CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, KL9A, W7ZRC, K7MK, N7WR
Station: NK7U
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 37 10 13
80: 167 25 44
40: 440 33 94
20: 1438 40 146
15: 2132 40 156
10: 1592 37 136
------------------------------
Total: 5806 185 589 Total Score = 11,502,414
Club: Willamette Valley DX Club
Comments:
Enough superlatives will never be able to coverr this contest.
It was with some anticipation that a small group of hopeful operators converged
on NK7U for this year's CQ WW SSB. With 10M returning to life in force during
the weeks leading up to the contest we all hoped it would hold together and
give us something to enjoy. We decided to go M/M in order to have maximum
opportunity to experience the bands as we have not in years -- and we were not
dissappointed.
As a short summary:
* We had our highest ever CQ WW SSB score driven by the most QSO's and most
mults.
* Largest number of QSO's for any contest at NK7U -- beating out a WPX M/M that
had a measly 5,045 including 2,000+ easy stateside contacts.
* Our biggest hour for any contest ever. During the 1500Z on Saturday we had
415 QSOs. Only the second hour in excess of 400 and it beat our 404 hour in a
memorable NAQP several years ago.
* We surprised ourselves and fell just short of the W7 and Zone 3 M/M record.
When we started we didn't think we could get that close and had a goal of
10,000,000 points. We achieved this fairly easily and we ended up giving W7XR's
1990 record of 12.2M a good run. (You wonder if that log had to go through the
log checking we all go through now what the score would have been -- but it is
what it is. We will get it next year.) In the end low bands conspired against
us and we just needed another 30 mults to do it. We actually exceeded the
W7XR's QSO total but just could not get the mults we needed.
* Wasn't 10M a riot! We had an all time 10M record in terms of QSOs and Mults.
The last time 10M was even close to this good was 2001! That was 10 years ago!
None of us could really even remember 10M like it was this weekend. We had some
good runs to JA on Friday night. Then as we transitioned the station from the
low bands to the high bands on Saturday morning we aimed a 10M antenna at
Europe to see how things were. Of course we could tell the band was open as the
cluster was full of spots from the east coast. But what about for us way out
here on the left coast? NK7U at the mic grabbed a spot and dropped in his call.
The station came back and said we were 60 db over S9 -- that was when we knew
something special was in store for the weekend. As the contest wound down on
Sunday we were still running EU 3 hours past their sunset. At one point G1WEM
was kind enough to give us the report we all live for "You are the loudest
signal on the band!"
* Not to be left out of the party, we also had an all time 15M record in terms
of QSO's and mults. It was our first time ever for over 2,000 qso's on a band
and the first time over 150 countries on a band. It was also the first time
ever for all 40 zones on 15M and only the second time we have ever done this on
any band in any contest. On Saturday KL9A turned in a 200+ hour running into
Europe. This is first time that has happened for us and the first time Chris
said has ever done that from any station on the west coast. On Sunday 15M
sounded like what we were used to 20M sounding with it packed wall to wall and
general level of S9+ QRM on any running frequency.
* With 10M and 15M so outstanding you might expect 20M to really suffer, but it
held in there pretty good. Not a record year for us but still our 2nd or 3rd
best. It certainly contributed its fair share to our score. And, thanks to 5R8A
calling W7ZRC we did achieve that magical 40 Zones for 20M as well - only the
second time we have done that. For a while on Saturday K7ZO experienced what
seemed like a Zone 16 QSO party -- he never knew there were that many stations
in Zone 16. The path over the pole was also in great shape both nights with
many Asia stations in the log. It was fun watching sunrise progress across the
continent and as daylight came to areas stations from there would call us to
start their day.
* Unfortunately the low bands really did take a hit. With the high bands open
for so long many operators just never made it to 40M-160M, plus propagation
just seemed to missing. Looking back ourlogs from the last time the high bands
were this good we see a similar patter. K7MK did a great job grabbing 40M
Europe mults Friday night but that was the highlight of the weekend. Our QSO
total was about half last year despite the best efforts of W7ZRC and NK7U and
their night shifts. The usual JA contacts never showed up. From what we could
tell they were still working Europe on 20M until 1100 UTC or later which is
just a couple hours before our sunrise. Our 160M results were well below
average -- not only was there no one on, but even those few that were we could
not hear them. 80M was similarly dissapointing though NK7U had great fun Sunday
moring with some long path QSO's that put a smile on his face a several double
mults in the log.
As a few general observations:
* We continue to be excited about the growing contest participation from BY --
we had well over 100 QSO's with China.
* Continuing a pattern from last year a number of common Carribean mults were
missing from our log. Perhaps the several years of the down economy is
conspiring to reduce the number of dxpeditions -- it is certainly plausible.
Thanks everyone for the QSO's -- we sure hope you had as much fun as we did.
Scott
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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