[3830] CQWW CW M6W(G3WW) SO(A)AB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023

Call: M6W
Operator(s): G3WW
Station: G3WW

Class: SO(A)AB LP
QTH: IO82wt
Operating Time (hrs): 43:33

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  254    11       49
   80:  481    15       69
   40:  483    23       84
   20:  521    29       97
   15:  576    29      106
   10:  444    29       95
------------------------------
Total: 2759   500      136  Total Score = 3,355,536

Club: CWops

Comments:

For me, the 2023 CQWW CW contest will be remembered as, ‘what if’…

I had a goal – to get close to my Zone 14 record in the same category (SA LP)
and a slight tweak with strategy to maybe exceed the 2014 score to break 4.0
mil

The first 12 hours started great and by Sat mid-day I was nearly 190k points up
on 2014. The projected final score was telling me on track for 4.5 mil with
conditions  close to optimal for the first quarter of the contest, IMO.

But Sat afternoon I sensed something had changed. The W’s started sounding
raspy and became a lot weaker, then 10m closed down a couple of hours earlier
than I projected. Similarly, 15m and 20m soon followed and things started to get
tough once daylight ended. Time to re-think strategy and adjust goals.

Throughout Saturday evening I lost more and more ground on 2014 with each
passing hour. Oddly, top band condx seemed to be enhanced, so I spent more time
there than originally planned. I was certainly hearing well and sensed others
were too as I was often heard first call. But by midnight it became a struggle
to stay awake so I took a break and set the alarm for 0300 UTC.

Returning at 3 am nothing much had changed on the bands. I didn’t exactly feel
refreshed either so I ground on until 0600 UTC when I took a further 90 minutes
rest, setting the alarm just before sunrise.

As daylight took over on Sunday the bands recovered somewhat but the aurora had
scupered any chance of even matching the 2014 record. I finished on 3.3 mil
about 700k points down on 2014 albeit with a higher QSO count this time.

This year I worked about 200 less USA (compared with 2014). Mults on 40-20-15-10
were significantly down too. It was hard or impossible to collect mults on the
high bands with stations located off the ends of the dipole; I didn’t hear a
peep from the ZD7 or work a ZS for instance.

On the upside, even with disturbed conditions, I did improve totals on 160-80 as
the latest inverted-L is slightly better than what I used previous. Other
highlights were completing several 6-banders, chasing the Zone 39 dxpeditioners,
old school tuning the bands to find a KL7 with no pile-up and working my old pal
Andy 5Z4VJ on a few bands.

Reading my 2014 post-contest notes I remarked that a score of 5.0 mil should be
possible from G in this category with a small beam for the high bands – I have
no reason to alter that assessment. If the sun had behaved this year, then 4.5
mil was probably doable with my basic ‘wires in a tree’ setup.

I reckon 6.0 mil is possible from elsewhere in the UK (outside G) with a modest
tribander and low band wires in SA LP.

What surprised me was 160m in the contest. I worked my fist JA on 160m - albeit
on ft8 with 40 (forty) Watts just a couple of days prior to the contest when the
K & A indices were very low. 160 had been stellar then, and was not far off
that during CQWW. Until now I tended to think 160 might not be so good near
solar max but the sun is a funny thing.

This year I tried DXLOG seriously in a CW contest; I am reluctant to permanently
cross over to it as ocassionaly I hit an F-key and no message is sent and I
sound like a LID who hasn't responded. Hitting escape seems to restore the PC
keying. Also, the bandmap randomly 'freezes' and only a reload of log restores
normal operation. I am inclined to stick with WIN-TEST which is bullet proof.

73 Dez, G3WW / M6W

 

FTdx5000MP, 100 Watts

20-15-10  wire fan dipole (running N/S)
160-80-40 inverted-L (50 feet vert & 50 feet downward sloping)


For comparison the 2014 set up:


FT1000MP, 100 Watts

15-10     rotary trap dipole
80-40-20  Butternut vert
160       loaded inverted-L (25 feet vert & 60 feet horiz)


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