[3830] CQWW CW KQ2M SOAB HP
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Mon Dec 31 08:27:58 EST 2018
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 34
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 169 17 57
80: 336 19 67
40: 1104 26 101
20: 1513 31 116
15: 310 20 70
10: 1 1 1
------------------------------
Total: 3433 114 412 Total Score = 5,197,406
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Before CQWWCW there was a lot of damage to repair - all my wire antennas had
been destroyed by the May 15th Macroburst with its 110 mph wind gusts.
Unfortunately the wx during the four weeks prior to the contest was miserable -
almost daily rain and frequent high winds - culminating in an 8 inch snowfall
the week before. This meant danger - there is nothing worse than scrambling
around on uneven and broken ledge in the deep forest with many holes and jagged
rocks covered up and hidden under wet frozen leaves and melting slush. In one
event I nearly broke two fingers as I slipped badly, put my hand out and slammed
my fingers against a sharp piece of ledge sticking out at 45 degrees. I was
VERY lucky and I finished fixing the two 4 - squares, wire beam and Inverted L
after a tough week although it was hard to bend the fingers of the left hand for
two weeks afterwards.
I was ready !
Or not. I shut down my station to go to my sister-in-laws for Thanksgiving.
When I turned everything back on on Friday morning, I noticed that one of my
ACOM 2000a amps had the dreaded " heater current too low " message.
REALLY? On the morning of the contest? It couldn't wait for one more shutoff
or turn on to malfunction ?
This was like a bad joke only worse. I spent two hours attempting to diagnose
the problem so that I could fix it, to no avail. Murphy got the last laugh with
PERFECT timing ! I had been feeling a little better of late and was looking
forward to a semi-serious SO2R operation for the first time in five years but
instead it was going to have to be Classic again. I like the Classic category
but not when I had planned on SO2R. I was demoralizing.
With the financial markets in chaos for the previous 7 weeks there was no time
for a pre-contest nap after 21z. I would have to start exhausted, as usual.
40 and 80 were strangely subdued for the first few hours and my rates were low
with weaker than expected signals and lots of qrn. I expected cndx to improve
given the quiet geomagnetic cndx of A = 3 and K = 1 and they didn't but I stayed
with my strategy. Finally around 0530z 40 opened well but the key clix from
F5MUX was making it very difficult to copy. 80 was not a good option and 160
had little activity. I stayed on 40 and got a great freq. near the band edge
and had an excellent run until EU1WW chose to squeeze in on 6999.97 and run
there. Really? How is that even legal or ethical? He should be dq'ed for that
! Eventually he moved and the rate picked up - 40 was WIDE OPEN to EU and
Russia and I hoped for an opening skew path in JA and Asia, but did not hear
anything. I wanted to hunt for mults but you can't do that in Classic because
you are only allowed to use one radio - either S & P or RUN - with a great
freq. you have to run. I was concerned about all the 80 and 160 mults that I
was missing. After hours of 91 and 110 on 40, at 09z I looked for 20 to open -
with an A of 3 and K of 0 it should have been opening up but the SSN of 0 kept
it closed.
Around 0930z with 20 dead, I took a break to make my food and meds for the day
and came back downstairs around 1030z. I noticed lots of loud EU and Russia on
40 that was still quite runnable but I had to get any 80 and 160 mults that I
might not hear again. I was disappointed to not even hear a JA on 40 or 80 - it
made no sense at all!
20 opened late and I was later - too late to get a good freq. The run started
slow and then BOOM ! like someone flipping a switch the band opened ~ 11z and
really took off at 12z. I had back to back 200+ hours - 214 followed by 200
with a peak of 226 one of my best hours ever! 20 was so hot that I decided to
stay there in the 14z hour - which in hindsight was a mistake. 15 was barely
open so I stayed on 20 for a 185 hour - but 15 apparently opened better ( I
didn't know that because I had only one radio and could not listen there ) and
the rate would have been ~ 150. I went to 15 for the 15z but only caught the
tail end for 77 qsos. It was a costly mistake! I went back to 20 before 16z
but it as poor and the IR4M key clix on my run freq. were awful.
I sure wish that the EU multi stations would fix their radios rather than use
them to intentionally qrm nearby stations!
With cndx deteriorating on 20 in the 17z hour but with loud EU already on 40!, I
could no longer stay awake - I had been up for 30 straight hours after getting
only 25 hours of sleep in the previous week! I also needed to take off time
since you can only operate a total of 24 hours in Classic and I had already used
too much. I took a nap and got up for 20z - I ran on 40 and then hunted some
mults on 15 and made my one qso on 10 and then back to 40 and then qrt again ~
2150z after it began to fade.
