ensures that radio is 99th priority for me.
This is especially true while my daughter is home from Johns Hopkins and
working with me on an internship – it’s just too enjoyable spending time
with her vs. chainsawing trees on slippery rock ledges and ravines at 30 degree
angles. Yet, every weekend from September and October I was out there clearing
brush, poison ivy, thorn bushes and broken and leaning trees just so I could
prepare the area to rebuild my 40, 80 and 160 wire antennas.
Marty, NN1C, was kind enough to drive 150 miles each way to climb my towers,
rotate antennas and put up the ropes on carabiners attached to my tower to
support the legs of my 80 meter 4-square and 40 meter wire beam. I spend the
next 3 weeks attempting to get the ropes up into the trees via a tortuous
process of fishing line, heavier fishing line, twine, thicker twine and then
rope - an agonizingly slow and long process even if the first slingshot shot hit
a perfect spot. And then I had to carefully maneuver the ropes for each element
of each antenna, surmount obstacles, pull through broken trees, guy wires, etc.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, the week before CQWWCW I had to redo ALL
the ropes for the 40 meter 4-square and as well as the 80 Meter 4-square. I
also had to rebuild both of antennas plus the 160 Meter 4-square and THEN I had
11 ropes to get into the trees. It was an impossible task to accomplish in 5
days, especially when I lost 2 days to rain. On Thursday before the contest I
completed the 80 meter 4-square in the dark as well as the 160 Inv L. Both
antennas resonated where I wanted them but I didn’t have time to redo the
phasing lines with new coax and RF chokes – I would have to use the damaged
feedlines during the contest. That left the 40 M 4-square for Friday and when
the slingshot bands broke, and I ran out of 1 oz. fishing weights, it was 12 PM
and I had ZERO ropes up in the trees. I was very discouraged. No store carried
the 1 oz weights and the replacement slingshot bands were too weak to support
anything heavier. My 40 meter 40-square was doomed – and this was especially
frustrating since I don’t have a 40 meter yagi, much less anything rotatable.
I remembered a little hole-in-the wall 2 miles away run by a young man who
didn’t believe in wearing a mask during COVID – he had 7 1 oz weights –
and I bought them all! Reinvigorated by my good luck, I got up the four ropes
into the trees in the next three hours, brushed off several dozen deer ticks and
the spend the last hour of daylight putting up the elevated radials. At 4:15 PM
I brought everything inside and attended to my wounds all over my hands, arms
and legs from the thorn bushes – DESPITE wearing heavy jeans, long sleeve
shirts and a jacket. Quick shower, ate a meal and got the station ready for the
contest. It was 2230z 6:30 PM. I’m exhausted. Can I go to sleep now? LOL!
After the sensational cndx in CQWWSSB on 15 and 10 (for the bottom of the
cycle), I was expecting similar cndx in CQWWCW since the Sunspot numbers were
higher. NOPE! Didn’t happen. Old Sol kept serving up C and M class flares
all day long, so 20 was mostly dead, except for B4T who I found at 0021z, 40
was poor and 80 was a wasteland of noise and inaudible signals. I struggled for
the first two hours with 175 q’s until I went to 80 at 02z. I immediately
noticed that 80 sounded different than the past 10 years. Signals were louder,
more solid, and more stations were calling me. I had completely rebuilt the
4-square, moved it from a valley to the tower and each of the elements was now
fully vertical and the feedpoints were about 10 feet higher than in the past.
The difference was remarkable! Cndx were not very good but I had back to back
103 and 107 hours at 02z and 03z with 78, 74 and 86 q’s during the 04z – 06z
hours. Of special note was KL7RA calling me on 80 @ 0407z which was very early
to hear him! And I was pleased to catch the ZL activity on 20 with good signals
at 0430z Since I was re-learning to operate CW (hadn’t been on since
CQWPXCW) I wasn’t using the 2nd radio except to check propagation. One
drawback of having all those wire antennas off the tower and in close proximity
to each other was the bad interaction and inability to hear well on other bands.
There are always tradeoffs! I kept checking 160 regularly after last years
spectacular band conditions but the band was very noisy and the signals were
quite weak. Only EW5A who I worked, was loud.
