[3830] CQWW SSB KQ2M SOAB HP
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Mon Nov 8 21:05:52 EST 2021
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2021
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 41.7
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 29 9 24
80: 441 15 65
40: 394 22 75
20: 1539 38 112
15: 1593 29 97
10: 686 21 73
------------------------------
Total: 4682 134 446 Total Score = 7,624,100
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
My 2021 CQWWSSB contest effort began 15 months ago when a Tornado spawned by
Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through my qth; destroying two dozen trees and
eliminating several supports for my 80 M 4-square and 160 M Inverted L, and also
weakening the clamps on my 5L Hygain 205CA at 130’. Unlike most other
contest efforts, this one would not have happened without a team effort of many
friends to help me: NN1C, KM1P, K1XM, KQ1F, K1LZ and K3JO.
Because I live in extremely dense forest on a hilltop with wetlands in extreme
Western, CT, any antenna work quickly becomes a very time-intensive and
physically demanding project. Just to be able to access my antennas I first had
to clear the area of debris around my towers and this required two weekends in
early October 2020 chainsawing 11 trees and removing an enormous amount of logs
and brush; and that only got me back to where everything was BEFORE the Tornado
came. And I was still without 80 or 160. Late that October, Marty, NN1C, was
kind enough to come down to re-orient my 10 and 15 meter yagis and put up ropes
and carabiners at the 110’ level to support the new 80 meter 4-square when I
rebuilt it. I then spent two more full weekends rebuilding the 80 meter-square,
sling-shotting ropes up into the trees for 40, 80 and 160 and clearing more
brush and logs out of the area so that I could access them.
In January 2021, my top 20; which apparently had clamps loosened by the 90 –
100 mph wind gusts of that August tornado, slowly let go and began to freewheel.
It was saved by Joe, KM1P who came down and climbed my tower and spent four
hours securing it (and fixing other things) on a very windy day in January with
the temp never rising above 24F – and wind chill well below 0 the entire
time.
In 2021, while much of the US has been experiencing drought and extreme drought,
New England has continued to be blessed with rainfall. And thanks to an
enormous amount of tree cover removed by the Tornado and other trees/brush
removed by chainsaw, thousands of acorns and other seeds on the forest floor,
combined with months of sunlight and abundant rainfall, rapidly became a new
forest with far more vegetation than before, and in New England, vegetation
means Deer Ticks. By August the woods were 5’ high in new growth everywhere
and reaching the towers was almost impossible. Thus began a strategic program
of Roundup to kill vegetation and ticks on three straight weekends followed by
several more rounds of chainsawing and brush clearing. Only then was the area
clear of ticks and safe for tower work.
Meanwhile, in August, Krassy K1LZ and Velimir, K3JO were kind enough to fix my
ACOM2000a so that I would now have two working amps instead of one. Ironically
enough, my second ACOM2000a failed on the morning of CQWWSSB last year!
In late September, Paul and Charlotte, K1XM & KQ1F came down and spent an
entire weekend on my tower helping to replace the mangled and missing elements
of my lower and middle 5L LJ205CA’s. It was too windy to fix the top 20 but
Paul was able to re-orient it and clamp it down so that now the rotator showed
the true direction rather than requiring my constant mental calculations of
rotator indicator minus 45 degrees. In addition, Paul moved the carabiners up
to the 115’ and 117’ levels which now allowed my 80 M 4-square ropes to
clear some of the LJ205CA elements at 80’. The top 15 5L LJ155CA and top 20
which had multiple elements damaged by the devastating January 2019 ice-storm,
would have to be fixed at a later date.
I then spent the next four weekends unsuccessfully attempting to fix my 20 M
stackmaster, successfully fixing my 20 M stackmatch, replacing coaxial cables,
control cables, rebuilding and putting up the rebuilt 80 M square and 160 M
Inverted L. I then spent three more full days chainsawing and clearing even
more brush. Finally there were the several days of fixing/rebuilding splitter
boxes, DVP’s and DVK’s and recabling part of my shack just to get the
station functional again.
The good news was that the lower and middle 20’s now had a solid pattern with
good F/B and F/S, and the 80 M 4-square now had completely vertical elements and
elevated feedpoints 15’ above the ground with the best F/B and F/S I had ever
seen! The 160 Inverted L was allowing me to work VK’s even though it was
hopelessly wrapped around some tree branches at 70’, and I had two fully
functional ACOM2000a amps again.
