[3830] CQ160 CW W3HKK Single Op Assisted HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2022

Call: W3HKK
Operator(s): W3HKK
Station: W3HKK

Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: OH
Operating Time (hrs): 19.75

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 694  State/Prov = 57  Countries = 36  Total Score = 186,744

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

W3HKK STATION:  IC7610  - Acom 1000 amp - N1MM+ Logging software - cw buddy
memory keyer/memory/real time keyboard   supplementing the  8 cw memories in the
7610. 

TX ANTENNA:   This year I failed to  lay out my 26 x 100 ft radial system before
the wx turned too cold to do so. So I was running 700w into a 1/4 wave 160m 
INV-L with a vertical leg of 52 ft, and the 78 ft of wire sloping down to the E,
ending  about 15 ft above ground. 
So the  only RF ground for the vertical antenna was a single 8 ft copper clad
steel ground rod dating to 2009, plus of course the earth beneath it.  Ohio loam
conductivity must be pretty good!

That  means the L  puts out a slightly stronger signal to the W.  And as usual,
I have very good results towards the US West Coast, working many CA (19) &
AZ(8)  stations in particular.

RX ANTENNA:  SAL 30 ( four short delta loops 30 ft tall, electronically
rotatable  in 8 directions.)

CONTEST CATEGORY:   Single Op -  High Power ( 700w)  - Assisted

CONDITIONS:   FRIDAY night was   about average, with  some decent openings into
EU.  And many strong US sigs, but not as many of them.  ie  My best actual
hourly rate in 2022 was  about 65% of my Personal Record Year of 2020; and my
score was also about  65% of my Personal Best Year of 2020 -  which happened to
be at the solar minimum.  

My 2022  average contest rate ( total Q's  divided by total hours  OTA) was a
humbling 35/hour due to the very slow 2nd night. It was hard work to say the
least finding and pulling sigs out of the noise.

In particular, SATURDAY night  had  MUCH slower rates, 51 Dupes, and  far fewer
- and weaker -  sigs, from the git-go. Required a lot of  searching and pouncing
to separate fresh meat  from  stations already in the log. Since its always
faster to just work  the dupes than try to explain that theyre a dupe, I just
work them and move on. At one stretch  Sun morning, almost 50% of my  CQ replies
were dupes.  So I switched to S&P.

As sigs thinned out, many were just above the noise, requiring agile fingers on
the  eight direction SAL30 RX antenna, switching from W to E,   N to S, and 
directions in between.  The 20 db F/B often made all the difference.

SS CYCLE:  :  With the  bottom of the SS cycle now history, Ole Sol  was again 
throwing out particles that  tended to  mask Top Band signals passing through
the ionosphere, by adding 20 dB or more attenuation.
  
DX:  Hams in the northern latitudes complained about  poor to nonexistant 
conditions  this year.  I heard no Scandanavian stations, and few German
stations among the central, eastern and southern European stations coming
through.

I saw a few  JA spots but heard nothing.  And it took two days of trying to work
KL7SB, the Alaska contest station, and even then they were barely above the
noise floor when I worked them Sun morning around 6 am.  Only two KH6 stations  
got in the log, also with very weak signals. And the ZL and VK spots were few
and far between - again with none heard in Ohio.

COVID 19:  continued to  quite adversely affect the number of DXpeditions OTA
from places like Africa, the Pacific,  S.A.,  and C. A. etc.

 
Too bad  the second night wasnt as good as the first.  Guess that giant sunspot
group rotating earthward may have thrown out some "negative energy"
our way.  The bottom really fell out here in central Ohio.


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