IARU HF World Championship - 2023
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOABMixed HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 24
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 4 0 2 2
80: 64 0 8 13
40: 237 19 14 29
20: 883 726 37 33
15: 700 486 35 44
10: 40 16 14 18
-------------------------------------
Total: 1928 1247 110 139 Total Score = 3,465,831
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
3,175 qsos x 249 = 3,465,831 SOABHP NON-Assisted Mixed Mode 4.3839 pts/qso
I have loved IARU since it's beginning as the Bicentennial Celebration in 1976
and then the first IARU in 1977. It has the two elements that I enjoy the most
in a contest 1) MIXED mode so I can make qsos on CW AND SSB and 2) Everyone can
work everyone. And there is a #3. 3) Excellent propagation! We even got that
too!
After an abbreviated effort in 2022 IARU when one amp was malfunctioning,
another was operating at 1/2 power and some antennas weren't working properly, I
was annoyed at myself for not getting the station ready in time. The contest
was not nearly as much fun as it could have been. Determined not to repeat that
mistake in 2023, I spent a full week in the woods fixing antennas outside and
fixing things in the station to get ready. As usual, mother nature laughed at
my plans to be ready and sent the usual week of the contest monster storm which
tore up the 40 and 80 M Inv L wire 4-squares and a few support ropes,
necessitating many hours in 95F /hot sun/ humidity (Heat Index 115F !) fixing
everything again. I survived the "Jungle" Friday afternoon and then
performed surgery on the 10 meter rotator control box. I took a shower and went
to sleep.
Up at 10z to calibrate the rotators and make the amp tuning settings, I noticed
that the SFI and SSN were near peak of solar cycle conditions and that 10 M was
open short path to EU and the Middle East. That opening is typically short and
unreliable and I decided to NOT start the contest running but rather s & p
on 10 and 15 for mults. This way in case the meandering T-storms decide to pay
a visit to my qth or the predicted CME hit, I would at least have a decent mult
on 10 and 15. That was my thinking. Unfortunately it did not turn out that
way!
10 was very marginal - I did work a bunch of mults but could not run although
the Eastern W1's were able to do so. The worst part was that there were many
fewer HQ mults on 10 and 15 at the start than last year. So the qso rate was
depressed because I was S & P AND I was not working unusual mults, just the
same HQ stations that I could hear the rest of the weekend. After about 20
minutes I abandoned this strategy and ran on 15 while hunting mults on 10. That
was better but not good enough ending the 12z hour with only 127 qsos and 25
mults.
I focused on rate after that but 10 and 15 did not cooperate very much and I
rarely broke 150 qsos in an hour until 05z. I stayed mostly on 15 and almost
entirely on CW for the next 8 hours. I was not happy with the rate or the
mults. Tuning was time consuming and mults were hard to find even though the
band opened to Asia (YB, HS) with some loud signals over the pole. I kept
checking 10 and even though it stayed open it was mostly the same stations that
I kept hearing hour after hour. There had to be more mults but I could not find
them. it felt like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time a LOT!
>From time to time a Thunderstorm Cell would POP up, aim at my qth and then at
the last moment veer to the right or left, passing by within 1 - 2 miles, close
enough so I could see a flash of light in the sky and hear some thunder but not
so close that I had to shut down the station. We did get the full array of
static crashes, making 20 sound like 80 on Saturday afternoon and evening.
The intense heat and humidity of the prior week put the basement shack temp at
close to 90F and even with the large box fan, it was HOT and tiring to operate.
Late morning/early afternoon ~ 16z, I experienced a classic top of the cycle
JA/HS/YB opening on 15 but then the CME hit and spiked the K index to 4 and the
bands almost died - the rates never quite recovered on 15 and 20, and with the
heavy qrn, I often had to transmit on the high antennas and then listen with the
lower ones.