All it had taken was about 10 full weeks of work on my part and the invaluable
help of 6 friends!
As usual, the week before the contest involved difficult professional work,
crazy hours and intense sleep deprivation – averaging 4 hours per night.
(Unfortunately this is normal for me.) My station and I were ready. LOL!
A few days before the contest there was an incredible burst of sunspot activity
with the SSN nearly 100 and with quiet geomagnetic cndx. 10 and 15 were
exceptional, and the other bands were excellent right down to 160 where I worked
another VK on CW. But in 48 years of contesting, I have never seen that level
of excellent cndx continue right into a CQWWSSB. Sure enough on Friday morning
we had an X1 flare which meant trouble was guaranteed during the weekend. An
Earth-facing CME was predicted and if it materialized it would have a dramatic
impact on the contest and what bands were usable.
I was physically exhausted prior to the contest so I didn’t have much
enthusiasm for a serious SOABHP NON-assisted effort, especially one about to be
blessed by a major CME, but with all the work I had done over the previous three
months, I was curious as to how my station would fare as a result of all of
these antenna improvements? This was my primary motivation to get on. My plan
was to start out on the highest band possible and operate on the highest open
band for as long as possible regardless of rate because when the CME came those
bands would fold and I would be stuck on lower freq. bands. I decided to
operate only for as long as it was fun, or interesting, or my body allowed.
With my XYL in Baltimore to watch my daughter perform Polonius in Hamlet, (we
are going down again this coming weekend) I wouldn’t have any distractions.
At 0000z I started on 20. This was easy. 40 would be a MOSH PIT and I
wouldn’t be able to get a run freq. A CME was coming and the polar opening on
20 would likely be short-lived. I tuned around was amazed at what I was
hearing. 20 was loaded with so many LOUD B/BA/BG/BH/BI and other Asian
stations, that I couldn’t help but go into DX’er mode! (This is bad
strategy for a contester but it IS lots of FUN!) I quickly worked JQ1YUF
(surprisingly I was not hearing many JA’s), KL7RA, OH7I and RN0CT (Zone 19)
for double mults, then found VY0ERC in zone 2 and VK6N peaking SOUTH ( a sure
sign of disturbed condition coming) for another double mult and then a few
Northern EU stations and 7Q6M for another double. But the real shock was when I
was tuning and heard someone give out Zone 23. WHAT? Who was that? It took me
almost five minutes to get the callsign BH3GIY – the combination of flutter,
accent and high pitch made it nearly impossible to copy. It was the rarest of
the rare – a Chinese station in Zone 23 – I had never heard one before! I
spent eight minutes repeatedly calling and trying to work him before succeeding.
Two minutes later I worked BA9AC for zone 24 followed by three more BY
stations, BY8DX, B4R, BI4IV. And then I heard 5926! WOW – must be Champ,
E21EIC. Yes, it was! E2A who was 59 + 10 ! A quick call, Champ said “Hi
Bob”. “Hi Champ – THANKS!” and another friend worked with a double
mult. I LOVE that CQWW action! A little more tuning and I found B4O and then
OX7A for another double mult then JA3YBK and BG4DVL. And then I found 4I1EBD
for another double mult and while I was calling him BG4DVL called and worked me!
I decided to try running and in three minutes made three qso’s with K7BL,
JF1SEK and then NH2CW called for another mult! I tuned some more and found PJ4K
and a LOUD FR4KR for double mults plus PY0F as well as CB8E, D4L for additional
double mults. By now 20 was fading to the North and I had made only 60 q’s in
90 minutes but I did work lots of mults that I would likely not hear again. I
was astonished that I had worked as many Chinese stations (7) as VE’s (7).
That was a first! I had worked 60 qsos in 21 zones and 21 countries. Also a
first!
But now there was no more avoiding 40. I grit my teeth and qsy’ed. 40 was
the most insane that I ever heard. There wasn’t even the pretense of stations
respecting a run freq., they all just called cq right on top of each other. I
was literally listening to layers of stations 3 – 4 deep on the same exact
freq. When the two loudest stopped transmitting I might hear 1 – 3 others
beneath them. It was a tremendous struggle to generate any rate this way as all
these stations were qrming each other terribly. It got more productive above
7.200 mhz as the non-EU stations fanned out and it was easier to separate
callsigns. Notable was a very loud A73A split. A quick pass through 160 and
then I started a good 30 minute run on 80 with an occasional S & P qso on
20. With two working amps it now meant that I could have SO2R for real so I
began to operate SO2R for the first time in almost two years – I quickly
noticed how badly out of practice I was. After the run I did a lot of S & P
on 80 picking up many mults – the rebuilt 80 meter 4-square was working VERY
well but the rain static from a two day Nor’easter was making it very
difficult to copy anyone. A beverage would have been quite helpful but was not
an option.