I qsyed to 40 at 07z and was rewarded with back to back 119 and 127 hours
including RX9CAZ calling in at 0835z but then the muf dropped and the band went
long and my low 40 wire beam wasn’t doing well. I kept hearing weak EU
stations on 20 and I knew that it would likely open early. I could stay up and
work mults but then I would be exhausted at the start of the morning EU runs on
20 and 15 – and that would spike my heart arrhythmias. Not an option. I went
qrt at 0913z. Back on at 1053z to sweep the low bands but very little was there
– everyone wanted to be on 20 and 15. Who could blame them? ! I did find
some nice mults – a loud UN9L on 40 at 1108z ad then TF3SG and OA4SS at 1114
and 1118z. Now for 20.
BOOM! Band open – loud signals and BIG rate! 20 exploded and 15 began to
open at the same time! The last 10 minute rate soared above 250 despite flares
and auroral sounding EU. At 1208z R8WF called in followed by TA4MA and UA0AGI
at 1231z. It is very unusual to hear Zone 18 that early on 20 – an excellent
sign along with the very loud Northern EU and Russian stations. At 1242z with
20 fading I qsy’ed to 15 and the band EXPLODED with rates now above 280 with a
raging MASSIVE pileup! Cndx were not great thanks to the solar flares, but they
were good enough. Russia was noticeable in volume but present only in bursts
as the K index hovered around 3 and the Bz - Earth’s magnetic field - kept
fluctuating between negative and positive. Each burst of rate was followed by
Positive Bz reports and each dip and weaker signals always accompanied a
Negative Bz reports. I continued to focus on running only as the 12 – 15z
hours yielded 202, 222, 213 and 164 q’s. It was the first time that I ever
had three consecutive 200+ hours on cw from my qth and the first time that I
ever had back to back 200+ hours on the same band. At 1349z HV0A called in –
a welcome surprise - and later GJ3YHU. At 1516z, KL2R called in – remarkably
early for zone 1 on 15. 15 began to fade after a big C3 flare and the rate
faded with it. Down to 164 qsos in the 15z hour and then 147 in the 16z. By
1616z I had to qsy to 20. I had completely neglected mults until now and while
running on 20 I began to hunt for mults on 15 and 10. I began suffering from
microsleeps, often falling asleep for a few seconds between qsos. Over the next
three hours I would experience several hundred of them and they were impossible
to stop.
Cndx were getting poor as HV0A called in on 20 at 1703z followed by TF3VS at
1730z.and VO2NS at 1741z. In the 17z hour I made 130 qsos but scored 21 mults
and in the 18z hour I made only 67 qsos but bagged 30 mults. While ZS2NF called
me on 20, I was able to log ZD7BG and 5H3EE on 15 as well as more Caribbean and
SA mults. 10 finally opened and I worked CE2ML and several more CE and LU
stations. Then I tuned 20 and found 8Q7ZO. 20 was almost dead by now and I was
having trouble with my heart. I took a long break from 1842z – 1921z even
though the bands were open – ate, rested and then started a run on 40. I
found a good spot and almost immediately had a pileup with a loud VU2BQN calling
in from Zone 22 at 1939z. That woke me right up!
40 continued steady rates of 60, 73 and 62 in the 19 – 21z hours with SV9COL,
Z31CZ, 9H1XT and TA3D calling in. I wasn’t being heard well and the qrm was
terrible but I was being heard in VK with VK3MI and VK3GK providing excitement
via long path at 2049z .EA6SK was a new mult at 2130z and then I started hunting
mults on 20 finding double mults 5Z4VJ, KL7RA and JI0VWL at 2141z and 2151z. I
heard some loud JA’s and tried a run on 20 being rewarded with RM9A zone 17 @
2203z, and a few JA’s and CM stations but 40 was getting hot and I qsy’d
back continuing to hunt muts on 20. I found 5T3WW at 2218z and HI3CC called on
40 followed by SV5DKL at 2245z and IS0ILP and OH0Z at 2341z. VK6LW was logged
at 2349z on 20 in the midst of two 100+ hours – 109 at 22z and 105 at 23z. 40
faded quickly and 80 produced 15 EU qsos and double mult RM9A at 0008z along
with a double mult on 160, but the bands were hurting. I continued to run
slowly and hunt mults on the 2nd radio but time was slipping by.
