CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 37.5
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 38 12 25
80: 130 13 42
40: 1061 28 86
20: 505 26 82
15: 645 26 88
10: 704 23 80
------------------------------
Total: 3083 128 403 Total Score = 4,665,897
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
That was fun! Congrats to all who participated in yet another great CQ WW CW.
Conditions were a bit odd, with solar flux of about 178 (considerably higher
than predicted) along with some significant geomagnetic disturbance from a solar
event. At one point the K-index hit 6 -- which is usually bad news -- and added
some serious warble (auroral flutter?) on 20m signals (only). But with the high
flux, stations were still streaming in from all over the world, including over
the pole. Even 80 and 160 were good for this point in the solar cycle, so QSOs
were nicely spread over six bands with two or more bands open to EU much of the
daytime and into the night.
I might have spent a little less time running 40, where my best antenna is, and
running 80 instead, but my delta loop on 80 can't keep up with the 4-squares.
After sleeping for about four hours the first night, I got on the radio by
09:57z, but 20 wasn't open enough to run. That didn't happen until after 11:00z
and I was only able to spend about 90 minutes running 20 before 15 opened and I
had to go up. Same thing happened when 10 opened 90 minutes after that and was
so good I ran it for 3 1/2 hours. Tried to make up the Qs by running 20 and 15
longer on day two, but ended up with lower numbers on those bands than I'd have
liked.
I missed zones 19, 23, 27, 24 and 36, though I heard and missed all those except
zone 23. Spent 15 minutes at the end of the contest chasing RU0LL for zone 19,
but never got through the massive pileup. That was one of the few pileups I
couldn't bust with one or two calls. It felt like I was loud everywhere.
It also felt like I was hitting the second radio pretty hard, but it accounted
for only 13% of my Qs (2749 run and 394 S&P.) That probably explains my
somewhat low zone and country counts. I decided not to do 2BSIQ because I didn't
have time to practice with the simulator leading up to the contest. I
successfully did 2BSIQ in the 2022 CW WPX CW contest but spent about a month
practicing beforehand. I did try it a couple of times in this contest but soon
realized I could run on one radio faster. In retrospect I wish I'd practiced
because I'm sure I could have hit much higher run rates with multiple bands open
throughout the contest. Hopefully I'll find time to practice before ARRL DX CW.
Checking my records, I'm embarassed to admit that this is the first full effort
I've done in CW WW CW since 2011 (!), and that I've put in 20+ hours only four
times in the past decade (Classic in each case.) In the eleven years before
that, I put in 40+ hours ten times! I knew I hadn't been as active but didn't
realize how far I'd strayed (I've fallen to doing full efforts only in WPX CW,
though sadly had to skip it this year.) Still a tad below 40 hours in this
contest, but very happy with the amount of time I was able to sit in the chair
for the King of Contests after not doing it for so long. More scores to be
posted, but I'm hoping to hang on to the USA top 10 SOAB HP Unassisted. No
matter what, I'm glad to be back!
Why now? Participating in WRTC 2022 as a referee this summer inspired me to get
back in the saddle. Seeing old (!) friends and being immersed in ham radio for a
week in glorious Italy was part of it, but the real motivator was spending a
couple of days at my team's very cool site, watching them get ready for the
contest, swapping contest war stories over meals, etc. But then I had to watch
and listen to them operate for 24 hours without being able to operate myself. It
was very frustrating: I really wanted to get my hands on a radio! I don't have a
realistic chance to make TL for WRTC 2026, but I feel like it'll be a lot of fun
to try to do the best as I can in as many of the qualifying events as possible.
Who knows? Maybe I can qualify for TM. Even if not, it's been way too long since
I've been a very active contester, and with work life gradually winding down to
retirement I should have more time for it.
Another motivation for spending time in the chair this year was the work I had
to do to get the station ready.
One leg of my 160 vee broke at the apex, requiring a climb to 90 feet on the
tower to solder it back together. The wire seems to have stretched a bit, so I
spent some time pruning the legs to get the resonant frequency right in the
middle of the 1800-1900 KHz segment, which keeps the amps happy. It was time
well-spent, as I had far more success than expected calling DX stations on 160
during the contest. In fact, I should have spent more time on the first night
doing that.