At 0326z I had had enough. I was exhausted, frustrated and the qrn was AWFUL!
I took a long break – went upstairs and had some dinner and studied some of my
logs from long ago because it had been 15+ years since the last time I had done
a serious competitive effort in CQWWSSB and that was back before the 40 meter
phone band had expanded!
After a 40 minute break, I went down to the shack and at 0408z, as we approached
EU sunrise, I qsy’ed to 40 for what was a brief run followed by a quick mult
pass through 40 and 160 and then 20 which had some watery signals in from PV2K
and C5C and then back to 80 for an even better run low in the band. At 0547z it
was back to 40 for another run with many loud Northern EU signals – LA, YL,
LY, ES, GM, OZ, TF2LL, etc. while I continued to S & P on 20 picking up
OA4O, VL2A (beaming South!) (he said I was off the side of his beam!). KH7M, my
friend Jim, N6TJ, called in on 80 @ 0628z followed by more new mult callers
EI9E, CQ3J, and C37N before it was time to qsy to run on 40 @ 0646z. This was
my best run on 40 – good signals and light qrm, and the last 10 rate briefly
peaked at 318.6 !, but I needed lots of mults, so I started to tune and picked
up HP3SS, VP9AD, C31LK, ZM1A, and then back to 80 for VP9I, CR2M, V3A, FY5KE,
and then back to 40 for YS1YS, FG4KH, OA4O, HI3T and back to 80 again for HI3T,
TI1K, PT4J etc. Rapidly alternating bands seemed to be the best bet as 40
meters faded quickly to EU apparently as a result of an M1 flare and the solar
wind proton density exploding to 14.5 protons! . At 0812z I went qrt – there
was just enough time for 1 ½ hours of sleep before getting up, making my food
and meds and then trying to secure a run freq. on 20. I felt rusty. I had
taken a long off-time and had made some operating mistakes, but I did make 405
qso’s 61 zones and 139 countries, and was starting to remember how to operate.
I had trouble falling asleep, so getting up at 10z was tough after only one hour
of sleep but I need to get some sleep each night in an attempt to control my
heart arrhythmias. For me ANY sleep is better than not going to sleep. 20
started slow and the QRM was intense. We were experiencing the effects of the
X1 flare and then another M1 flare which had just occurred at 0953z. But
despite that a loud A73A double mult. calling in at 1050z was a good sign and
the last 10 qso rate briefly exploded to 395.6! The Northern EU stations
started to get louder and I began to hear Russian stations by 11z. I changed
freq. and RC9F called in @ 1114z for zone 17, one of the few all weekend. The
rate was now a solid 200+ per hour and signals got stronger – leaving 20 now
would cost me many 20 meter mults, especially from deep Russia and Central Asia,
but 15 was beginning to open and with a CME coming and the solar wind speed and
proton density rapidly rising, I didn’t know how long we had. I qsy’ed to 15
at 1134z and heard mostly weak signals but then a few minutes later the signal
strength rapidly increased and the last 10 rate exploded again; this time to
423.5! The opening was excellent, rapidly expanding to Northern EU with a VERY
LOUD 9K2HN popping in at 1152z followed by SV9COL at 1200z. At this point I had
my highest last 10 rate of the contest @ 439.0!! To recap, there were 89 q’s
on 20 in the 10z hour followed by a 233 hour at 11z split between 15 and 20.
