[3830] ARRLDX CW KQ2M SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2020

Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 43.0
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  251    58
   80:  551    67
   40: 1207    83
   20: 1600   105
   15:  177    61
   10:   14    13
-------------------
Total: 3800   387  Total Score = 4,411,800

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

I had planned a more extensive write-up but then the financial markets imploded
- and they have taken all of my time since then.

I came into this contest having had about 25 hours of sleep in the previous week
- even worse than usual- and not good during a difficult post-surgical recovery.
 But I sucked it up and rushed out to fix the 80 meter 4-square and 160 Inv L on
Thursday and Friday right before the contest.  I was exhausted and not motivated
but I knew that 160 would be great and I didn't want to miss out on what could
be a memorable experience.  

I finished the 160 Inv L at 5 PM, took a shower and made a plate of food took it
downstairs.  I found a good spot on the low end  and not much happened until ~
0010z whent he seas parted and the rate picked to 
a last 10 of 190 !  The first hour ended with 137 qsos - so far so good.  With a
fairly high A and K index the only question was how well would 40 hold up for me
with zero sunspots? 
 
Willy, UA9BA called in at 0112z, which was a good sign and RT9S followed at 0159
after I had qsyed to 80. In between was the puzzling contingent of very weak
stations followed by exceptional LOUD stations, often in the same country and
running the same power.  I wasn't sure whether condx were that squirrely or I
was having a problem with my antennas?  High QRN levels made pulling out the
callsign more difficult. 80 continued to produce well and Northern EU stations
became more predominant with some Russians mixed in.
I was happy with rates of 94 and 96 qsos in the 01z and 02z hours but I knew
that the big guys were probably in the 140 - 150 qso hour range.  At 02:30z 160
started to fill up as the muf dropped.  I qsyed to 160 and decided to call cq at
0257 and started a run!  There was an immediate pileup of OH and Russian
stations including LY4A, ES5QA and RA4LW and there were louder on 160 than 80! 
Then at 0316z R8TT called me!  This is the first time that an Asiatic Russia
station ever answered my cq on 160 and he was an actual 
599! VERY exciting moment for me!  The run continued until ~ 0352 with lots of
mults in Northern EU and Carib/SA when it petered out and it was time for a qsl
to 80.  Back to 80 for louder EU stations and some mults like 5B/RN3QO, ER3DX
and then back to 160 again in the 05z hour for another run with UA2FZ, OH0R and
a lot of Northern EU callers, and SV3RF and KH6AT.  WOW! I continued to bounce
back and forth between 80 and 160 enjoying the thrill of being called because it
was a US qso party and these stations
wanted to work US stations!  I love the ARRLDX qso party!  Back to 40 for a
solid run of loud EU stations in 07z hour - 144 qsos which included a last 10
minute burst of 232.3! and then followed by an 86 hour in the 08z hour.  Finally
in the 09z hour I hunted mults on 80 and 40.  I found HQ9X and Dennis was kind
enough to qsy to 160 and 40 for me.  All through the night the Northern EU and
Russian stations were quite loud and yet there did not seem to be that many of
them.  At 0917z it was way past time to go to 
because I had to wake up in an hour.  I stopped with 874 qsos and a paltry 165
mults.  I did not use the second radio at all except to make 2 qsos with HQ9X. 
I was way too exhausted.

Up at 11z to make some food, set up the meds and hustle downstairs.  
BOOM!  20 was side open at 1125 with instant pileup!  Northern EU and Russia
were strong and SV9COL was VERY loud.  At 1155z UA9R called in and Russia and
Northern EU was now 60+% of my qsos a VERY promising sign!  The 11z half-hour
was 126 qsos for an excellent rate which maxed out at a contest-high last 10 of
336.4 !at 1158z.  The 12z hour was really fun with 220 qsos and a top 60 min
rate of 229 one of my best ever from stateside - especially considering that
unlike CQWW where you know the zone by the callsign, in ARRLDXCW you have to
copy the power.  RM8Z started the hour @ 12:00z followed by 4K4K at 1203, UP7L
at 1206z and 4O4T and Z39a shortly after that. LU5FF and RT9S finished the hour
and A61EK started off the 13z
hour followed by MU2K and LX1RFJ as the great rate continued with GD4EIP ending
a 183 hour.  I kept checking 15 meters and it kept teasing an opening but 20 was
just too good to leave for a something that mediocre.  Its hard to find a good
run freq once you leave it.  9H1MRL started the 14z hour but the rate was
falling off quickly as the K index spiked to 3.  I decided to take a shot at
cqing on 15 and was rewarded with occasional and barely audible callers, mostly
Central and Western EU stations with an occasional Ukraine station.  I kept
thinking that 15 would be just a little bit better but it never really opened. 
Time to go back to 20 after 110 hour and 64 qsos and only 22 mults on 15.  