Another problem was my motorized 72-foot tubular crankup failing to rise. I
traced it to a problem with the limit switches and was able to raise the tower
by bypassing the full-down switch. But the top limit switch seemed to be
intermittent as well, so I strapped a 20-foot extension ladder to the tower,
donned my climbing gear, and went up to examine the limit switches. Couldn't see
anything wrong with them, so I took them down so I could take them apart on the
bench. Also took down the cables, which looked pretty weather-worn after 26
years exposed to the elements. When I took the limit switches apart, they seemed
OK (they looked brand new inside) and the cables appeared to be OK, too. So I
put them back together, cut new cables and reinstalled everything. Now the tower
raises and lowers perfectly. Not really sure what caused the problem -- maybe
sticky lever arms on the limit switches. The project took a lot of work and
physical exertion, including trips up and down a steep hill carrying the heavy
ladder, climbing, affixing cables, etc.
The last project was felling about 50 trees of various sizes, about 10 of which
had grown so much in the past 26 years that their branches were hitting the
elements of the 4-el 20m monobander as I raised the crankup tower, and also
blocking rotation of my 5-el 15m monobander on an AB-577. I had to cut down a
bunch of smaller trees to clear space for the larger trees to fall, and also to
head off the smaller trees eventually growing to block the antennas. Cutting
down all those trees and clearing the logs and branches out of the way took a
couple of weeks and a lot of physical exertion. It can be dangerous work, too,
like tower climbing. Tree felling and tower climbing are two of the most
dangerous occupations, which goes to show you that contesting can be very
serious business indeed. It was a lot of work, but I'm really glad I did it. My
secondary antenns are how I do SO2R/2BSIQ, and they're key for holding a run
frequency when I need to change bands on the SteppIR stack to work a tough
mult.
Speaking of my stack of three 4-el SteppIRs, a problem cropped up in CW WW SSB
that persists: they tune 1.2:1 on 10, 15 and 20 when being extended from fully
retacted, but when going down from 20 to 15 and 10, the SWRs tends to increase,
often close to 2:1 and sometimes over 3:1. I have to recalibrate (retract and
re-extend the elements) to bring the SWRs back to normal. I can move between 15
and 10 normally, but when fully extended to 20 something happens during
retraction that messes up the SWR. Possibly the element strips are moving
through debris, causing motor slippage. To make matters worse, halfway through
this contest the middle SteppIR suddenly stopped tuning with the SWR at over 5:1
on all bands. It's the same on all bands, which is suspicious. I'm hoping it'san
issue with the stack match relays as opposed to the driven element motor on the
antenna. If it's the motor (and maybe the motors on top and bottom SteppIRs are
having trouble, too), the antennas will have to come down, which is a huge
undertaking. Even if it's only some sort of blockage in the fibergalls element
tubes (maybe insect nests), the antennas will have to come down (some ballet on
the tower is possible, but very difficult and would require two climbers.) When
I designed this station, a number of ops questioned the complexity and
vulnerability of the SteppIR stack: 12 motors and a lot of wire and electronics
that can fail. Against the odds, though, the SteppIRs have worked flawlessly for
26 years (nothing like a stack of monobanders on each band!) but it's possible
that payment has finally come due. Stay tuned.
The only other issue I had was DXLog frequently pausing between the first couple
of characters in the callsign when responding to stations during runs. This
caused a fair number of stations to repeat their calls, and pretty-much
eliminated type-ahead while transmitting. I'm almost certain the pauses were
being caused by a significant delay in SCP (turning it off solved the problem,
but I didn't want to turn it off!) I had noticed the SCP delays in CW SSB, but
of course it didn't affect voice transmission and I ignored it. Will report the
problem to the DXLog team. Of intertest is that there's a post on the Writelog
reflector reporting almost the identical problem. I'm wondering if something has
happened to the SCP data files that's causing processing delays.
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:
Two Elecraft K3/P3 + Alpha 87A, Acom 2000A, DXLog, YCCC SO2R Box, homebrew
Windows
antenna switching/tuning software ("AntennaMaster" or "AM"),
Surface Pro 7+ AM client
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. Pair of N2DAN paddles.
