CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2022
Call: M6W
Operator(s): G3WW
Station: G3WW
Class: SO(A)SB15 LP
QTH: IO8Wwt
Operating Time (hrs): 23:30
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
-----------------------------------
80:
40:
20:
15: 394 34 71 23
10:
-----------------------------------
Total: 394 34 71 23 Total Score = 122,112
Club:
Comments:
This was very much an late decision to enter the contest. I don’t have a
station set up at this QTH so everything has to be assembled from scratch. Due
to work commitments, I was working until 5 pm Friday, so after eating tea with
the family, I realised I only had around 2 hours of daylight left to put up an
aerial for 15.
I would have preferred to get a dipole into the trees but looked around me for
inspiration at what I might have immediately available. I picked up a EFHW 49:1
transformer which was looking at me from a shelf in the garage. I’d built it a
few years ago but never got around to using it, so after measuring approx. 7
meters of thin wire, I hoisted up a ½ wave vertical cut for 15m into a red
maple tree. After a slight trim, the vertical was brought into resonance on the
band.
My memory really isn’t what it used to be and I struggled for the rest of the
evening until bedtime to get the PC software, transceiver and RTTY interface
working correctly. I have now made a point of photographing and documenting all
the connections and software settings in Win-Test, MMTTY and 2Tone which I will
need to refer to next time!
I went to bed with not many expectations but thinking 300 QSOs would be a
realistic target and set the alarm for 7 am local.
Unable to sleep, I got up at 5.30 and a quick check on 15m told me the band had
not yet opened. I made myself some breakfast and did a few chores. By 8 am local
the band had livened up so I set to work search and pounce.
Virtually everything I heard I managed to work which encouraged me greatly. I
was particularly impressed by the strength of signals and number of entrants
from Indonesia. Saturday seemed particularly good towards the east and I was
disappointed that later in the day propagation to the west didn’t match that
earlier on. I also thought Scandinavian signals were a bit thin on the ground
but working some other close-in European stuff made me wonder whether we had a
little sporadic-E, or there was both E and F layer propagation going on. I ended
Saturday with 195 QSOs and the band had all but closed by around 8 pm.
In a similar fashion I resumed at 8 am on Sunday with conditions possibly
slightly better. I added further multipliers from the east and again some near
by European countries which were an unexpected bonus. I certainly enjoy the
steady pace of RTTY contesting; it’s a relaxing mode and I found it relatively
easy to work the occasional exotic DX station without the pileups that would
normally ensue on phone or CW.
Propagation to Scandinavia seemed better on Sunday; after mid-day the path to
the west opened up much better too and I picked up a good variety of US states
to boost the multiplier count. The band stayed open a good deal later, almost
until 10 pm local but I'd worked everything on the bandmap by that stage.
I can’t say it was a full-on serious effort as I worked around the usual
family weekend commitments but I probably gave it 70-80% effort which bodes well
for a more serious crack at this one with a better antenna perhaps next year.
FT-1000MP, 100w
Win-Test
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