12z continued where 11z left off, with another 218 qsos. The highlight was a
fluttery EY7AD @ 1213z for a double mult and then 9J2BO @ 1233 for Zone 36 and
RW9W for my only UA9. In the 13z hour I heard a few stations on 10, and,
following my plan, I waited for the rate to decline on 15, made easier by the
fact that the 15 meter pileup sounded like the verbal equivalent of a Rugby
Scrum and I was unable to pull out any stations. I then immediately qsy’ed
and tuned the band and found A73A for a LOUD zone 21 double mult followed by
EA8RM, A65BB and a few EU stations. I decided to try a run at 1350z and the
rate picked up with 9J2BO calling in for a Zone 36 double mult @ 1357z, but the
opening was still marginal thanks to a solar wind proton density of 23.4 – the
highest that I have ever heard. The opening improved but the rate was not as
good as on 15, ending the 13z hour with 153 qso’s split between 10 and 15. I
decided to stay on 10 thinking that it would not open again on Sunday after the
CME arrived – the rate was good but signals were weakening and more US was
calling in – a sign that the propagation was changing and that the run was
going away. I decided to S & P picking up double mults FR4KR, 7Q6M and
CE1BF. By now 10 was almost gone and I qsy’ed back to 15 @ 1433z and I ran
there for the next 4 ½ hours. The brief opening to Russia was over – cut
short by what were clearly the beginning effects of the CME but signals were
still solid and I made 142 qso’s split between 10 and 15 in the 14z followed
by a better 15z with 195 qso’s and mults GU7DAI calling @ 1518z, TF8KY @
1532z, LX1ER @ 1547z, and 9H5DX and TF2MSN @ 1551z. HZ1HZ called in @ 1610z,
followed by HI8RD @ 1619z, UA2FZ @ 1629z and EA8AQV double mult @ 1633z.
I had been having enormous difficulty with hundreds of microsleeps occurring
over the previous four hours. Someone would call me and I would give my report
and then I would wake up with no awareness of how long I had been asleep. A few
seconds? A few minutes? I couldn’t tell. Often I would call CQ and then
wake up with a clear freq. Did someone call me and I was asleep? No way to
know. It was very frustrating and I was powerless to stop it. (A frustrating
and difficult side effect of the medicines that I need to take, made worse by
the physical stress of operating SSB plus the effects of pervasive sleep
deprivation). 7Z1VD calling in @ 1647z and then 3B8CW @ 1649z for a Zone 39
double mult woke me up. ZS1ZY called in for a Zone 38 double at 1657 and I
began a run of ZS stations ending a 164 qso 16z hour. Right at 1701z, VY1KX
called in for a very early Zone 1 followed by D44PM for a zone 35 double @ 1703z
and Jim (N6TJ) KH7M for zone 31 @ 1708z. KH7M was 59 + 20 off the back of the
antenna! The wonderful run on ZS stations continued with XE1CL calling in for
zone 6 @ 1727z and mults IS0GXM, EA6JN, OY1OF followed along with V51JP @ 1755z
to close out a 159 qso 17z hour. A 136 qso 18z hour was split between a fading
15 meter and a 10 meters opening to South/Central America. CU3AC called in @
1805z followed by Zone 9 PJ4G at 1813z. I continued to run on 15 and pick off
Caribbean/SA mults on 10. This strategy was working well with CE1TT zone 12,
OA4EA zone 10 and LV3V zone 13 double mults calling in @ 1833z, 1835z and 1841z,
while finding 10 meter double mults D4F zone 35 and OA4SS zone 10. 18z provided
136 qsos split between 10 and 15 and then with both bands fading fast I qsyed to
20 at 1903z. As it turned out, we had an M1.5 flare and that ended 15 and 10
to Europe – it was typical to have solar “aftershocks” following an X
class flare and my strategy had been to work 10 and 15 for as long as possible
in anticipation of the incoming CME that would most likely shutdown 10 and
possibly 15 tomorrow leaving everyone to cram together on 20. That would be
fine with me because I had mostly avoided 20 at that point while everyone else
stayed on 20 for a few hours longer and put in less time on 10 and 15 – which
meant that I had a lot more stations work on 20 if we were all stranded there.
I felt prepared for whatever was to come.
The 19z hour on 20 was productive with 173 qsos and 9 mults. A47RS was a
welcome mult @ 1927z followed by VU2XE zone 22 @ 1942 and J42L @ 1943z, then
PJ2T and EC6FK @ 1950z and 1955z with a long path ZL1XS zone 32 double mult @
1956z to close out the hour. I stayed in 20 to run in the 20z hour with another
129 qsos including a ZS2ABE zone 38 double, a brief VK and ZL run (all long
path), and TO7O @ 2037z. From time to time there would be a brief burst of
callers and I would get excited thinking that the band was re-opening. Nope!
That 357.6 last 10 rate @ 2044z was just a FAKEOUT!
