[3830] CQWW SSB KQ2M SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2020

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

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0     0        0
   80:    0     0        0
   40:    0     0        0
   20: 2015    31      101
   15: 1432    23       87
   10:  235     8       27
------------------------------
Total: 3682    62      215  Total Score = 2,832,048

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

WOW! That was FUN!  

I had planned a major write-up for this contest but in the aftermath of the
August 4th tornado, courtesy of Tropical Storm Isaias, all the weeks that I have
had to since spend chainsawing trees, clearing brush, and rebuilding all of my
low band antennas, there was no time left.  It is not even clear if I will have
all the antennas back up in time for CQWWCW. 

On Friday evening of the contest, I hooked up my station for the first time
since May and immediately noticed a strong burning smell. It took me a while to
isolate it - apparently a variable DC power supply decided to burn up to show
it's displeasure at not being used for the previous 5 months. Had some trouble
getting a few things to work properly and rebooting one of the computers, but
then all was ok.

Since I had no lowband antennas anymore, it was going to be a 10, 15 and 20
affair.  That allowed me to work a few mults on 20 Friday evening, qrt and relax
for a few hours.  With a K=4 and A=14 and G1 storm conditions, I had only
limited expectations for the contest even though the SSN was 11.

Got on 20 @ 10:30 and the band was open but the rates were poor.  Northern
Europe and Russia were weak.  It was the bottom of the cycle so I didn;t expect
much.  Then BOOM!  The band opened with spectacular rates including a 395 last
10 minutes! and then getting up to a 277 last 100! Although I was SO2R I had no
real intention of using the 2nd radio for anything but spotting band openings. 
I was surprised that I began hearing EU on 15 @ 1135z - very atypical but
welcome.  But I had been sucked in by a teasing 15 meters before and I did not
want to lose a good 20 meter run freq. so I did not qsy.  At 1219z I finally
qsy'd to 15 which was barely open. This qsy was also made necessary by my 2nd
computer deciding not to recognize the C: drive anymore and stopped processing
qsos.  I now was down to only one computer which was a problem since the
Computer 1 did not have a working floppy drive so I had no way to get the log
off of it.  Well, worry about making qso's NOW and figure out how to get the log
off later.  

15 was open rather poorly but I was determined to get a run going.  I stuck ti
out and was rewarded.  After the 11z 207 hour on 20 the next four hours on 15
yielded 173, 178, 152, 212 and 159 q's respectively.  I did hear ED5N on 10
meters @ 12:30 z but there was no run possibility there at that time.  In the
15z hour I was able to get the rate up to 352 last 10 and 249 last 100 and even
with signals getting louder there was no Northern Europe and almost no Russia,
so rates were limited.  Around 17:30z I decided to go back to 20 and was treated
to hours of 180, 190, 149, 141 and 129 before the EU petered out around 21z. 
After that it was a mixture of occasional EU, JA, SE Asia, Africa, etc. and then
the band shut down tight @ 23:30z.  I was shocked to have 2043 qso's after only
13 1/2 hours of operating!

Sunday cndx started off worse even though the A and K indices were lower.  The
10z hour yielded a paltry 26 qsos but then in the 11z hour I worked 156 more
with some loud UA9 and Asiatic Russia stations.  15 opened slowly in the 12z
hour and then EXPLODED - first with EA and I stations and then adding G and DL
and then expanding to PA, Russia, and Ukraine resulting in a 211 hour at 13z. 
That was the first time that I ever had TWO 200+ hours on the same band on
different days in CQWW! Peak rates were 371 last 10 and 233 last 100.  The cndx
just did not support a solid opening, but it was good enough.  In the 14z hour -
151 qsos - I noticed that 10 was opening to Europe and decided to give up a
great 15 meter run freq.  It was a struggle - very spotty propagation but it was
direct path - mostly S2 - S3 EU signals with an occasional S9.  The opening
improved into the 15z hour - 129 qsos - but then began petering out.  Nothing
really except for EU stations - no Africa or SA, but that was ok. It was Europe
on 10!!! I qsyed back to 15 at 16z for a 121 hour and then back to 20 at 17z and
then ran the rest of the contest with 124, 153, 131, 91, 110, 69 and 52 hours -
running EU and then later some JA, Southeast Asia and VK and ZL longpath with
some Carib, SA and African mults thrown in.  Even though the K = 4 at 2230z,
some JA stations peaked at S9 !  Starting at about 20z, I used the 2nd radio to
pick up some extra qsos with PY, LU and other Carib and SA stations.

Final Score  3682 qsos in 27 hours !  62 zones 215 DX = 2832048

Late in the contest, after a number of computer crashes which forced me to
temporarily log by hand on a legal pad, I figured out that the 2nd computer had
run out of room on the hard drive and while I was operating I was deleting files
to clear hard drive space.  Eventually I cleared enough and was able to reboot
and restart CT on the 2nd computer.  This now meant that although I would have
to transfer over the log from computer 1 to computer 2 via Laplink, I would be
able to fix the log on computer 2 and then retrieve it so that I could send it
to the cq contest url.  After the contest I deleted a lot more files so that I
would not have to go through this nightmare again.

I was amazed to see the high rates continue on Day 2 with another 1639 qsos!  I
really did not hunt mults as the rates were too good and it was not a serious
effort since I did not have lowband antennas.

The conditions were far better than I had expected and I noticed that at times
the runs on 10 and 15 seemed to be independent of which combination of antennas
that I was using, suggesting that a lot of high angle propagation and possible
Sporadic E was involved.  

Regardless of what mode of propagation caused the unexpectedly good openings
considering the high A and K indices, rapid solar wind and high proton levels,
what was clear was that unlike the past many years, the few sunspots SSN = 11
were making a BIG difference at my station.  Where in the past I had to listen
to coastal New England stations run like crazy while I struggled to be heard,
this year the addition of sunspots let me participate too.  LOL ! I am certainly
looking forward to seeing the impact of even more sunspots in the future ! 

As always it was wonderful saying hello to so many old and new friends and to
enjoy the birth of cycle 25.

Thanks for all the qso and the mults and Happy Thanksgiving!

Stay safe and see you in CQWWCW !

73

Bob KQ2M


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