CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: W3HKK
Operator(s): W3HKK
Station: W3HKK
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: OHIO
Operating Time (hrs): 19.3
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 34 9 23
80: 0 0 0
40: 66 17 45
20: 34 17 22
15: 0 0 0
10: 404 30 103
------------------------------
Total: 538 73 193 Total Score = 402,458
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
Finding it harder, at 82, to put in the hours I'd like, but still fun taking the
plunge.
The no-tower, modest, essentially all-wire antenna farm here includes a home
brew 10m Moxon at 22ft, two element vertical phased arrays for 20m and 40m,
and a 53 ft vertical leg 1/4 wave INV-L (with 26 radials) for 160m.
RIG: IC-7610 to an ACOM 1000 amp, and SAL-30 rx antenna for 160-40m.
OBSERVATIONS:
160 surprised me with a nice opening into EU around midnight Friday night, so
I stayed up a bit late. However, my 2023 objectives were to work as many DX
entities as possible, so I opted out of 80 and 15m, and focused on 10m where I
had my mighty home brew Moxon at 22' which in recent contests proved it could
break most pile ups and work anybody anywhere, so long as I could hear them.
...which is too much fun to resist. And I used 40/20 to pick up a few entities
and zones. According to N1MM+ I logged 19.3 hrs OTA, but that included the
much more frequent breaks needed to stretch and even hop on the exercise bike
for a half hour to get blood flowing and shake out the kinks. ( It really
works!)
10M had a good opening into EU ( though not much from the northern latitudes)
plus contacts in 103 countries and 34 of the 40 zones. Sat and Sun from late
afternoon til 2330z there were many sigs from SA, the Pacific, and Asia (
which was my main target.)
44 JA's, 39 VE's, 35 PY's, 24 EA's, 22 DL's, 21 each F and I, and 20 each G and
LU made it into the log.
At times KH2L and 4W8Z were banging in through the US pile up! as was the 7O,
plus seven LOUD KL's, and a ton of VE7-6-5 stations. I love the surprises of
3B8/3B9/3V/4L/FR8/HZ/ZL7 to go alaong with Asian mults of
BY/DU/HL/JA/UA9/UN/YB.
It was fun during the closing hours to see new JA's spotted up and down the
band. As soon as Id finish a sweep of the 10m band, Id refresh and see another
handful. It was like mowing the lawn. Signals werent the strongest but even
JA's that were just above the noise were pulling me through. Great ops those
JA's!
Propagation: Friday night seemed a bit disturbed and 10m was dead at the
start, but gradually improved each day, peaking Sun eve with a nice JA /Asian
run. Around noontime on Sun 10m went quiet, so I took a nap. And when I came
back a few hours later, EU was again pounding in and the PY-LU-CE guys were
loud as well. And even some Pacific Islands were coming through in the early
afternoon.
I would imagine 15m was a great place to be but I was busy enough on 10 and
didnt even take a look. My mistake? Following the MUF down can be very
productive but 10m was producing enough fun to keep me busy.
Id rate propagation an "8" on 10m. Asia was much more copiable this
year, but without any truly massive/loud openings. With a SSN=168 and a K=2,
things were good on the HF bands!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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