CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: P49X
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: P40L/P49Y
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: FK52al
Operating Time (hrs): 38:19
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------
80: 307 43 42 12
40: 687 50 64 23
20: 1458 54 82 31
15: 1703 51 85 27
10: 193 32 30 15
------------------------------------
Total: 4348 230 303 108 Total Score = 8,292,617
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Solar conditions defined this contest, as they often do. Two big geomagnetic
storms depressed propagation on Sunday. The first storm started at the end of
Saturday UTC, peaking in the early hours of Sunday UTC. I assume that was
responsible for the short, but terrific 10 meter opening from 20-22z Saturday.
During that time, there was the best JA opening on 15 meters that I’ve ever
experienced from Aruba. The Caribbean is difficult for JA, but I’ve worked
the big stations which still only have very weak signals here, typically S1-2
but copiable. In this 3-hour opening Saturday late afternoon, 9 out of 10 JAs
were literally moving the K3 S-meter to 20-25 dB over S9! I worked 74 of them.
SO2R was key to my running JA on 15 while making the most of the 10 meter
opening to NA and EU. I worked 29 states and a half-dozen EUs plus the usual
handful of South Americans.
The second geomagnetic storm hit around 18z Sunday. Prior to that, however, at
14-15z there was a second short 10-meter opening that netted some more states,
notably as far west as AZ, as well as broad penetration into Europe. This
opening is typical from Aruba and is usually followed by a second peak a couple
hours later. Both the late-Saturday and early-Sunday 10 meter openings were
limited more by low participation than by propagation potential. Sunday, in
general, had very weak signals on 10, 15 and 20. There was some QSB where
stations would call, I’d send a report and then nothing. But, there were
just as many times when I’d struggle to get their call sign initially and
then have them come back much stronger. Overall, conditions were much more
suppressed than Saturday.
The low bands were outstanding both nights but far less productive Saturday
night with fewer new stations to work. In the last 2 hours of the contest,
P43A ran the bands with me and I went barefoot to the 3 bands I wasn’t
running on just for the quick QSO. For some reason JP didn’t show up on 40
but while I was CQing there for him, I picked up several stations, including 2
mults I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten (since I had planned to finish the
contest on 15 and 20). Improved low band conditions is our consolation prize
during the solar cycle minimum.
The vast majority of RTTY signals continue to be far too wide and/or dirty.
While this has always been the case, it wasn’t much of a problem until rigs
such as the K3 started filtering their FSK and AFSK for the narrowest bandwidth
needed for quality communication. This means that users of those radios, as
well users who use narrow encoder filtering, are now punished for their good
deed to the community. The wide signals can move in close causing QRM to the
narrow signals, while not hearing a thing from those narrow signals. It’s
like a boxer with a foot longer reach! And, this problem is exacerbated by
high power. All of this is easily observed on a good bandscope like the P3.
The CW and SSB sections of CQ WW have started disqualifying stations with
excessively dirty signals. I think RTTY needs to follow suit, though it means
more work for the contest volunteers.
The weekend was very enjoyable, despite the final score being next to the
lowest I’ve ever done in this contest from Aruba. I’d like to believe that
this is mostly due to the solar cycle. Still, my biggest unmet challenge is
sleep deprivation. My cognitive ability evaporates after 24 hours in front of
the radios, following more than 12 hours after I last slept. The early stages
of hallucination start setting in and I know it goes quickly downhill. Around
03Z, I realized that I could fight it for several more hours on 40 and 80, or I
could get some good sleep so I’d be in shape for the high bands all day
Sunday. I realized I was sacrificing 4-5 hours of good low band potential, but
that time would have been painful and as much so the next day with sleep
deprivation. Besides, contests are supposed to be fun, so I opted for maximum
fun across the weekend and went to bed for 8 hours! It really paid off in the
sense that I felt at the top of my game solidly through Sunday, which was a
total blast. It just feels weird to sleep that much in the middle of CQ WW!
I realized this weekend that it is that point in the solar cycle for a SO3R
setup where one radio is dedicated to 10 meters. That makes it easy to monitor
10 meters continually and have instant QSY ability when unpredictable openings
pop up, or I think I can move a mult there. This weekend, I had to interrupt a
run on one of the radios to check 10 periodically. I have a pretty good idea of
10 by how 20 and 15 are doing but the sure confirmation is operating on 10
itself. In fact, I usually have to CQ there for a while because an empty
bandscope could simply mean that few, or no, stations are there transmitting.