Without a 40 meter yagi, running on 40 SSB was close to impossible in CQWW so I
opted to go for rate on 20 and I made another 100 qso’s in the 21z hour with
MD2C, CO8RH and HK4ZZ calling in for new mults. I began to tune 15 with the top
yagi NW and found KL7RA @ 2127 and then JA7YRR for zone 25. Meanwhile a few
JA’s had called in on 20 along with a stream of Northern EU stations. 20 was
being impacted negatively by the CME but not too badly yet…. I was
optimistic. 10 and 15 had died early but 20 was still alive and I continued to
run while tuning 15 – finding a LOUD VK4SDD for a welcome zone 30 double while
TF3VS called me @ 2230z and HP1XT @ 2232z for a zone 7 double. I tuned 20
picking up V26B, FG4KG, CX2CC, KP3Z, 8P1W, HC1QRC, HI8RD and then 7A2A @ 2248
with the beam due South to snag a zone 28 double mult! That was a tough mult –
he was right under HI8RD who was MUCH louder than he was and in order to work
7A2A I had to time the call just right so that he came back to me just after
HI8RD had finished his CQ Contest. I then grabbed ZF1A, TI0RC, VP5DX and P40W
for mults to finish out the 22z hour with 86 qsos.
20 sounded okay but I was hopeful that we might get an Asian opening on 15. I
tuned 15 and spent five minutes getting BG2AUE to hear my call and work me –
he made a great effort and I worked a zone 24 double mult! Unfortunately I
could not break the NH2CW pileup for a zone 27 double. I decided to try to run
on 20 and a mix of BA, JA, KL and VE stations called and even UC0C and RA0QD in
zone 19 but the run ended shortly and I qsy’ed to 40 and then 80 ending a
mediocre 23z hour with 49 qsos.
At 0000z I had 2528 qsos, 117 zones and 327 countries = 3.1 meg in 21.7 hours;
not what I had hoped.
In the 00z hour I decided to change strategy. I was going to attempt to run
more actively on 40 and succeeded with a good burst of stations and Z60A, 4X1DX
and OH7K calling in with consecutive mults at 0024 – 0026z; but then the rate
died and I split operating between 80, 20 and 160; picking up RA9V in zone 18 on
20 and then 9 mults on 160. Late in the 01z hour (35 qsos) I started an 80
meter run which died after 50 qsos and then I tuned 20, 80 and 160 picking up 7
mults in 15 minutes on 160 and 7Q6M on 40 for a zone 37 double. The 01z and 02z
hours were good for much needed low band mults but poor in qsos with 35 and 53
respectively before crashing in the 03z hour with 5 qsos. At 0327z I
couldn’t stay awake and the QRN from the Nor’easter was horrendous making
running on 80 impossible. I decided to take a 40 minute break and eat and
relax. Back on @ 0404, 160 began to open better – I picked up a quick 5 mults
and then tuned 80 picking up IS0/OM2TW, and then mults LX1ER, E74E, TO7O and
LY2M and PJ2T after starting another run on 80 @ 0431z. The rate improved to 75
qsos in the 04z hour with several zone 16 stations calling in at their sunrise,
and this was made possible by the solar wind dramatically slowing and proton
density plummeting to 0.3! This was great news and meant that the CME was
receding and the bands should improve from here. The run continued in the 05z
and 06z hours with another 72 and 79 qsos and 7 more mults including MD4K,
IH9/OK1M and EC6DX while picking up mults 9K9A, and ZP5AA on 20 on the second
radio. At 0637z the run died and I qsy’ed to 40 after a brief pass through
160. 40 sounded washed out so I kept tuning 160 and picked up ZF1A. 0711-12z
was exciting as double mults XE2OK and VK2SR called in on 40 on consecutive
qso’s! Once again the rate died and I tuned 40 picking up EW5A before going
qrt @ 0741z. It was time to sleep and be ready to go at 10z. Sometime after
07z the effects of the CME became evident and the bands shutdown.
After rising at 10z and making my meals and meds for the day, when I came down
to the shack 20 was almost dead and the K was 3 with a really fast solar wind
and super high proton level. The Bz (Earth’s magnetic field) was impressively
negative @ -18. 160 was a wasteland so I tuned 40 and 80 for mults picking up
HC5DX zone 10, HP1XT and HD8R on 80 and then HD8R and VK9DX on 40. I heard a
few JA’s but they didn’t hear me. After sweeping the band and working some
loud VJ/VL stations it was time to find a 20 M run freq.