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 134 0 0 1 135 135 4.4
0100 0 0 96 1 9 0 106 241 7.8
0200 0 0 72 13 0 0 85 326 10.6
0300 0 5 62 4 0 0 71 397 12.9
0400 0 18 70 0 0 0 88 485 15.7
0500 7 1 21 0 0 0 29 514 16.7
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 514 16.7
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 514 16.7
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 514 16.7
0900 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 516 16.7
1000 0 0 20 3 0 0 23 539 17.5
1100 0 0 0 76 0 0 76 615 19.9
1200 0 0 0 59 46 0 105 720 23.4
1300 0 0 0 1 145 0 146 866 28.1
1400 0 0 0 0 4 158 162 1028 33.3
1500 0 0 0 0 0 133 133 1161 37.7
1600 0 0 0 0 1 64 65 1226 39.8
1700 0 0 0 0 22 54 76 1302 42.2
1800 0 0 0 47 6 16 69 1371 44.5
1900 0 0 0 51 0 15 66 1437 46.6
2000 0 0 0 39 9 2 50 1487 48.2
2100 0 0 101 2 0 0 103 1590 51.6
2200 0 0 122 4 0 0 126 1716 55.7
2300 0 1 25 8 0 0 34 1750 56.8
0000 0 40 0 3 0 0 43 1793 58.2
0100 3 16 1 2 0 0 22 1815 58.9
0200 0 31 14 0 0 0 45 1860 60.3
0300 10 7 25 0 0 0 42 1902 61.7
0400 14 4 45 0 0 0 63 1965 63.7
0500 0 5 2 0 0 0 7 1972 64.0
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1972 64.0
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1972 64.0
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1972 64.0
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1972 64.0
1000 4 2 2 0 0 0 8 1980 64.2
1100 0 0 14 17 0 0 31 2011 65.2
1200 0 0 0 9 111 0 120 2131 69.1
1300 0 0 0 0 67 69 136 2267 73.5
1400 0 0 0 0 0 132 132 2399 77.8
1500 0 0 0 0 37 39 76 2475 80.3
1600 0 0 0 0 96 2 98 2573 83.5
1700 0 0 0 0 71 7 78 2651 86.0
1800 0 0 0 17 9 12 38 2689 87.2
1900 0 0 0 74 6 0 80 2769 89.8
2000 0 0 33 52 4 0 89 2858 92.7
2100 0 0 102 6 0 0 108 2966 96.2
2200 0 0 68 10 0 0 78 3044 98.7
2300 0 0 30 7 2 0 39 3083 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 38 130 1061 505 645 704 3083
Gross QSOs=3135 Dupes=52 Net QSOs=3083
Unique callsigns worked = 2162
The best 60 minute rate was 171/hour from 1407 to 1506
The best 30 minute rate was 178/hour from 1407 to 1436
The best 10 minute rate was 192/hour from 1532 to 1541
The best 1 minute rates were:
5 QSOs/minute 2 times.
4 QSOs/minute 71 times.
3 QSOs/minute 342 times.
2 QSOs/minute 561 times.
1 QSOs/minute 641 times.
There were 410 bandchanges and 193 (6.3%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 14 31 87 72 38 38 280 9.1
South America 1 4 10 20 17 17 69 2.2
Europe 20 88 922 368 572 628 2598 84.3
Asia 1 1 21 31 6 5 65 2.1
Africa 2 6 11 12 10 14 55 1.8
Oceania 0 0 10 2 2 2 16 0.5
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 38 130 1061 505 645 704 3083
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 54
4 983
5 1207
6 823
7 3
8 7
9 6
------------------ C o u n t r y S u m m a r y ------------------
Country 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------------
3B8 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.1
3B9 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.1
3W 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.1
4L 1 0 1 0 0 1 3 0.1
*4U1V 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
4W 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
4X 0 0 3 1 0 2 6 0.2
5B 0 1 2 2 2 1 8 0.3
5Z 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
7O 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0.1
7Q 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
8P 1 1 1 2 1 1 7 0.2
9A 2 4 20 7 6 12 51 1.7
9H 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
9M6 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
9Y 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.1
BY 0 0 0 4 0 0 4 0.1
C3 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.1
C6 0 0 2 0 1 2 5 0.2
CE 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
CM 0 0 1 2 2 2 7 0.2
CN 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.2
CT 0 0 2 4 3 5 14 0.5
CT3 1 3 2 4 3 3 16 0.5
CX 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.1
D4 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 0.2
DL 3 14 158 60 108 139 482 15.6
E7 0 1 12 2 1 7 23 0.7
EA 1 2 43 26 23 30 125 4.1
EA6 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.2
EA8 0 1 1 2 2 4 10 0.3
EA9 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
EI 1 0 5 2 2 1 11 0.4
ER 0 0 4 0 1 0 5 0.2
ES 0 0 4 0 1 0 5 0.2
EU 0 1 12 4 12 9 38 1.2
F 1 6 36 22 26 38 129 4.2
FG 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
FM 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
FR 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
FW 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
