CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K8BKM
Operator(s): K8BKM
Station: K8BKM
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 12.5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 664 State/Prov = 53 Countries = 34 Total Score = 167,823
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
Wow, this might be my new favorite contest! I've operated CQ 160 CW in the past
but mostly as a vehicle to accumulate states for 160 WAS, never to compete. This
year was similar; I already have 160 WAS but it's hard to avoid a 160m CW
contest so I operated casually Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday morning
just for fun. As is usually the case with casual contesting, I get sucked in and
start setting small goals. Ultimately I blew away my previous high score in this
contest by over 100 Q's and 70K points.
What made the big difference this time around? If you operated, you know. DX! EU
was loud and workable Friday night but Saturday... OMG! I've never ever heard EU
so loud. Keep in mind, I don't have a DX contesting station on 160 (or any band
for that matter) - I'm more of a domestic contester. I use an inverted-V on 160
and a E-W beverage for listening. No matter, I could pretty much work anything I
could hear. I can only imagine what the band sounded like for a station with a
"real" 160 antenna (vertical, inverted-L).
In the end, I came up short three states/sections (NE, WY, DC) and quite a few
of the Canadian provinces. Not for a lack of running and S&P. Oh, and I
don't recall the contest spreading out all the way up to 1,880 KHz. I also
managed to work two new DXCC entities; J3 and CX. I have DXCC on 160 and frankly
now that I do, I'm done chasing new entities because it leads to lack of sleep
and "ear fatigue", LOL, but I digress.
I love single-band contests. This and ARRL 160 are in my top 5, along with NAQP
and SS, but those aren't single-band. It's remarkable how many stations are on
160 and have decent signals. Yes, when you're buried in the middle of the US
it's tough to pull out the Europeans from the fray but later on when activity
settles down a bit, we all seem to make it work.
I know this is a 48 hour contest (30 hour limit) but it's really more like two
12 hour contests back to back. The late nights are tough but at least there's a
good long break during daylight hours.
This year is probably not the norm so I won't look for these conditions next
year, but I tell you what, having the extra DX multipliers made this much more
than a domestic contest and was a ton of fun!
73, Tom
K8BKM
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