I know I could have worked many more stations in the two openings if more
stations had gone to the band. During the two 10-meter openings this weekend,
I announced my 10-meter frequency to every QSO made on 15 meters. That helped
get a few more stations in the log via 10 meters.
Multiple decoders continue to shine, with only 1-2 of the six printing
correctly a significant amount of time. It takes thousands of QSOs to see and
appreciate this. Trying a variety of decoders on one contest will mislead one
into thinking certain decoders are superfluous. I know people who have tried
the Hal DXP-38 during a contest and declared it was “inferior”, so they
removed it. Many times this weekend the EXP-38 copied clearly when none of the
MMTTY and 2Tone decoders got anything useful. This is especially true for
off-frequency stations. Contesters and DXers like to say, “you can never
have too many antennas” for exactly the same reason.
I’ve never used a remote tuning knob like the Pig Knob because I didn’t see
any advantage to it over the tuning knob(s) on the radio. Well, I’ve become a
believer with the new Elecraft K-pod. It is so much easier to tune the RIT or
the second receiver with the knob close to my trackballs which, in turn, are
close to my keyboards. The subtle difference is that my hand is not suspended
mid-air across the keyboard to the radio while trying to make fine adjustments
to frequency. It was hard for me to see the benefit until I used this
configuration all weekend.
There are two debilitating noise problems at the station which we’ve yet to
crack. There is a horrendous inter-station RFI problem on a couple of band
relationships, e.g., 40 clobbering 20 and 20 clobbering 10. There has been no
impact on the problem by low power band pass filtering, high power band pass
filtering, stubs, ferrites, bonding, etc. Starting out Friday night, I was
doing pretty good with 20 and 40, finding a dip in the 20m meter RFI spectrum
in which to operate. Then I reached up to reduce the air conditioner cooling a
bit and the RFI instantly jumped up another 10 dB. I quickly tried other A/C
adjustments including turning it off, but nothing changed the now greater RFI.
This has happened before and we’ve never found a connection.
The second problem is man-made noise that comes on for up to 2-3 hours at a
time. Saturday morning it appeared around 8am and stayed until 9am. It
rendered 15 meters unusable and was detectable on all bands. That is
unacceptable at the peak rate for 15 meters.
I forgot to submit my log for RTTY Round-Up this year, first time ever doing
that. So, today right after dinner and before going to bed, I submitted this
weekend’s log. Hope I can make this a habit.
Thanks to everyone who troubled themselves to move bands for me. This
obviously helps for mults, but also for QSO count as well. Many stations
worked me on 4-5 bands. There would have been more 5-banders if 10 meters had
been better. My appreciation as always to station owners John P40L/W6LD and
Andy P49Y/AE6Y. (The upgrade to hot shower water with a Chinese flash heater
is luxurious.)
Ed P49X/W0YK
********************************************************************
Rigs: Elecraft K3s (2), K-Pods (2), P3s (2)
Amps: Alpha 86, Alpha 91B
FilterMax III low power band pass filters (2)
4O3A high power band pass filters
SixPak, StackMatch (2), BandMaster III decoder (2)
Tower 1: C31XR at 43 feet
Tower 2: 2 elements on 10 meters / 5 elements 15 meters at 55 feet
Tower 3: 4 elements 20 meter at 68 feet
2 elements 40 meter at 76 feet
1 element 80 meter Sigma 80 at 64 feet
