CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2022
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 24.0
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 18 8 13
80: 208 15 52
40: 93 17 47
20: 614 29 82
15: 1148 26 82
10: 1443 22 88
------------------------------
Total: 3524 117 364 Total Score = 4,885,517
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
1 Radio, 1 AMP, 24 hrs, NO spotting networks
My work schedule has not let up in months (I have to work an order of magnitude
harder during BEAR markets than in BULL markets) so fixing the station and
getting sleep is not happening here. 30 hours of sleep in the 7 days before a DX
contest is not enough! There is no way I could operate all out when I struggle
to stay awake in the daytime during the week. I had thought about not operating
this weekend but this IS CQWW so....
I couldn't fix one amp and a rotator broke during the contest. Lots more things
to do just to get back to baseline. On the bright side it is great to see 10
meters coming alive more and more and I did make and install 6 common mode
chokes on some of the antennas. I believe that they may have helped but I am
not sure.
I decided to operate but comprised on time and CLASSIC was the perfect choice
although the 24 hours ensures that you have to miss most of the low bands on
both nights in order to allocate time for the high bands.
Friday night I relaxed, watched some movies with my XYL and did not even go to
the shack. Set my alarm for 10z and got up, then turned it off and went back to
sleep. LOL!
Got up again at 12:30z, hooked up the station and started on 10M. Made one qso,
discovered a problem which took 11 minutes to fix and then off to the races!
Strange weekend! Amazing rates and great runs at times and at other times no
answers and band hiss when I expected to run. A G1 radio storm with a fast
solar wind and high proton density will do that. ;-)
Several times I had the last 10 qso rate > 430 / hr and the last 100 qso rate
> 310 ! Best clock hour was 278 on Sunday 12z and best 60 min rate was 282
which was an all-time high from my station. I even had a 119 hour on 80 SSB at
05z!
Those were fun! But cndx were spotty. Several times I went from great run with
loud signals to NOTHING and quiet band in just a few minutes. This was repeated
on 10, 15 and 20 throughout the weekend. Cycle 25 is not ready for prime-time
quite yet.
40 was a wasteland for me. 80 had one GOOD hour and 160 was surreal. It would
be a lot more interesting if ops would spend more time there but why do that
when you have 20, 15 and 10 instead?!
10 was amazing for a few hours on Saturday and again Sunday when it opened
briefly to Northern EU. Good to see some Ukraine stations were on. And nice to
be able to run some JA's on 15 and then have a FB VK/ZL run on 20 - my first
since a full solar cycle ago. Reminded me of some fun times in cycles past and
hopefully soon to be experienced again at this qth.
A few more comments...
Highlights:
Amazing rates on 10 meters when it was open. Endless stations with surprisingly
loud signals even with low levels of solar flux and high K indices. There is no
meters like 10 meters. LOL!
SUNDAY 10 meters at 12z 282 hour - my best ever from the US but I could not
keep up with the pileup and the rate dropped off rapidly. At times there were
more than 100 stations calling. It was easy to think that I was back in the
Caribbean! Had quite a few 7 minutes as well which is very rare form here.
05z on 80 SSB 119 hour. Signals were not strong but they were steady and there
were lots of EU stations on that I could hear on a clear freq. My best 80 M
CQWW SSB run ever despite the otherwise lousy low band conditions!
Spending time with my xyl both evenings - wonderful combination of radio contest
and quality time with spouse.
Not starting a DX contest totally exhausted!
Lowlights:
10 meter Broadband crap 28.820 - 28.930 - super loud - obliterated 110khz.
"Squiggly" noises all over the band like someone rapidly tuning the
dial back and forth across through 0.5 khz - would drift back and forth slowly
over 5 - 10 minutes, disappear and then come back again and again.
Starting 1314z and missing several excellent hours of propagation
Missing high band Asia Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.
All low band qsos and mults were made Saturday evening only.
15 M at 60' getting stuck NE - a crucial height this weekend.
Endless microsleeps. Literally woke up 100+ times listening to a quiet freq.
and no CQ. I was falling asleep in less time than it took to call CQ Contest!