FY 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.1
G 1 6 44 15 30 46 142 4.6
GD 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.1
GI 0 0 3 1 1 1 6 0.2
GM 1 2 6 7 5 3 24 0.8
GU 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
GW 0 0 6 0 2 2 10 0.3
HA 0 7 44 20 17 24 112 3.6
HB 0 1 21 9 11 9 51 1.7
HI 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.1
HK 0 0 1 1 2 1 5 0.2
HL 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
HP 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.1
HR 0 1 0 1 1 1 4 0.1
I 1 7 66 19 24 43 160 5.2
*IT9 0 0 6 3 4 4 17 0.6
J3 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
JA 0 0 8 15 0 0 23 0.7
K 7 15 22 22 9 15 90 2.9
KH6 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
KL 0 0 0 2 1 0 3 0.1
KP2 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.1
KP4 0 0 3 3 2 1 9 0.3
LA 0 0 5 4 6 3 18 0.6
LU 0 0 1 2 2 2 7 0.2
LX 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 0.1
LY 1 1 10 7 5 8 32 1.0
LZ 1 0 19 6 11 10 47 1.5
OA 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
OE 0 3 6 0 6 2 17 0.6
OH 0 0 8 9 16 10 43 1.4
OH0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0.1
OK 1 4 42 18 34 30 129 4.2
OM 1 1 20 9 7 13 51 1.7
ON 0 1 9 4 5 10 29 0.9
OX 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
OZ 0 1 8 3 3 4 19 0.6
P4 0 1 2 2 1 2 8 0.3
PA 1 4 24 16 16 33 94 3.0
PJ2 1 1 1 1 1 0 5 0.2
PJ4 0 2 1 2 2 2 9 0.3
PJ7 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 0.1
PY 0 0 2 7 3 5 17 0.6
PZ 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0.1
S5 1 3 28 11 13 19 75 2.4
SM 0 1 21 13 18 5 58 1.9
SP 1 7 58 23 50 34 173 5.6
SV 0 0 13 1 5 8 27 0.9
TA 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0.1
*TA1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
TF 0 0 3 2 1 2 8 0.3
TI 0 1 1 2 1 3 8 0.3
TK 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
UA 0 4 48 18 45 11 126 4.1
UA9 0 0 2 4 2 0 8 0.3
UN 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0.1
UR 1 1 41 8 17 19 87 2.8
V2 0 0 1 1 0 1 3 0.1
V3 0 1 0 0 1 1 3 0.1
V4 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.1
V5 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
VE 5 12 51 27 6 1 102 3.3
VK 0 0 7 0 1 0 8 0.3
VP5 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
VU 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.1
XE 0 0 2 3 1 2 8 0.3
YB 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
YL 0 1 3 1 7 5 17 0.6
YO 0 1 30 6 16 14 67 2.2
YU 0 2 21 6 6 10 45 1.5
YV 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0.1
Z3 0 0 4 0 2 0 6 0.2
ZA 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0.1
ZF 1 0 2 2 4 2 11 0.4
ZL 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
ZS 0 0 3 2 1 3 9 0.3
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 38 130 1061 505 645 704 3083
------------ M u l t i p l i e r S u m m a r y ------------
Mult 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
14 10 40 396 186 262 331 1225 39.7
15 8 41 355 136 202 224 966 31.3
16 1 6 103 30 74 39 253 8.2
20 1 2 71 16 34 35 159 5.2
04 6 8 36 25 8 9 92 3.0
05 5 16 32 20 4 6 83 2.7
08 2 1 10 14 17 14 58 1.9
09 1 4 7 9 10 6 37 1.2
33 1 5 5 7 6 8 32 1.0
25 0 0 8 16 0 0 24 0.8
07 0 3 1 4 4 5 17 0.6
11 0 0 2 7 3 5 17 0.6
03 1 2 5 4 2 1 15 0.5
17 0 0 4 5 4 0 13 0.4
38 0 0 3 2 2 3 10 0.3
13 0 0 1 3 2 3 9 0.3
40 0 0 3 2 1 3 9 0.3
06 0 0 2 3 1 2 8 0.3
35 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 0.2
30 0 0 5 0 1 0 6 0.2
39 0 0 1 2 1 1 5 0.2
37 0 0 2 0 0 2 4 0.1
24 0 0 0 4 0 0 4 0.1
01 0 0 0 3 1 0 4 0.1
12 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
21 1 0 1 0 0 1 3 0.1
02 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0.1
28 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 0.1
31 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
10 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
29 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.1
32 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.1
26 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.1
22 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.1
18 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 38 130 1061 505 645 704 3083
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 1605
2 bands 336
3 bands 120
4 bands 67
5 bands 26
6 bands 8
The following stations were worked on 6 bands:
DP9A D4C ED1R CR3A II2S 8P5A
TM2Y OM7M
------- S i n g l e B a n d Q S O s ------
Band 160 80 40 20 15 10
----------------------------------------------
QSOs 18 46 624 223 302 392
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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