At the halfway mark 0000z, I had 2577 qsos 96 zones and 263 countries, for
2,609,571 in 21.6 hours. I was pleased with the rate but disappointed in the
low mult, mostly attributable to COVID keeping all the Caribbean, SA and other
DXpeditions at home.
It was clear that a lot of people were asleep in EU as signals got strong on 160
in the 00z hour but volume was poor. 00z produced 48 qsos and 15 mults.
Neither 80 nor 160 were working so I tuned 40 and picked up UN3M, then RM8I in
zone 18, CN8WW, GU4YOX and HC5DX before starting another run on 40 at 0116z.
After 30 minutes of low rate, I quickly tuned and found 4O3A and double mults
PX2A and 5T3WW. Another brief run on 40 began the 02z, q quick tune on 80 and
then a better run there. The 01z hour provided 52 qsos and 15 mults followed by
73 qsos and 3 mults at 02z which included callers HI3CC and R8TT. Although 80
was producing steady rate and Russia was clearly stronger than the day before, I
was finding it impossible to stay awake. My heartbeat gets more erratic as I
get more tired so I decided to qrt at 0309z and get up for EU sunrise.
In my week-long sleep-deprived state, I stumbling downstairs to the shack after
a 90 minute nap, put on the headphones and then was completely baffled by all
these weird noises in the headphones. I instinctively called CQ although I
didn’t actually understand what I was doing at the time. I heard other loud
noises in my headphones right after I called cq, but I didn’t understand what
they were saying or what I was supposed to do about it. – it was VERY
frustrating! I apparently continued to call CQ and logged several mults like
EI7M, VP9I, CU2ARA and EA8BQM, and looking at the log now I had a very good rate
but I still did not consciously understand what I was doing for a long time.
After about 20 minutes, the fog started to lift and I began working stations
more quickly but I was unable to tune the radio. It took another 15 minutes to
finally snap to attention and then I began working mults on 160 while I ran on
80. I think that TF1AM and OH0R calling in on 80 had something to do with that.
LOL! The 05z hour had 93 qsos and 9 mults followed by 54 qsos and 4 mults in
the 06z hour where I spent too much time chasing mults on a mediocre 160 band.
A loud RW2F called in on 80 at 0650z and then I qsyed to 40 @ 0706z.
40 produced steadily but cndx were not very good. I worked P3X on 20 @ 0734z
and I suspect that a lot of EU stations were on 20 rather than 40 or 80
accounting for only 64 qsos and 1 mult in the 07z hour and 42 qsos and 11 mults
at 08z. I picked up V31MA on 3 bands and a few other Carib/SA mults on 40 –
160. GM3X was my last 160 qso and mult at 0822. I found KH7Q on 80 and 160 @
0910z and then VP9I on 40 and then qrt’d at 0915z.
Back down to the radio at 1052z after 70 minutes of sleep for double mults ZM1A
on 80 and JR2GRX on 40. 20 was slow in opening and I struggled to run anything
until 1117z. At 1133z, someone hit the ON switch and signals jumped 3 s-untis
on 20 and the rate doubled. Z32KF called in for a new mult at 1132z and the 11z
hour ended with 101 qsos and 1 mult. The band really opened at 12z and UP7L and
EX0M called in for new mults at 1207 and 1209z. 20 was opening deeper in
Russian on Sunday and R9AE and RA9AAA quickly called in followed by EX8MJ at
1246z with a much higher percentage of Russian stations. The last 10 minute qso
rate soared into the 260 range ending the 12z hour with 187 qsos and 3 mults. A
quick qsy to 15 brought more great rate and IS0BOY and IW9GRL for new mults
followed TA1NAI at 1314z and a solid opening to zone 16! 15 exploded with a
MASSIVE pileup – so big it was hard to copy anyone, especially when I would
say G3? and I5, UA3 and LY stations would call, qrming the caller and wasting
everyones time. The 13z hour had 189 qsos and 3 mult with the 14z hour
promising to be even better – until K2GO showed up with his CQ machine right
on top of me. He was 599+ - VERY loud and clearly he was hearing me and my huge
pileup, but he didn’t care; just continuing to call cq and cause intentional
qrm. Each time I would say “QRL pse QSY” and each time he could call cq
test again. But he couldn’t copy any EU stations through me so obviously he
was hearing me – deciding to act like a huge lid rather than realizing that he
was being obnoxious and should qsy. He also wasn’t going to be louder than my
4 stacked 5 L yagis! I really don’t understand why people behave like that.