160 meter "Double L" vertical at 67 feet
Four 400-500 foot beverages using K9AY switching box/preamp (JA/W6, W1, EU and
Africa/VK-ZL
Logging software: WriteLog 12.09F on three networked PCs
RTTY Decoders (each K3): MMTTY, 2Tone (2), Hal DXP-38 on main receiver
MMTTY, 2Tone on second receiver
(setting both receivers on same frequency
yields 6 parallel decoders)
********************************************************************
Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat
CALLSIGN: P49X
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CONTEST: CQ-WW-RTTY
OPERATORS: W0YK
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 18 121 33 0 172 172 4.0
0100 0 0 107 113 0 0 220 392 9.0
0200 0 0 101 81 0 0 182 574 13.2
0300 0 73 91 1 0 0 165 739 17.0
0400 0 65 92 0 0 0 157 896 20.6
0500 0 53 84 0 0 0 137 1033 23.8
0600 0 29 56 0 0 0 85 1118 25.7
0700 0 12 40 6 0 0 58 1176 27.1
0800 0 20 20 0 0 0 40 1216 28.0
0900 0 19 14 0 0 0 33 1249 28.7
1000 0 9 10 9 0 0 28 1277 29.4
1100 0 0 0 67 54 0 121 1398 32.2
1200 0 0 0 50 78 0 128 1526 35.1
1300 0 0 0 47 102 0 149 1675 38.5
1400 0 0 0 42 112 0 154 1829 42.1
1500 0 0 0 45 94 0 139 1968 45.3
1600 0 0 0 40 79 2 121 2089 48.1
1700 0 0 0 21 85 4 110 2199 50.6
1800 0 0 0 53 73 0 126 2325 53.5
1900 0 0 0 37 63 2 102 2427 55.8
2000 0 0 0 0 63 36 99 2526 58.1
2100 0 0 0 0 67 53 120 2646 60.9
2200 0 0 0 0 61 24 85 2731 62.8
2300 0 0 0 74 41 0 115 2846 65.5
0000 0 0 0 33 0 0 33 2879 66.2
0100 0 0 0 57 0 0 57 2936 67.6
0200 0 26 38 27 0 0 91 3027 69.7
0300 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 3031 69.7
0400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3031 69.7
0500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3031 69.7
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3031 69.7
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3031 69.7
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3031 69.7
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3031 69.7
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3031 69.7
1100 0 0 0 16 0 0 16 3047 70.1
1200 0 0 0 48 69 0 117 3164 72.8
1300 0 0 0 54 103 0 157 3321 76.4
1400 0 0 0 28 88 35 151 3472 79.9
1500 0 0 0 0 71 28 99 3571 82.2
1600 0 0 0 36 69 1 106 3677 84.6
1700 0 0 0 37 81 0 118 3795 87.3
1800 0 0 0 15 53 6 74 3869 89.0
1900 0 0 0 51 36 0 87 3956 91.0
2000 0 0 0 76 26 0 102 4058 93.4
2100 0 0 0 73 33 0 106 4164 95.8
2200 0 0 11 49 33 2 95 4259 98.0
2300 0 0 0 51 36 0 87 4346 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 306 686 1458 1703 193 4346
Gross QSOs=4422 Dupes=76 Net QSOs=4346
Unique callsigns worked = 2707
The best 60 minute rate was 222/hour from 0101 to 0200
The best 30 minute rate was 228/hour from 0115 to 0144
The best 10 minute rate was 240/hour from 0136 to 0145
The best 1 minute rates were:
6 QSOs/minute 2 times.
5 QSOs/minute 51 times.
4 QSOs/minute 206 times.
3 QSOs/minute 464 times.
2 QSOs/minute 634 times.
1 QSOs/minute 595 times.
There were 2295 bandchanges and 1428 (32.9%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 0 183 408 904 712 112 2319 53.4
South America 0 2 10 20 40 28 100 2.3
Europe 0 118 251 424 798 52 1643 37.8
Asia 0 1 9 91 131 0 232 5.3
Africa 0 0 2 7 7 1 17 0.4
Oceania 0 2 6 12 15 0 35 0.8
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 306 686 1458 1703 193 4346
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 10
4 1455
5 1653
6 1188
7 10
8 15
9 12
10 3
------------------ C o u n t r y S u m m a r y ------------------
Country 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------------
4O 0 1 1 1 1 0 4 0.1