Back on ~ 23z for a few mults on 160 and then off again. I then got back on
around 01z and heard a very loud LA0FA and loud Russians on 80 and I had a good
one hour run of 87 stations and took off time as it faded out ~ 0150z.
I took a nap and got back on at 05z for what I hoped would be a good run on 80.
Instead I had my best ever run on 160 - 84 EU stations over the next hour - so
THIS is what it feels like to be loud on 160 ! AWESOME! Signal strengths were
excellent and volume was terrific - 160 sounded like 40 but with an attenuator -
unfortunately the QRN was S9 to S9+ with long rolling static crashes of up to
five seconds thanks to a big coastal rainstorm.
After the 160 rate died I ran on 80 in the 06z hour for another 83 q's making it
a total of 109 in the 06z hour. I took a quick listen on 40 and 20 and noted
that the rise from SSN = 0 to SSN = 14 was enough to open 20 at 07z ! as I heard
OM7M and P33W direct path! But I was almost out of operating time for Classic
so I had to qth or I would having nothing left for 20 and 15 on Sunday so I went
qrt just after 07z.
Back on late in the 10z hour and it was disappointing to not hear a JA double
mult on either 40 or 80 - same with no ZL on 80 or 160. Only a few mults on the
low bands and then time to run on 20 but I was too late and could not find a
good freq. CF3A decided that he liked my run freq. at 1145z and qrmed my pileup
for a long time. Around 12z 20 EXPLODED producing my best 10 minute rate of 288
and last 100 of 201 ! but then the combination of RN4SS intentional qrm and UW1M
horrible key clix made copy almost impossible. I kept hoping for 15 to open so
that I could run there but even with a quiet geomagnetic field and SSN = 14 it
stayed closed and the world stayed on 14 mhz. Nothing to do but run. 12 and
13z produced 174 and 127 q's but the rate was falling off badly and there was
nowhere else to go. I ran out of Classic operating time at about 1415z (24
hours) 15 minutes before 15 opened. ARRGGHHH !!! Just as I had feared.
My CLASSIC 1 RADIO NON-ASSISTED 24 hr score: 2426 110z 362 DX = 3,302,112
But 15 was now open so I HAD to keep going and I decided to stay with ONE
radio.
I finished the 14 hour with 121 q's 60 on 20 and 61 on 15 and then had a 141
hour on 15 at 15z. 15 then quickly died so it was back to 20 for hours of 100
and 100 and then 20 took a dive in the 18z hour. I continued operating and went
to 40 late in the 18z hour and then had a good run with 73, 119 and 124 stations
during the 19, 20 and 21z hours. At 22z I hoped for a good opening to Asia on
20 but it was marginal - totaling 21 q's there and 61 on 40 for an 82 hour until
the MUF dropped out. During 23z I ran ( walked ) on 80 and 160 for another 47
q's but 4 mults on 160.
I finished my 1 - radio NON-assisted operation with 34 hours in the chair having
missed many of the best operating hours in the contest due to having to take off
time for Classic.
3433 q's 114 z 412 DX = 5,197,406
After the contest I always do an analysis of what score should have been
possible at my station with my antennas, SO2R and operating 44 hours. This year
that would have been about
4350 q's 130 z 465 DX = 7,600,000
That's probably too conservative given 10 more hours of operating and the
ability to hunt mults on the 2nd radio. With even a little 2BSIQ I could have
done much better - well into the 8 - 9 million range.
Rates were EXCEPTIONAL at times - with several SIX minutes ! and the number of
mults were INCREDIBLE! I can never recall working anything close to 101
countries on 40 part-time with ONE radio. And 116 countries on 20 with one
radio part-time rivals my best SOABHP SO2R totals. With two radios and the
ability to tune while running I might have had 115 countries on 40 and 130
countries on 20 - almost ridiculous country numbers for a single op. without
assistance !
The 160 opening to EU on Saturday night was the best that I have ever
experienced - I can only imagine what it could have been with " normal
" qrn instead of qrn from a Nor'Easter with heavy rain and wind. Still,
AMAZING opening!and the 57 countries was by far my best ever on the band. But I
do wonder what happened to 80 - I did far worse than expected - 80 just was not
good here. Ironically I did not do as well as I expected on 20 - I apparently
missed some good openings when I was on 40. 15 was a costly miss on Saturday
and it hurt my score by at least 200 qso's. 10 was even worse than expected at
the bottom of the cycle.