Having a clear band-edge and calling cq and not getting answers when I knew the
band was open. Eventually left, only to realize 10 minutes later that I had
been calling CQ Contest on the 20 M SOUTH dipole!
Coming back to 20 calling CQ contest and getting called by a LOUD JA7 and
swinging the top antenna to JA and calling cq and hearing nothing. Even the
occasional EU caller was weak. Then noticed that I had been calling CQ on the
SOUTH dipole, switched to the Yagis and got a roaring pileup going. 30 minutes
wasted. UGH!
Classic is a very intense and frustrating category. You are ONLY allowed to use
one radio for everything. No 2nd receiver, so whenever you are running you are
missing mults, and whenever you are hunting mults you are giving up rate. There
is tremendous pressure to always be doing the right thing on the right band at
that exact moment in time. There is no rest because every minute is critical
and by definition you are forced to miss band openings. In order to have your
best score, you have to take off time Friday night which means giving up the low
bands and their mults. to have more time for the high bands Saturday and Sunday
and then you have to give up high band time in order to save some time for the
low bands on Saturday. And once you have used your 24 hours, that's it!
Doesn't matter what band openings you gave up - you can't go back.
Thanks to all the DXpedition stations who traveled in our post-COVID world to
give us a mult. It was great to say hello to so many friends again. Tnx for
all the qso's and mults and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
73
Bob, KQ2M
kq2m@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 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 0/0 0/0 0/0
1 . . . . . . . 0/0
2 . . . . . . . 0/0
3 . . . . . . . 0/0
4 . . . . . . . 0/0
5 . . . . . . . 0/0
6 . . . . . . . 0/0
7 . . . . . . . 0/0
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 0/0
9 . . . . . . . 0/0
10 . . . . . . . 0/0
11 . . . . . . . 0/0
12 . . . . . . . 0/0
13 . . . . . 141/25 141/25 141/25
14 . . . . . 264/28 264/28 405/53
15 . . . . 207/45 45/4 252/49 657/102
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 244/13 ..... 244/13 901/115
17 . . . . 49/0 78/7 127/7 1028/122
18 . . . . 128/8 22/0 150/8 1178/130
19 . . . 73/32 64/2 . 137/34 1315/164
20 . . . 177/27 . . 177/27 1492/191
21 . . . 9/1 27/16 56/20 92/37 1584/228
22 . . 14/15 . 12/7 3/3 29/25 1613/253
23 . . . . . . . 1613/253
0 1/2 21/17 14/12 45/27 4/2 ..... 85/60 1698/313
1 7/9 24/15 30/17 . . . 61/41 1759/354
2 . . 3/2 . . . 3/2 1762/356
3 . . . . . . . 1762/356
4 6/5 34/15 13/9 8/6 . . 61/35 1823/391
5 . 119/13 . . . . 119/13 1942/404
6 3/4 4/0 11/2 26/1 . . 44/7 1986/411
7 . . . . . . . 1986/411
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 1986/411
9 1/1 6/7 . . . . 7/8 1993/419
10 . . 8/7 60/8 . . 68/15 2061/434
11 . . . 46/1 104/6 . 150/7 2211/441
12 . . . . 18/2 260/12 278/14 2489/455
13 . . . . . 190/6 190/6 2679/461
14 . . . . . 180/4 180/4 2859/465
15 . . . . 1/0 163/1 164/1 3023/466
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 79/3 27/0 106/3 3129/469
17 . . . . 107/2 14/0 121/2 3250/471
18 . . . 65/3 85/1 . 150/4 3400/475
19 . . . 103/5 . . 103/5 3503/480
20 . . . . . . . 3503/480
21 . . . 2/0 19/1 . 21/1 3524/481
22 . . . . . . . 3524/481
23 . . . . . . . 3524/481
DAY1 ..... ..... 14/15 259/60 731/91 609/87 ..... 1613/253
DAY2 18/21 208/67 79/49 355/51 417/17 834/23 . 1911/228
TOT 18/21 208/67 93/64 614/111 1148/108 1443/110 . 3524/481
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|