4X 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 0.1
5B 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.0
8P 0 0 2 0 0 1 3 0.1
9A 0 3 5 4 11 0 23 0.5
9V 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.1
CE 0 0 2 3 2 2 9 0.2
CM 0 1 9 6 8 0 24 0.6
CN 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
CT 0 1 3 4 6 2 16 0.4
CT3 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.1
CX 0 0 0 0 2 2 4 0.1
DL 0 23 44 72 161 5 305 7.0
DU 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
E7 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
EA 0 6 5 10 36 3 60 1.4
EA6 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.0
EA8 0 0 2 4 3 1 10 0.2
EI 0 0 0 2 6 0 8 0.2
ER 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0.0
ES 0 1 1 0 4 0 6 0.1
EU 0 0 2 10 8 0 20 0.5
F 0 6 13 13 31 7 70 1.6
FM 0 1 1 1 1 0 4 0.1
G 0 6 5 24 47 3 85 2.0
GI 0 0 0 1 3 0 4 0.1
GJ 0 0 0 2 1 0 3 0.1
*GM/s 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
GM 0 0 3 3 7 0 13 0.3
GU 0 0 0 3 2 0 5 0.1
GW 0 0 2 2 5 0 9 0.2
HA 0 2 4 4 14 3 27 0.6
HB 0 2 3 5 10 0 20 0.5
HB0 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.1
HC 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
HI 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
HK 0 1 2 1 1 1 6 0.1
HL 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
HS 0 0 0 2 2 0 4 0.1
HZ 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0.1
I 0 13 25 50 98 10 196 4.5
IS 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 0.1
*IT9 0 3 5 5 12 2 27 0.6
JA 0 1 5 65 114 0 185 4.3
K 0 161 355 814 646 107 2083 47.9
KG4 0 1 1 1 1 0 4 0.1
KH2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
KH6 0 2 5 4 2 0 13 0.3
KL 0 0 4 2 0 0 6 0.1
KP2 0 1 2 2 2 0 7 0.2
KP4 0 1 3 2 3 0 9 0.2
LA 0 2 2 5 9 0 18 0.4
LU 0 0 1 8 9 11 29 0.7
LX 0 2 1 2 4 1 10 0.2
LY 0 1 5 7 10 0 23 0.5
LZ 0 0 2 1 5 1 9 0.2
OA 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
OE 0 0 3 3 10 0 16 0.4
OH 0 2 5 19 13 0 39 0.9
OH0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
OK 0 1 8 9 24 1 43 1.0
OM 0 2 2 4 4 0 12 0.3
ON 0 2 1 3 13 1 20 0.5
OX 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
OZ 0 2 4 6 6 0 18 0.4
P4 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
PA 0 7 11 28 35 0 81 1.9
PY 0 0 1 5 20 10 36 0.8
S5 0 3 6 7 15 3 34 0.8
SM 0 1 5 9 16 0 31 0.7
SP 0 9 9 25 41 2 86 2.0
SV 0 1 4 3 8 2 18 0.4
SV5 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
SV9 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
TA 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
*TA1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
TF 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.0
TG 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
TI 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
UA 0 5 26 36 41 3 111 2.6
UA2 0 0 0 2 1 0 3 0.1
UA9 0 0 1 14 4 0 19 0.4
UN 0 0 0 3 1 0 4 0.1
UR 0 8 24 23 43 0 98 2.3
V3 0 1 1 1 1 2 6 0.1
VE 0 16 27 69 46 2 160 3.7
VK 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.0
VU 0 0 1 3 2 0 6 0.1
XE 0 0 1 4 3 0 8 0.2
YB 0 0 0 4 11 0 15 0.3
YL 0 1 1 2 6 0 10 0.2
YO 0 1 5 6 13 1 26 0.6
YU 0 1 3 3 3 2 12 0.3
YV 0 1 4 1 3 0 9 0.2
Z3 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0.1
ZB 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
ZL 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.1
ZP 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
ZS 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 306 686 1458 1703 193 4346
------------ M u l t i p l i e r S u m m a r y ------------
Mult 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