Saturday night 80 and 160 were almost useless between the high qrn levels and
and weak signals - even 40 would not produce after > 02z although the band
was open. It sounded like everyone went to to 20 and 15 and stayed there! 20
rebounded and opened up to UA9/Russia/EU and stayed near peak levels
with the K dropping to 0.33! 20 rate was good for hours Saturday/Sunday after
03z, but it was low angle - top antenna only - the JA's and UA9's were extremely
loud - just not many of them and no other Asian stations that I could hear. The
rare Russian zones 21 - 35 were scarce and mostly not available but that was a
minor issue - overall it was an exceptional all-night opening on 20 which
provided me with my best ever 60 min rate in IARU ---> a 235 hour.
15 never quite lived up to its potential even though it marginally stayed open
all night with the occasional BY/JA station after 05z, but there was no volume
and the rare Asia zones were mostly absent. EU also stayed in all
night with quite a few loud HQ stations but again no volume; then reopened at
09z on Sunday with a great opening to DL at 11z and where I stayed - first on CW
and then moving to SSB to end the contest with a 152 hour.
I had hopes of possibly challenging my 2014 SOABHP Mixed record but overall the
2023 cndx were not as good, and I had 300 fewer qsos and 55 fewer mults.
Part of that I think was due to the high absorption and poorer cndx/qrn on 40 -
160 and part was likely due to 10 - 20 being open from EU to Asia/Pacific, so
why stay on the lowbands in the qrn to work US when you could be on the high
bands to work everyone else? As it is, in W1 at the top of the cycle we only
get 2 - 3 good hours of good propagation on the lowbands before EU sunrise so
there is not much time to work any volume of DX. Despite all of that I was
surprised to find after the contest that I actually had MORE TOTAL qso points
than in 2014, which was surprising given my emphasis on working every possible
US station. The 4.3839 pts/qso was my highest ever in this contest.
Operating was made more fun by the presence of the loud I4 WRTC competitor
stations. Overall they were surprisingly loud on 20 and 40 and were running
pileups at high speed everywhere I heard them. The quality of operating was
outstanding - they were always able to copy regardless of how loud/weak they
were.
It was fascinating to see which stations were consistently loud and which ones
were not. Likewise, some stations were aggressively S & P ing while others
ran almost exclusively - I noted that of the top 5 WRTC stations, 4 of them
called me more often than the stations that did not score as well and I worked
two of those stations 7 times each, making a total of 197 qsos with all but
seven of the WRTC stations.
I had forgotten how much fun this contest is. The Mixed-mode category allows
you to swap cw for SSB and vice-versa which I did whenever the rate started to
drop. Since the mults often differ on CQ vs. SSB, it pays to spend adequate
time on both modes. And given the surprising openings at times, you had to
constantly be rotating your antennas to check out those unusual propagation
paths!
It was great to see so many old friends and to make some new ones. It is hard
to believe that it has been 46 years since the first IARU took place in 1977,
the year after the amazing Bicentennial Celebration contest in 1976.
It was wonderful to see the activity level increasing steadily in Ukraine!
I was glad to see that the FB cndx this year and the EU sunrise openings were
able to be experienced by most of the US.
Congrats to my good friend Mladen, YT6W (NA1NA)for his outstanding score from
K1LZ!
Tnx for the qsos! CU in the Fall.