I still can't imagine how I could NOT hear a JA on 40 or 80 all weekend. I also
did not hear a KL7 either! I don't think that I have ever operated in a CQWWCW
and NOT worked a KL7 or JA on 40 or 80. I also worked very few UA9 / UA0 -
overall the polar path was especially poor for me this year and even more so
given the quiet geomagnetic cndx. Propagation was surely a puzzle !
As I was preparing to submit my log as a Classic, I wondered if I would be able
to count 5.2 Meg for the YCCC claimed score instead of the the 3.3 Meg Classic
score. As it turns out, the club only gets credit for the score for the
category that you claim - so if I submitted as a Classic then YCCC would get 2
million points less ! For that reason I decided to submit my log as regular
SOABHP even though I was competing with ONE radio against all the SO2R and 2BSIQ
guys. I wanted YCCC to have the extra 2 Meg points !
FANTASTIC contest ! With his much entertainment at the BOTTOM of the cycle and
almost no 15, it will be mind-boggling in a few years. I can't wait !
Glad to see that my hard work in the snow and ice really paid off - the low band
antennas worked well. Tnx for the q's & mults and HAPPY NEW YEAR !
73
Bob KQ2M
kq2m at 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 ..... ..... 74/37 ..... ..... ..... 74/37 74/37
1 17/20 4/8 29/3 . . . 50/31 124/68
2 . 1/2 54/36 6/11 . . 61/49 185/117
3 . 51/39 30/8 . . . 81/47 266/164
4 9/7 44/9 . . . . 53/16 319/180
5 9/10 1/1 76/9 . . . 86/20 405/200
6 . . 72/1 . . . 72/1 477/201
7 . . 91/4 . . . 91/4 568/205
8 ..... ..... 110/5 ..... ..... ..... 110/5 678/210
9 5/5 1/0 63/1 . . . 69/6 747/216
10 5/2 9/7 8/5 2/4 . . 24/18 771/234
11 . . . 73/30 . . 73/30 844/264
12 . . . 214/17 . . 214/17 1058/281
13 . . . 200/4 . . 200/4 1258/285
14 . . . 185/9 1/2 . 186/11 1444/296
15 . . . 9/7 77/57 . 86/64 1530/360
16 ..... ..... ..... 71/29 ..... ..... 71/29 1601/389
17 . . . 59/5 3/3 1/2 63/10 1664/399
18 . . . . . . . 1664/399
19 . . . . . . . 1664/399
20 . . 40/1 11/9 9/4 . 60/14 1724/413
21 . . 60/3 2/3 6/5 . 68/11 1792/424
22 1/1 . . . . . 1/1 1793/425
23 13/4 3/0 . . . . 16/4 1809/429
0 1/2 8/3 ..... 1/2 ..... ..... 10/7 1819/436
1 . 87/6 . . . . 87/6 1906/442
2 . . . . . . . 1906/442
3 . . . . . . . 1906/442
4 . . . . . . . 1906/442
5 64/13 . . . . . 64/13 1970/455
6 26/2 83/5 . . . . 109/7 2079/462
7 . 10/0 . . . . 10/0 2089/462
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 2089/462
9 . . . . . . . 2089/462
10 2/2 5/3 . . . . 7/5 2096/467
11 1/2 . . 57/0 . . 58/2 2154/469
12 . . . 174/3 . . 174/3 2328/472
13 . . . 127/1 1/0 . 128/1 2456/473
14 . . . 60/0 61/11 . 121/11 2577/484
15 . . . . 141/8 . 141/8 2718/492
16 ..... ..... ..... 100/3 11/0 ..... 111/3 2829/495
17 . . . 100/1 . . 100/1 2929/496
18 . . 18/1 41/4 . . 59/5 2988/501
19 . . 73/6 . . . 73/6 3061/507
20 . . 119/2 . . . 119/2 3180/509
21 . . 124/1 . . . 124/1 3304/510
22 . . 61/2 21/5 . . 82/7 3386/517
23 16/4 29/3 2/2 . . . 47/9 3433/526
DAY1 59/49 114/66 707/113 832/128 96/71 1/2 ..... 1809/429
DAY2 110/25 222/20 397/14 681/19 214/19 . . 1624/97
TOT 169/74 336/86 1104/127 1513/147 310/90 1/2 . 3433/526
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr KQ2M CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST Single Operator
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