CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs):
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 17 6 9
40: 81 11 32
20: 252 23 74
15: 375 20 67
10: 459 22 76
------------------------------
Total: 1184 82 258 Total Score = 1,113,500
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Most of my SSB contesting over the past 20 years has been from multi-op
stations. I’ve never done a full-effort on SSB from home – only CW. Back in
the late 1990s and early 2000s I did a few 1K-2K efforts for the club, but this
was before I built my big tower and it was hard to be competitive on SSB. Now I
can be competitive on SSB, as long as I can sit in the chair long enough.
After having a blast as a referee at WRTC2022, but wishing I could have
operated, I toyed with the idea of doing a full 40+ hour effort in the first
qualifying event for WRTC2026. There’s no hope of my qualifying for TL from
NA1, but qualifying as a TM is theoretically possible. Unfortunately, we had
guests visiting over the weekend, which really limited the hours I could
operate. Also, I have some antenna work to do – half my 160 vee is down on the
ground and the 20m monobander on a 72’ crankup that I use for second-radio
mults can’t be raised because surrounding trees have grown so much since I
installed it 25 years ago that I can’t crank it up. Been clearing trees to
deal with that, but have quite a few left to do.
So, I wasn’t able to get on the air during some of the highest rate hours, and
didn’t have a full complement of antennas. Still, when the rate was high, it
was really high – Last-10 hit 300 several times on 10. Worked a few LP mults
as well. 15 was pretty good, too. Because I missed the early AM openings on 20,
and stayed until late afternoon on 10 and 15 (because it was fun), I never got
much rate going on 20. The low bands were pretty terrible. No 160 antenna, 80
was noisy and signals were weak, and while I could S&P 40 pretty well I
couldn’t get runs going there (always frustrating to run 40 Phone from the
US.)
All in all, though, I was pretty happy with my station’s ability to get runs
going and break through pileups on the high bands, even though conditions
weren’t ideal – K-index of 3-5 all weekend. Got reports that I was loud in
EU and the Caribbean (one op said, “Now there’s a guy who knows how to
operate an amplifier.”), and easily worked some very weak stations with big
pileups in Africa and Oceania. Asia was almost non-existent, except toward the
end of the contest, when I was able to work a few JAs on 20, 15 and 10. They
weren’t exactly booming in.
Happy to reach my goal of at least 1K QSOs and 1M point for the club. I
haven’t been as active as I’d like to be in the past few years, so it was
good to get back in the saddle. Thanks for the Qs and CU in WW CW.
73, Dick WC1M
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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