73
Bob, KQ2M
kq2m@kq2m.com
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults KQ2M IARU HF Championship Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
12 ..... ..... ..... ..... 111/12 16/13 127/25 127/25
13 . . . . 145/6 12/6 157/12 284/37
14 . . . . 145/11 . 145/11 429/48
15 . . . 2/2 148/4 4/2 154/8 583/56
16 . . . . 99/13 3/2 102/15 685/71
17 . . . . 122/4 7/4 129/8 814/79
18 . . . 21/17 99/3 . 120/20 934/99
19 . . . 60/8 27/6 5/1 92/15 1026/114
20 ..... ..... ..... 109/3 17/4 ..... 126/7 1152/121
21 . . . 108/6 17/4 5/0 130/10 1282/131
22 . . . 136/9 3/0 . 139/9 1421/140
23 . . . 122/3 . 4/4 126/7 1547/147
0 . . 100/14 44/1 1/1 . 145/16 1692/163
1 2/2 2/2 96/18 . 4/3 . 104/25 1796/188
2 2/2 59/16 23/3 . 4/1 . 88/22 1884/210
3 . . 23/2 97/1 4/1 . 124/4 2008/214
4 ..... ..... 7/3 133/3 3/3 ..... 143/9 2151/223
5 . . 1/0 212/4 . . 213/4 2364/227
6 . . 1/1 174/7 . . 175/8 2539/235
7 . . 5/2 133/1 . . 138/3 2677/238
8 . . . 135/2 . . 135/2 2812/240
9 . 3/3 . 84/2 1/0 . 88/5 2900/245
10 . . . 39/1 84/2 . 123/3 3023/248
11 . . . . 152/1 . 152/1 3175/249
12 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 3175/249
13 . . . . . . . 3175/249
14 . . . . . . . 3175/249
15 . . . . . . . 3175/249
16 . . . . . . . 3175/249
17 . . . . . . . 3175/249
18 . . . . . . . 3175/249
19 . . . . . . . 3175/249
20 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 3175/249
21 . . . . . . . 3175/249
22 . . . . . . . 3175/249
23 . . . . . . . 3175/249
DAY1 4/4 64/21 256/43 1609/70 1186/79 56/32 . 3175/249
DAY2 . . . . . . . .
TOT 4/4 64/21 256/43 1609/70 1186/79 56/32 . 3175/249
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr KQ2M IARU HF Championship Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
12 ..... ..... ..... ..... 43/154 17/57 60/127 60/127
13 . . . . 55/157 5/137 61/156 121/141
14 . . . . 61/143 . 61/143 182/142
15 . . . 1/164 56/159 2/123 58/158 240/146
16 . . . . 60/100 1/193 60/101 301/137
17 . . . . 54/136 6/69 60/130 360/136
18 . . . 10/122 49/120 . 60/121 420/133
19 . . . 27/135 27/59 6/50 60/92 480/128
20 ..... ..... ..... 52/126 9/117 ..... 61/125 541/128
21 . . . 45/143 12/86 2/135 59/131 600/128
22 . . . 58/141 2/80 . 60/139 660/129
23 . . . 58/127 . 2/101 60/126 720/129
0 . . 35/169 23/112 1/55 . 60/145 780/130
1 2/51 2/72 52/111 . 4/56 . 60/103 841/128
2 2/74 39/90 14/98 . 6/39 . 61/87 901/125
3 . . 17/82 40/144 2/143 . 59/126 960/125
4 ..... ..... 4/98 55/146 1/161 ..... 60/143 1020/126
5 . . 0/129 60/214 . . 60/213 1080/131
6 . . 1/109 59/177 . . 60/176 1140/134
7 . . 2/184 58/137 . . 60/138 1200/134
8 . . . 60/135 . . 60/135 1260/134
9 . 3/65 . 57/88 1/106 . 61/87 1321/132
10 . . . 25/93 35/145 . 60/123 1381/131
11 . . . . 57/159 . 57/159 1438/132
12 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 1438/132
13 . . . . . . . 1438/132
14 . . . . . . . 1438/132
15 . . . . . . . 1438/132
16 . . . . . . . 1438/132
17 . . . . . . . 1438/132
18 . . . . . . . 1438/132
19 . . . . . . . 1438/132
20 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 1438/132
21 . . . . . . . 1438/132
22 . . . . . . . 1438/132
23 . . . . . . . 1438/132
DAY1 0.1/61 0.7/88 2.1/123 11.5/140 8.9/133 0.7/81 . 24.0/132
DAY2 . . . . . . . .
TOT 0.1/61 0.7/88 2.1/123 11.5/140 8.9/133 0.7/81 . 24.0/132
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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