1038z marked the first Sunday morning 20 M run qso and it was a struggle to be
heard with an annoyingly high number of dupes. The 10z hour ended with a paltry
27 qsos. But by 1100z the Bz moved up rapidly from -18 to -5 and cndx improved
quickly with mult UP7L in zone 17 calling @ 1121z followed also by RA9AP @
1127z. New mults started calling in as well with LX1ER, 9H6A, IS0BWM and EA8DGC
in zone 33. And then @ 1153z when JA7ZFN and mult UK8IQ called back to back I
got excited – 20 meters was going to be better than yesterday despite the CME!
The 11z hour ended with 149 qsos and the 12z hour got off to a great start with
a LOUD YB0ECT calling in @ 1206z, but with the rate suddenly dropping, I tuned
15 on the 2nd radio and noticed that it was opening to EU! I qsy’ed to 15 and
worked 4O3A for a new mult @ 1218z and then found a spot and called CQ; my run
starting @ 1221z. Unlike Saturday, the zone 16 stations were calling right from
the start and I decided to go high in the band to see if I could work a lot of
3rd and 4th tier Eastern EU stations. The rate was very slow at first and there
was just as much qrm up there as down below, but I began to run stations with
callsigns that I did not recognize – which was EXACTLY what I wanted - and
even though the 12z hour produced only 112 qsos I sensed that the rate was about
to rip higher.
At 13z 15 meters really opened well to all of EU; especially Northern EU.
Rates were moving back towards 200 per hour with lots of SM, LA and Russian
stations calling. A62A was a welcome mult @ 1307z and HZ1TL @ 1328z and the
last 10 rate peaked at 367.3. 13z produced 147 qsos and the cndx were
noticeably improving. This was confirmed by the drop in the K index and
increase in the Bz to + 0. Suddenly around 1410z, it was like someone turned
the 15 meter volume knob all the way to the right – signals jumped about 2 –
3 s-units and loads of LY, YL, and Russians stations called in. I had been
monitoring 10 on the 2nd radio when a all of a sudden, a handful of weak EU
stations starting to get louder. Based on what I heard just happen on 15 I
sensed that 10 was about to explode. At 1429z I qsy’ed to 10 and BOOM! The
first qso was with LY5W followed by CT1BOL and SV9BOL and then SM6W – all new
mults. 10 was wide open and the last 10 rate soared to 280/hr.
WAIT! Wasn’t there an X1 flare two days ago and a CME now? YES, there was,
but unlike in previous years when an SFI = 70 and SSN =0 ensured a dead 15 and
10, in 2021 we had a SFI > 110 and a SSN > 90 and that meant a high MUF
and quick recovery. What a difference!
10 M continued to rock and the pileup built from a few stations to a few dozen
to a ROAR of callers! At 1451z 10 M went into orbit – signals INSTANTLY
jumped 2 – 3 s-units and the pileup became a MASSIVE ROAR – maybe 100 –
200 deep! It was my largest ever stateside pileup in a DX contest!
Unfortunately, simultaneous with this incredible run, my heart arrhythmias,
which I had been battling all weekend, went into overdrive. Completely erratic
heartbeat for the next 30 minutes despite taking additional Metoprolol – which
made me feel nauseous, lightheaded and in great discomfort. My vocal cords,
which always get trashed during an SSB contest, tighten even more as a side
effect of the meds that I need to take, and got so irritated that I began to get
experience throat spasms and coughing fits in addition to the endless heart
arrhythmias. It was surreal – here I was having one of the great runs of my
contesting life and my body was doing its best to sabotage it. I have rarely
felt so confused and miserable during a contest! But being the diehard that I
am, I was not going to let my body rob me of this amazing run – who knew when
I might ever experience this again? So I persisted; operating standing up in an
attempt to reduce the arrhythmias and whispering at times to relieve my
disappearing voice.