After 20 minutes he finally qsy’d and the pileup grew even bigger. Even with
all the intentional qrm I still managed a 150 hour, but I suspect that it could
have been another 200 hour! Z32U and 4X1ST called in for mults at the end of
the hour.
I had started listening for EU on 10 but heard nothing except VE3VN who was a
double mult, so I stayed on 15 which produced last 10 rates of 230 – 260 as
the band finally opened to Russia. SV5DKL was a new mult at 1502z and then came
the BUZZSAW at 1511z. 10 finally began to open to EU and I quickly worked CR6K,
CR2AA and OK5Z followed by double mults 7Q6M, OA4SS and LZ4TX. 15z produced 155
qsos and 15 mults followed by 109 qsos and 8 mults in the 16z as a HUGE M4 flare
hit and Northern EU and Russia disappeared. Double mults called TF1AM and 9G5FI
called in at 1638z and 1658z. 9L1YXJ called in at 1704z, MU0FAL at 1718z and
YV1JGT, EA9EU and EA6A in the last 10 minutes of the 17z ending with 78 qsos and
10 mults as 10 opened to Caribbean and SA and I found many mults in the rapid
qsb.
At 18z I qsyed to 20 and started picking up mults on 15 and LU and PY qsos on 10
ending the hour with 79 qsos and 6 mults. 19z saw me running on 20 and hunting
mults on 10 and 15 and then starting to run on 40 @ 1933z which picking up 7Q6M,
3D2AG, VP5M, OA4SS, VK2IA amd FM5FJ on 15. 19z provided 63 qsos and 5mults and
the 20z hour gave 98 qsos and 13 mults with the highlight being OD5ZF calling in
at 2057z.
I continued to hunt 2nd radio mults in the 21z hour while TA1NAI and YV1JGT
called me on 40.- totaling 60 qsos and 7 mults., including KH7Q long path for a
double mult on 20.
The 22z hour provided an interesting choice – run slowly on 40 or qsy to 20
and run a few JA stations and maybe some Asian mults might call in? I opted to
run JA because it would be fun and an unusual experience after the last 5 years
of poor propagation to JA. I was shocked when VP8NO called in at 2210z !
followed lots of loud JA stations and RC0L in zone 19 at 2221z and DS5USH at
2232z. CE4WT was another double mult at 2227z. At the end of the hour I
decided to tune for mults and found 9M6NA under a HUGE pileup for a double and
then 7A1A from YB. The 22z hour had 75 qsos and 6 mults and then the 23z hour
was a slog on 80 with 34 qsos and 2 mults most of the qsos coming in the last 20
minutes when 80 finally opened.
I finished with 4407 qsos in 42 hours 130 zones and 382 countries for
6,377,472.
I was shocked at the huge number of qsos given the marginal conditions on 160
and 10, and not particularly good cndx on 20. The difference for me this year
was 80 meters and my new mostly completed 4-square which performed like a real
champ! 15 meters was spectacular for rate - a pleasant reminder of the great
sunspot cycle 25 propagation yet to come!
With a better operating strategy and more focus on mults I think a 7.5 million
score was possible for me this weekend, and with 46 hours of operating (not
possible for me anymore), that score probably would be 8 million NON-assisted
with 4800 qsos. The difference was all the mults on 20 – 160 that I did not
work, and the EU stations that I missed the first day on 10.
It was wonderful to say hello to so many friends of mine all over the world and
to make new ones. A special thanks to those operators who braved COVID and
other hardships to provide a mult for us in this contest.
The contest was enormous fun – a reminder of just how spectacular the activity
levels are and how good the propagation can be. Next year at this time it will
be much better. I can’t wait for 10 meters again!
In 1987 I became the first operator to operate SO2R in every DX contest. I
loved the challenge of two radios and becoming as efficient as I could in using
them, enjoying working mults that I otherwise would have missed and seeing my
scores explode higher. I was proud to advance the sport and take the category
to a whole new level.