05 0 88 151 360 315 61 975 22.4
04 0 65 150 345 279 46 885 20.4
14 0 60 103 196 402 22 783 18.0
15 0 43 85 148 273 23 572 13.2
03 0 25 81 177 100 1 384 8.8
16 0 13 52 69 95 3 232 5.3
25 0 1 5 66 114 0 186 4.3
20 0 2 12 10 33 4 61 1.4
08 0 5 18 12 15 1 51 1.2
11 0 0 1 6 20 10 37 0.9
13 0 0 1 8 11 13 33 0.8
09 0 2 6 3 5 2 18 0.4
28 0 0 0 5 13 0 18 0.4
33 0 0 2 6 6 1 15 0.3
17 0 0 1 8 3 0 12 0.3
18 0 0 0 9 0 0 9 0.2
31 0 1 4 3 1 0 9 0.2
12 0 0 2 3 2 2 9 0.2
07 0 1 3 1 1 2 8 0.2
06 0 0 1 4 3 0 8 0.2
01 0 0 4 2 0 0 6 0.1
22 0 0 1 3 2 0 6 0.1
32 0 0 1 2 2 0 5 0.1
26 0 0 0 2 2 0 4 0.1
40 0 0 0 3 1 0 4 0.1
21 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0.1
30 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.0
27 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.0
38 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
10 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
19 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
54 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
02 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 306 686 1458 1703 193 4346
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 1681
2 bands 621
3 bands 240
4 bands 122
5 bands 43
6 bands 0
------- S i n g l e B a n d Q S O s ------
Band 160 80 40 20 15 10
----------------------------------------------
QSOs 0 63 204 585 795 34
80m Summary
Zones
3 4 5 7 8 9 14 15 16 20 25 31
Countries
4O 9A CM CT DL EA ES F FM G
HA HB HK I IT9 JA K KG4 KH6 KP2
KP4 LA LX LY OH OK OM ON OZ PA
S5 SM SP SV UA UR V3 VE YL YO
YU YV
States/Provinces
CT MA ME NH RI NJ NY MD PA AL FL GA
KY NC SC TN VA LA MS TX CA AZ ID NV
OR WA MI OH IL IN WI CO KS MN MO SD
LB PE QC ON MB AB BC
40m Summary
Zones
1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
20 21 22 25 30 31 32 33
Countries
4O 5B 8P 9A CE CM CT DL E7 EA
EA6 EA8 ES EU F FM G GM GW HA
HB HK HZ I IT9 JA K KG4 KH6 KL
KP2 KP4 LA LU LX LY LZ OE OH OK
OM ON OZ PA PY S5 SM SP SV TG
TI UA UA9 UR V3 VE VK VU XE YL
YO YU YV Z3
States/Provinces
CT MA ME NH RI VT NJ NY DE MD PA AL
FL GA KY NC SC TN VA LA MS OK TX CA
AZ ID MT NV OR UT WA WY MI OH WV IL
IN WI CO IA KS MN MO SD PE QC ON SK
AB BC
20m Summary
Zones
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 25 26 27 28 30 31 32 33 38
40
Countries
4O 5B 9A 9V CE CM CN CT CT3 DL
DU EA EA8 EI EU F FM G GI GJ
GM/s GM GU GW HA HB HB0 HI HK HL
HS HZ I IT9 JA K KG4 KH2 KH6 KL
KP2 KP4 LA LU LX LY LZ OE OH OH0
OK OM ON OX OZ P4 PA PY S5 SM
SP SV TF UA UA2 UA9 UN UR V3 VE
VK VU XE YB YL YO YU YV Z3 ZL
ZP ZS
States/Provinces
CT MA ME NH RI VT NJ NY DE MD PA AL
FL GA KY NC SC TN VA AR LA MS OK TX
CA AZ ID NV OR UT WA WY MI OH WV IL
IN WI CO IA KS MN MO ND SD LB NB NS
QC ON MB SK AB BC
15m Summary
Zones
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
19 20 21 22 25 26 28 31 32 33 38 40
Countries
4O 4X 9A 9V CE CM CN CT CT3 CX
DL EA EA6 EA8 EI ER ES EU F FM
G GI GJ GM GU GW HA HB HB0 HC
HK HS HZ I IS IT9 JA K KG4 KH6
KP2 KP4 LA LU LX LY LZ OA OE OH
OH0 OK OM ON OX OZ P4 PA PY S5
SM SP SV SV5 SV9 TA TA1 UA UA2 UA9
UN UR V3 VE VU XE YB YL YO YU
YV Z3 ZB ZL ZS
States/Provinces
CT MA ME NH RI VT NJ NY DE MD PA AL
FL GA KY NC SC TN VA LA MS OK TX CA
AZ ID NV OR UT WA WY MI OH WV IL IN
WI CO IA KS MN MO SD NB PE QC ON MB
SK AB BC
10m Summary
Zones
3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 20 33
Countries
8P CE CT CX DL EA EA8 F G HA
HK I IT9 K LU LX LZ OA OK ON
P4 PY S5 SP SV UA V3 VE YO YU
States/Provinces
CT MA ME NH RI NJ NY DE MD PA AL FL
GA KY NC SC TN VA LA MS TX AZ MI OH
IL IN CO IA MN MO PE ON
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