UT5EL became the first zone 16 station on 10 with stations from YL, LY, OH, ES,
LA, UA, OZ, GI and GM – all of Northern EU calling in simultaneously. The
last 10 qso rate spiked parabolic to 383 and then began to drop as it became
progressively more difficult to pull out callsigns, at several points becoming
impossible to even get a single letter or number out of the din. Then 10 also
opened to the Middle East with P33W, 4Z4KX and OD5TX calling in for mults. No
matter how fast I worked stations the pileup continued to grow – simply
INCREDIBLE! 14z had provided 201 qsos split between 15 and 10 and then 15z
rocked with a peak 60 min rate of 268 including a 7 qso minute and several 6 qso
minutes, my second best hour ever from the US! ED9C, LX1EA and EV1R called in
for new mults along with D44PM but zone 16 dropped out followed quickly by
Northern and Eastern EU disappearing as well as the opening rapidly
transitioning to Western EU; G, PA, ON, DL and then to I and EA. ZS6MRK called
in for a zone 38 double @ 1634z followed by IS0EVQ and then the band started to
die rapidly. 16z provided 157 qsos and a burst @ 1622z rocked the last 10 meter
to 393 but then the solar wind proton density ramped up to 10.4 and 10 faded,
required a quick qsy to 15 at 1659z and after A73A calling in for a new mult at
1701z, it was back to the bottom of the band. @ 1713z, TI3DK called in for a
zone 7 double and then a LOUD VE2IM called in for zone 2 @ 1734. I had expected
to stay on 15 for a few hours but it was dying even faster than 10 and forced a
quick qsy to 20 @ 1741z; much earlier than expected. Clearly there had been
another flare and the Bz turned quickly negative falling to – 10; a bad
number.
P33W and 4X6IR called in for new mults @ 1752z and 1756z but the 17z hour was
disappointing with 108 qso’s. I knew that 20 should pick up now and it did a
great job – supplying 189 and 159 qsos respectively in the 18z and 19z hours.
It took a while to be heard through the dim but then the frequency cleared and
chaos began with non-stop callers as signals increased in strength. Many zone
16 stations called in and then mults Tk5MH, SV9COL and 4L2M in zone 21 at 1827z
followed by C37N @ 1853z. CR2M started the 19z hour as the opening shifted to
mainly G, PA, S5, I and EA stations. I began to tune 10 meters with the 2nd
radio in the 19z hour and picked up mults J68HZ and FG5GP. ZS6MRK called in on
20 @ 1927z followed by EA8BQM at 1941z and a super loud FP5AC at 1943z.
The 20z hour – 100 qsos and 14 mults, opened with ER5DX @ 2002z and HD8R and
VP9AD @ 2032z and 2038z while I snagged mults V3A, PJ7P, FG4KH, V26B, ZP5AA,
HD8R, CV7S, HC2GRC, HK3C and FY5KE on 15 and HD8R on 10. By 21z 20 meters was
fading fast. JA7YRR calling in @ 2102z followed by AL7AF and AL7LO @ 2107z and
2115z and gave me hope for a potential JA/Asian run but the real score boost was
coming from the mults on the 2nd radio – HP1XT, ZF5T, HD8R on 15 while CR3A
called in on 20 @ 2116z followed by XE2B zone 6 double @ 2136z. The JA’s did
get louder on 20 and AL7CX and BD7DT also called in but the rate was dropping
fast with the 21z hour producing only 64 qsos.
Since 20 was still productive in both qsos and mults and 40 was a total ZOO, I
stayed with the run as KL1R and several JA’s called in along with VL2A and
some VE stations. I worked mult PJ2T on 15 but then 15 and 20 faded forcing me
to attempt to run on 40 which I did for 15 qsos, and picking up mults FP5AC and
SZ1A ending the 22z hour with 47 qsos.
The last hour usually has the lowest rate of the day as it is Monday morning in
Asia and contesters are getting ready for work. It is also near midnight in
most of Europe and many of the ops have already gone to sleep. So where to
tune and where to call cq? Cndx were not very good over the pole thanks to the
negative Bz reading and elevated K index and the SFI and SSN had been dropping
lowering the MUF. I tuned 15 and turned DX’er again but couldn’t break the
NH2CW pileup for zone 27 or for a fairly loud YB in zone 28, so I opted to try
to run on 15 and see if I could get some Asian/Pacific stations to call in for
mults. About 15 JA’s plus some VE’s called but then the bad went quiet
and called CQ on 20 with the beam South. Surprisingly 5Z4VJ and 9Z4CT called in
for new mults along with VL5L and VJ2W and quite a few South Americans and
Central Americas and I ended with 43 qsos in the 23z hour.
My final totals in 41.7 hours SOABHP NON-assisted:
4,682 qso’s 134 zones and 446 countries = 7,624,100 before UBN
I was especially pleased with the 38 zones on 20, even though I somehow missed
zone 36. Lots of easy country and zone mults had evaded me on 20 and the other
bands too.