Within 18 months all the serious ops had adopted SO2R and the chase was on, with
the Single Op category never to be the same again as operating skill levels and
station building plans soared. The SOABHP category became far more complex,
challenging and fun! Now, all these years later, 2BSIQ has taken the SOABHP
category to an entirely new level, with skill levels and scores exploding once
again. That difference was on display in this contest with N6MJ, K9LA, NR3X,
N2IC, VE3DZ and several other ops making fantastic scores while demonstrating
exceptional skill and determination.
Congratulations to all of you and congratulations to all the non-2BSIQ ops who
also made great scores under less than ideal conditions.
Happy New Year and stay safe in 2021!
73
Bob KQ2M
kq2m@kq2m.com
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults KQ2M CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 ..... ..... 79/31 5/10 ..... ..... 84/41 84/41
1 . 7/9 84/6 . . . 91/15 175/56
2 . 102/23 . 1/2 . . 103/25 278/81
3 7/8 100/13 . . . . 107/21 385/102
4 1/2 73/6 . 4/2 . . 78/10 463/112
5 8/7 66/0 . . . . 74/7 537/119
6 5/5 81/1 . . . . 86/6 623/125
7 . 1/0 117/11 1/1 . . 119/12 742/137
8 ..... ..... 126/9 1/2 ..... ..... 127/11 869/148
9 . . 13/1 . . . 13/1 882/149
10 3/3 2/2 1/2 . . . 6/7 888/156
11 . 1/2 10/11 124/28 . . 135/41 1023/197
12 . . . 134/13 68/23 . 202/36 1225/233
13 . . . . 222/22 . 222/22 1447/255
14 . . . . 209/3 4/8 213/11 1660/266
15 . . . . 161/7 3/5 164/12 1824/278
16 ..... ..... ..... 118/4 29/1 ..... 147/5 1971/283
17 . . . 126/13 4/8 . 130/21 2101/304
18 . . . 44/8 16/18 7/4 67/30 2168/334
19 . . 60/4 . . . 60/4 2228/338
20 . . 73/2 . . . 73/2 2301/340
21 . . 56/2 6/5 . . 62/7 2363/347
22 . . 93/2 16/4 . . 109/6 2472/353
23 1/2 14/0 89/2 1/2 . . 105/6 2577/359
0 13/7 27/3 6/2 2/3 ..... ..... 48/15 2625/374
1 . 1/1 51/14 . . . 52/15 2677/389
2 . 66/3 7/0 . . . 73/3 2750/392
3 . 11/0 . . . . 11/0 2761/392
4 . 3/3 . . . . 3/3 2764/395
5 3/3 90/6 . . . . 93/9 2857/404
6 11/3 43/1 . . . . 54/4 2911/408
7 . . 63/0 1/1 . . 64/1 2975/409
8 2/2 5/2 35/7 ..... ..... ..... 42/11 3017/420
9 1/2 1/2 3/1 . . . 5/5 3022/425
10 . 1/2 5/2 1/0 . . 7/4 3029/429
11 . . . 101/1 . . 101/1 3130/430
12 . . . 171/2 16/1 . 187/3 3317/433
13 . . . . 189/3 . 189/3 3506/436
14 . . . . 148/2 2/2 150/4 3656/440
15 . . . . 146/1 9/14 155/15 3811/455
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 97/4 12/4 109/8 3920/463
17 . . . 3/0 70/5 5/5 78/10 3998/473
18 . . . 67/1 11/5 1/0 79/6 4077/479
19 . . 27/1 15/0 9/4 12/0 63/5 4140/484
20 . . 79/1 11/8 8/4 . 98/13 4238/497
21 . . 54/2 5/4 1/1 . 60/7 4298/504
22 . . . 75/6 . . 75/6 4373/510
23 . 32/1 . 2/1 . . 34/2 4407/512
DAY1 25/27 447/56 801/83 581/94 709/82 14/17 ..... 2577/359
DAY2 30/17 280/24 330/30 454/27 695/30 41/25 . 1830/153
TOT 55/44 727/80 1131/113 1035/121 1404/112 55/42 . 4407/512
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr KQ2M CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST Single Operator
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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