[3830] CQWW SSB G6PZ M/S HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: G6PZ
Operator(s): 2E0SQL, G6PZ, GI0RTN, IZ1LBG, M0CLW, M0DXR
Station: G6PZ

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Somerset
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  189    13       66
   80:  650    24       91
   40: 1035    34      120
   20:  914    40      144
   15: 1917    39      150
   10: 2296    40      155
------------------------------
Total: 7001   150      726  Total Score = 15,773,520

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Comments:

Wow! That was AWESOME! Even the weather was the best we can remember for WW SSB,
more like mid-September than late-October in the English West Country.

This will go down as one of the great WW SSB contests, with the best conditions
on 10 and 15 for many years. On 10 metres, we worked 1740 different W and VE
stations, a remarkable 388 of which were in Zone 3. From plain old G, we had
several 250+ hours, with the last hour meter hitting 294 during a 10 metre run
on Saturday afternoon! (Including about a dozen mult station QSOs.) 

It’s great to work all you west coast folks in such numbers again â€" you are
fast, efficient and a pleasure to run. In the other direction, we were pleased
to see the growth in BY-land hams finally paying off for us here in the far
west in terms of QSO numbers â€" xie xie, guys! It is also now EASY to work B7P
on 80 metres â€" you were a massive signal from 8 time zones away. Other Asian
countries that were quite rare at the last solar maximum are now frequent
callers in morning high band runs. And the big JA runs we had on 10 and 15
showed that, contrary to popular opinion, contesting is far from dead in
Japan.

Few people have commented on low band conditions, but we found conditions on 40
to be particularly good this year. The longer time everyone spent on the higher
bands gave us all a bit more room to breathe on 40, We worked 80 Zone 3
stations on 7 MHz, more like WW CW numbers than phone numbers: predictably,
NK7U was the first, calling in with a great signal just 40 minutes into the
contest. This is not what normally happens in the SSB leg. For our 1035 40m
QSOs, we averaged 2.59 points â€" in other words, 80% of our 40 metre QSOs were
with DX. The 40m bandplan was also better respected than I can ever remember.

Multi-single in Europe is one of the most competitive categories in the world,
with a great balance of high-scoring teams right across the continent. It’s
always a pleasure to compete with you. We were delighted not only to meet our
pre-contest goal by obliterating the 12 year old English multi-single record of
8.1 million, but were astonished to get a pre log-check 20% margin over
GU6UW’s UK multi-single record set back in 1990. We did not even consider
this a possibility until around 2100Z on Saturday evening.

With many hours of high rate 3 point runs available of 15 and 10, conditions
certainly favoured us at the western edge of Europe as those shattering numbers
from EI7M and TM6M showed. Félicitacions spécialement á TM6M for the rumoured
European win. It was also wonderful to see great contesting teams like RL3A and
SJ2W, usually at the wrong end of propagation and geography, get the scores
their skills deserve. How did you rack up those massive 20m numbers, guys?
Awesome! Just off shore, P33W were loud and fast everywhere we’re delighted
they got a Zone 33 style multi-single score from Cyprus.

Our operating team was the usual G6PZ WW SSB core of 2E0SQL, GI0RTN, M0CLW and
M0DXR, joined by IZ1LBG who is studying in England at the moment. As always
with a guest contester, we weren’t sure entirely what to expect, but Filippo
put in hours and hours of 200+ rates, and late on Sunday evening offered us a
master class in what to do when a big gun in a rare multiplier tries to nudge
in on your run frequency! It was a pleasure contesting with you, OM.

Paul, G6PZ, is the best contesting host one could imagine. With his new
business venture taking off in a big way, Paul has been working brutal hours
and was working most of the weekend. He still found time to do last minute
tower repairs on Friday evening, leaving us visiting operators with very little
setting up to do â€" I arrived late on Thursday evening, and had so little to do
that I managed 10 hours sleep on Thursday night and a 10km stroll through the
Somerset countryside on Friday early afternoon! Paul came to the shack in the
last hour to work some key low band mults and give a textbook demonstration of
how to handle Sunday evening packet pileups.

For the other 47 hours of the contest, our operating team had an average age of
27 and I was the oldest at 34. In an ageing hobby, contesting still attracts
young people in large numbers. The peak of Cycle 24 could go down in the
history books as the golden age of radio contesting â€" let’s enjoy every
minute of it!

73

Gerry Gi0RTN
On behalf of team G6PZ


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