The 4,682 qsos shocked me – it was by far the most qsos I ever made in CQWWSSB
from the US and I did it with what I would consider overall good but not
excellent cndx; and nothing even close to top of the cycle conditions. This was
my first serious CQWWSSB effort in 15+ years. I had not planned to operate this
many hours nor did I expect to do this well. It was all a pleasant surprise and
a reminder that no matter how many years you operate these contests, you NEVER
know what is going to happen! And if you let up at all or quit, you may have
unknowingly just blown the best contest score of your life!
I want to again give a special thanks to those who helped me so much during this
past year and made this score possible: NN1C, KM1P, K1XM, KQ1F, K1LZ and K3JO.
It really takes a community to help raise a station. You guys are AWESOME!
I turned 60 this year; and apparently I am still on the young side for many of
the serious contesters. After the contest I was reminded that my good friend
Jim, N6TJ, who operated KH7M this weekend, turned 82 and has been operating
competitively for 66 years! So I’m 60 and he has operated CQWW for six years
longer than I have been alive! LOL! What a truly awesome accomplishment on
Jim’s part! I love the spirit that so many of the contesters have. It is a
pleasure and a privilege to work you all.
Thank you for the qsos and the mults and see you in CQWWCW!
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 ..... ..... ..... 33/32 ..... ..... 33/32 33/32
1 . . 47/32 24/10 . . 71/42 104/74
2 3/5 59/28 11/13 2/2 . . 75/48 179/122
3 . 27/9 . . . . 27/9 206/131
4 3/3 6/1 34/14 2/1 . . 45/19 251/150
5 . 49/5 29/5 1/2 . . 79/12 330/162
6 . 14/6 74/8 1/1 . . 89/15 419/177
7 1/1 6/5 60/10 . . . 67/16 486/193
8 1/1 4/5 4/1 ..... ..... ..... 9/7 495/200
9 . . . . . . . 495/200
10 . . . 89/30 . . 89/30 584/230
11 . . . 106/13 127/40 . 233/53 817/283
12 . . . . 218/17 . 218/17 1035/300
13 . . . . 92/0 61/32 153/32 1188/332
14 . . . . 90/2 52/12 142/14 1330/346
15 . . . . 195/6 . 195/6 1525/352
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 164/11 ..... 164/11 1689/363
17 . . . . 159/13 . 159/13 1848/376
18 . . . . 102/10 34/17 136/27 1984/403
19 . . . 173/9 1/0 4/1 178/10 2162/413
20 . . . 129/3 . . 129/3 2291/416
21 . . . 100/3 2/3 . 102/6 2393/422
22 . . . 73/17 13/3 . 86/20 2479/442
23 . 9/0 4/0 33/0 3/2 . 49/2 2528/444
0 ..... ..... 53/3 ..... ..... ..... 53/3 2581/447
1 9/9 20/1 4/0 2/1 . . 35/11 2616/458
2 5/7 48/3 . . . . 53/10 2669/468
3 1/1 2/0 2/2 . . . 5/3 2674/471
4 4/5 71/6 . . . . 75/11 2749/482
5 . 69/6 . 3/2 . . 72/8 2821/490
6 1/0 53/1 25/0 . . . 79/1 2900/491
7 1/1 . 25/5 . . . 26/6 2926/497
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 2926/497
9 . . . . . . . 2926/497
10 . 4/4 7/2 16/0 . . 27/6 2953/503
11 . . . 149/7 . . 149/7 3102/510
12 . . . 24/0 88/1 . 112/1 3214/511
13 . . . . 146/1 1/0 147/1 3361/512
14 . . . . 82/0 119/16 201/16 3562/528
15 . . . . . 251/8 251/8 3813/536
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 2/0 157/5 159/5 3972/541
17 . . . 52/2 56/4 . 108/6 4080/547
18 . . . 189/4 . . 189/4 4269/551
19 . . . 153/2 . 6/2 159/4 4428/555
20 . . . 73/4 26/9 1/1 100/14 4528/569
21 . . . 57/3 7/3 . 64/6 4592/575
22 . . 14/2 30/0 3/1 . 47/3 4639/578
23 . . 1/0 25/2 17/0 . 43/2 4682/580
DAY1 8/10 174/59 263/83 766/123 1166/107 151/62 ..... 2528/444
DAY2 21/23 267/21 131/14 773/27 427/19 535/32 . 2154/136
TOT 29/33 441/80 394/97 1539/150 1593/126 686/94 . 4682/580
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