[RTTY] CQWW RTTY - ZS2EZ & ZS2DL

[Barry Murrell]

For the first time in memory the city of Port Elizabeth, South Africa,
actually had THREE stations active in the CQWW RTTY Contest! ZS2EZ, ZS2DL
and ZS2Y were all giving it a go this past weekend. Thian ZS2Y was a
surprise entrant, whilst Donovan ZS2DL and myself had made it well-known
that we were taking part. I haven't heard from Thian as to how he fared, but
both ZS2DL and ZS2EZ posted satisfactory scores!

With the two of us being good friends, we decided to go for separate
categories - I went for Single-Op-Assisted, whilst ZS2DL (in his first-ever
contest) ran SOAB-HP. Software was also quite different - I used N1MM
Logger, Donovan used MixW. I am somewhat handicapped by having to go to work
both Saturday and Sunday mornings for 3 hours each day (no way out of this
unfortunately) and as luck would have it 15m was wide open both mornings! In
fact 15m was open pretty much all day Saturday, closing down in the early
evening. Sunday started well, but faded in the afternoon. Donovan had a rig
problem late Sunday afternoon (something went haywire with the receive side
of his FT-2000) and he had to shut down, but 20m was wide open at that stage
(and utter carnage here!) and only faded out quite late. 

It was really pleasing to see a number of African stations on the air during
the contest - D2NX, 6W1SE, C91R,D4C, ZS1JY, the 9U expedition, a number of
EA8s, CT9s, a 7Q7, VQ9LA (technically African!), FR5MV and of course ZS2EZ,
ZS2DL and ZS2Y, plus no doubt more that I did not hear!! Also a pleasure to
hear so many familiar calls from the USA and Europe again (including our
moderator W6WRT - worked on 40m!!!) Was also very pleased to work D4C on 4
bands 80-15, and KG6DX on Guam after a long battle to break through the EU
pileup. 

ZS2EZ SUMMARY: SOAB ASSISTED

        Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   ZN    Sec
         3.5       5      14    4    4    2
           7      50     146   18   15   15
          14     147     430   62   24    8
          21     312     924   55   18   17
          
       Total     514    1514  139   61   42

Total Score : 366 388

Station: Kenwood TS-870S, Kenwood TL-922 Amplifier, Cushcraft A3S @ 30ft,
Dipoles 80/40 @ 27ft, MicroHam MicroKeyer, N1MM Logger 7.13
Max Power 400W


ZS2DL SUMMARY: SOAB HP

        Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   ZN    Sec
           7      43     124   18   16   18
          14     135     397   54   26    2
          21     313     932   56   18    1
          
       Total     491    1453  128   60   21

Total Score : 303 677

Station: Yaesu FT-2000, Ameritron ALS-600 Amplifier, Hy-Gain Explorer-14 @
40ft, MicroHam MicroKeyer, MixW 2.18
Max Power 400W

Really great fun, and we are both already talking about next year's contest!
Thanks to all who worked us!!

 

73 de Barry Murrell ZS2EZ
(EX ZR2DX / ZR6DXB)
KF26TA - Port Elizabeth,South Africa
Member : PEARS, SARL, ARRL, SA AMSAT