The 15z and 16z hours were slogs on 20 - continual qrm and qrn, very rapid and
deep qsb and rates of 108 and 127 with VP5K, V3T, RA2F, TA2SE, 5B/RN3QO and
EA6FO calling in.  TF3SG called me early in 17z hour followed by mults ZS1C,
HQ9X, ZF1A, EI7M, and XE2AU ending the hour with 90 qsos.  18z continued the
slow petering out of rates with 60 qsos but NL7V and HB0A called in at 1808z
followed by YS1RS and CU2DX at 1835z. 20 was still open but I need a lot of
mults and qsos on 40 so I qsyed there at 1908z and
began a solid and steady 3 hour run of 110, 106 and 118 qsos respectively.  A42K
got my attention at 1927z and VK2BJ longpath at 2002z adn VK7BO also longpath at
2101z.  EA6FO and TF3DC followed at 2114z with J42L at 2143z.  The rate never
exploded for me but 40 was in very good shape as even the 5 watt stations
started to approach 599! By now the acculmulated exhaustion was really starting
to hit home. I kept having microsleeps waking up a few or many seconds later to
hear a clear freq with no report in the computer and not remembering what was
sent.  This happened hundreds of time over the rest of the contest.  Very
frustrating.  I have no idea how many qsos and mults it ultimately cost me or
how many stations will be NIL because I fell asleep before they sent the info
and I didn't have it in my log.  Very sorry about that!

With the low wattage station getting surprisingly loud on 40 I decided to see
what I could do on 20.  A quick tune showed some surprisingly loud JA's.  GREAT!
 I called cq at 2201z and was greeted by a stream of JA and other callers
including ZL3X, TI2OY, OX3LX, RC0L, RA0LL and a group of KH6's.  This was my
first real JA run since 2014 and I enjoyed every one of the 79 qsos in the 22z
hour! but the muf was dropping and there were not enough mults to work.  I
skipped 40 and went right to 80 for the 23z hour of 75
qsos 14 of which came from 20.  80 was open to Russia and CU2CE and SV2BXA
called in for mults along with R8TT who was actually louder on 160 the night
before! 80 began to peter out and I started alternating between 80 and 40 trying
to keep the rate up to no avail.

At 2359z I had 2387 qsos and 274 mult - very low because I had focused on rate
and was way too exhausted to tune with the second radio.  I was physically able
to still stay awake which was great, but I had no
mental reserves left. I had not yet recovered enough post-surgery and it showed
clearly in my score at the 24 hour mark.  In fact I had used the 2nd radio for
only about 10 qsos at this point and my mult total on the low bands was
especially awful. I now had to focus on the mults for the rest of the contest.

I started the 00z hour attempting to run on 40 and tune and work mults on 80,
but 40 was not cooperating with my plan.  Resulting in 54, 47, 32, 17 and 33
qsos in the 00 - 04z hours.  I was living in microsleep hell.  The one good
thing was that 160 became my " go to " band.  When I finished tuning
on 40 and 80 I would call cq on 160 and be greeted with an immediate burst of 5
-15 qsos, primarily Russians! This happened three times - I was like a kid in a
candy store !  I know that this happens to the LOUD 160
guys but it never happened to me before and I was really enjoying it.  

There were some brief runs on 80 and then back to 160 for a few more Russians
and then silence.  No sustained run on any band.  But ZR2A/4 called on 80, I
found 5H4WZ also on 80 and EA8OM and OE9TXF called in on 160.  Another run on
160 in the 05z hour with TI7W and J42L calling in with more Northern EU stations
and and a pileup!  and then back to 80 for a run with very loud Northern EU
stations that continued into the 06z hour with 73 qsos following a 70 hour at
05z.  I took a short break at 07z to try to wake up
and then ran on 40 with a 106 hour @ 07z and an 88 hour at 08z with IS0ESG,
MD2C, CE2LR and TI7W calling in and then KH2L called me at 0756z!  The run
continued with VP5K and VK7GN calling in and the last 10 rate climbing up to
157!  But then the microsleeps roared back and though 40 was still open I needed
to get some sleep, going qrt at 0909z.

I got up at 11z made my food and meds for the day and then charged into 20 at
1111z.  20 however was very quiet and signals were a bit watery.  The rate was
not what I had hoped with only a 98 hour but snagging a loud JA3YBK on 40 and
with IS0ESG, OY1CT, CE2LR, EA6FO and then BY4DX calling in @ 1153z followed by
EX8MJ at 1155z!   I was wide awake now.  The rate stayed around 100 per hour but
UA9CTT and UN9GD called in as the band went long followed by OH0R, EA9EU, GJ3YHU
and a very loud E21YDP @ 1226z.  The excitement 
continued with VU2PTT and E20HHK BOTH calling in at 1241z !  The Russians and
Northern EU stations were quite loud but there were not many of them.  I
continued running on 20 and VP2MSS called in while I was tuning 15 on the 2nd
radio.  I quickly nabbed J42L, ZR2A/4, ED8W and a few Carib/SA stations but
there was nothing to run on 15.  I continued with 20 and TA2BS, V31CO and HV0A
called in followed by V47UM and CO6RD finishing up a 93 hour at 13z.  At 1421z I
decided to cq on 15 and was greated with a burst of weak
stations and YO9HP, 4X1VF and P33W who surprisingly was quite weak. towards the
end of the hour propagation improved just enough to make J4, CT/EA8/CR5 stations
599+ on 15 but everything stayed S1 - S4.  I was able to pull LN8W, HB0A, YL2SM
and MI4I through the noise as well as a few Central and Eastern EU stations but
at 1508z it was back to the slog on 20 with more mult hunting on the 2nd radio,
at this point almost all Carib/SA stations on 10 and 15.  10 had opened well to
ALL of the Caribbean forsaking the usual 
spotlight propagation of 2 or 3 nearby stations with a blackout of the rest of
the region.  But today I heard loud zone 7 AND loud zone 8 stations
simultaneously - perhaps 7 or 8 years since I had heard that last on 10!  Still
I knew that I had lost a lot of potential mults in Africa, Central and South
American and the Caribbean by not looking for them on Saturday.  This was
especially true on 40 and 80.

I continued running slowly but steadily on 20 while picking up a boatload of
mults on 10 and 15 from 16z - 18z with qso and mults totals of 84 / 11, 65 / 16
and 44 / 10 respectively.  I took another break at 19z and then came back to run
on 40 at 1924z.  Another slow slog of 41 stations in the 19z hour but then
better rate 80 qsos in the 20z hour with 4X4FR, A61EK, ZL1IF( lp) and then OX3LX
calling in.  OX3LX is ALWAYS loud no matter what band!  

In the waning hours of the contest the qrm got worse on 40 and operators got
more entitled, landing on 
my freq and immediately cqing on the top of the caller that I was trying to
work.  And these cqers would NOT leave wasting a lot of valuable time and effort
on both of our parts.  21z produced 63 tough qsos and 5 mults but 22z got much
more interesting.  After VK6IT called me longpath on 40 followed
by VK6HG ! I began to listen on 20 for signs of another possible JA opening. 
Instead I found a cluster of loud mults AH2R, DU3LA BG2AUE and V85RH within 7 kc
of each other and I was able to work all of them on 20 through a howling pileup
of mid-West and West coast stations!  The I could hear them shortpath meant that
cndx were quite good and was why I could be heard.  Normally they are too weak
and I have to call them longpath which is much tougher. It was a very exciting
end to the 22z hour and I celebrated by
running some JA stations ending 22z with 43 qsos but 8 mults.  There were only a
few JA stations to work so it was back to 80 run and 20 S & P, but even
though the stations were loud, no one was calling.  I went into full s & p
mode to make qsos and found FS/RW0CN and FJ/W2RE to end the hour with 32 qsos
and 3 mults.

Final total were 3,800 qsos x 387 mult = 4,411,800 in 43 hours of mostly SO1R.

>From CQWW and other contests I can extrapolate a score with my normal SO2R usage
of about 3,900 qsos x 435 mult = 5.1 meg.  But I was physically not up to the
task and too tired to be more effective.  

Having said that, I did something that was unimaginable to me.  After never
before having more than 1,500 qsos on the low bands in any contest, in this
contest I broke the 2,000 low band barrier with, 2,009 ! with 251 on 160,
another all-time high total from my station.

All considered I was very pleased with my effort and my score and I had a lot of
fun with many new contest memories that I will savor for a very long time.  And
that is why I love contesting - you can operate the same contests for decades
and there are always new and frustrating challenges and then
incredible moments of excitement and pure joy that you could not have seen
coming and would not have believed possible, and they often happen just after
great frustration.  So you have to keep going to get the goodies.  :-)

As I get older I enjoy saying HI to old friends and new friends more and more
and, in an instant, remembering where and when I saw that person last and what
we were doing.  And in many cases, what country we were in at the time!  Great
stuff that I get to remember and relive every contest!

A big thanks to all the DX stations that worked me and especially to all the
DXpeditions stations that made a big effort to go somewhere just to work us and
give us another mult.

73 and stay safe and healthy in the age of COVID-19!


Bob KQ2M

kq2m at kq2m.com


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