CQ Worldwide DX Contest - SSB
Call: 5X1Z
Operator(s): SM7PKK
Station:
Class: SOSB/10 HP
QTH: Kampala
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
-------------------------------
Total: 5169 40 159 = 3,065,794
Club/Team:
Comments:
CQ WW SSB 2000 recollection from 5X1Z. 10m Single Band.
Sorry forgot the story in the first posting!
Got off to a bad start.
After arriving back in Uganda after a 12 hour flight from Geneva I managed to
get all things ready during Friday. I set all the clocks for GMT but managed
to forget the timezone shift of my alarm clock.. Alas! missed the first hour of
the contest!
Things quickly got better
The propagation was getting really good and at 10z I had the fastest run. QSO
rate of 291 during one hour was helping a lot. (The next one was slightly
slower at 285.)
During the same hour I had also completed DXCC.. Thus DXCC on single band
within 10 hours of operation. While the Zone counter was up at 30.
During this magic hour I had the fortune of being called by KL7RA, making sure
I was not going to suffer to the end to get Zone 1 in the log. This in the
middle of a European/Asian pileup. Well knowing that some of the UA0´s are very
close to KL7 I was hoping for this.
At 1150z TF3A came to me giving me the other zone of worry. Zone 40.
At 1300z VO2CQ called in and gave me the illusive Zone 2.
At 1530z I secured Zone 6 from XE1IDJ. While I knew zone 6 was never a problem
I now remained with only one Zone?.. 31.
Where are the Zone 31 stations
Sitting in Uganda, this is the most difficult of them all. Knowing that I had
been so lucky in the first 15 hours of the contest I still remained with many
hours to find a KH6 or any of the other countries in Zone 31? Not so many of
them are around in the contest and!! can be heard from Uganda. Somehow Zone 31
is never easy compared to Zone 32? KH8/N5OLS was featuring in the spectrum as a
solid S9 +20 beacon whenever I tuned the band even though he is on the other
side of the world from Uganda.
By 0130z the second day I had still no Zone 31 in the log and asked one of the
VK2 guys if they had heard or worked any Zone 31 stations. The answer was.
"Yeahh mate there is the odd KH6 around". So there was still hope.
It was however not until 0420z the second day that NH6YK found my pileup and
got through. Within minutes KH7JJ came in to confirm Zone 31 in my log aswell.
It meant WAZ worked in 29 hours.
Getting the Q´s
At 0528z the second morning I passed 3000 QSO´s. This was giving me a good hope
that I might catch 5X1T´s score from 99 which was made at my station. He had
made 4517 QSO´s for a total of 2.812.630 points.
Things was looking good but somehow the pileups were not getting as heavy as
during day 1. Thus it was to become a struggle!
The weather changed and I had a massive Thunderstorm just outside my windows..
The lightning was striking about 1 km away and the static crashes that followed
was not helping. Luckilly it lasted only 2 hours and I did not need to close
down the station during this. It did though impact the pileups and propagation
in general.
At 1340z I passed Peters QSO total of 4517 but as I had only 151 Country
multipliers compared to Peter 175 I was still way lower in score.
The pileup at this time was not self going anymore. I had to use extensive CQ
calling to keep the rate up.
At 1600z the propagation died down and I had 4780 QSO´s in the log.
I was "only" 80.000 points away from Peter´s score. Knowing this could be an
impossible difference in score if the band did not recover somewhat. It looks
like there was plenty of time to get enough QSO´s but 10 meter has a habit of
playing up with it´s propagation.
I started tuning the band working what I could to get whatever points in the
log. Made some contester very happy b just showing up giving them a double
multiplier? Some of them could not even figure out the callsign! If I couldn´t
get the pileup going I was going to squezze the QSO´s out of the band until I
reached Peter´s score!
There was in the end no more stations to get by tuning. Not even multipliers
could be found so I went back to call CQ.
A QSO rate of 5 an hour is not a very impressive score though being in a rare
country especially not when not using a Voicerecorder.. It was tearing up my
voice.
It was 2000z and I was fighting to get some W6´s through the noise. I was
obviously very much readable but I could barely get anyone out in the noise on
my side? It was like true one-way propagation. Luckilly I remembered the calls
from several of the guys from my times in other contests and DX-peditions so
between my memory and the master data file I was getting them confirmed.
Basically I was hearing one letter guessing the call and had the guy confirm
his own callsign? Amazingly I was not missing the calls by far.. (You guys
calls in LA I know by heart nowJ)
In the process I though reached the first goal.. I was over Peters score with
a margin for any errors the CQWW comitte could find. So now everything was
smooth sailing from then on. I had concluded that with so short time and the
propagation (on my end) being what it was I would not reach 5000 QSO´s or even
get close to the 3 million mark. I was only 100 QSO a way from the 5000 but it
felt like a thousand.
The band start boiling
Every 3-5 minutes or so I got a QSO in the log.. Most of the time loud US
stations in Zone 4 or 5. At 2044z K4VUD came booming in and simply announced on
the frequency.. "5X1Z in Uganda is on the frequency why don´t you guys come and
get him!"
It was like he had magic in his words because within 10 minutes the band
started boiling again, it was no longer one way propagation. The band had
opened up giving me the chance Peter never got the previous year and I had not
had the evening before. At 2130z I passed 5000 QSO´s and at 2200z I passed the
3 million mark.
At 2230 I worked HR1AAB to complete 159 DXCC multipliers. At this time the
pileup was long gone and I was again tuning the bands for the odd QSO and
multiplier. At 2330 I closed down.. there was still stations on the band but
the propagation was again changing. The last 30 minutes had only given me 5
QSO´s despite hard CQ calling.
The result
5169 valid QSO´s (Raw) (5264 with dupes)
40 Zones
159 DXCC
For a total of 3,065.794 points
Statistics
Fastest minute 9 (540/hr)
Fastest 10 minute period 61 (366/hr)
Fastest hour 291
Average Rate 109 per hour
Top country scores
K 874 QSO´s
JA 842 QSO´s
DL 570 QSO´s (at one stage it felt I was working a DL contest! They just
kept coming!)
While this is not a world record (or even African record) on 10m it is
definetly a very good result from so far south and east in Africa. I challenge
anyone to find a station and beat this "non-record" from East and South Africa
on 10m. Maybe if I can get some more antenna systems up I could challenge ZD8Z
on 10m from here it is "only" 700.000 points more
The "Super Mega" station I used consist of the following
Kenwood TS-850S with Inrad SSB Filter
C-4XL up 15 Meter
Alpha 91B
Laptop for Logging with CT
No voicekeyer!! Every single QSO and call was made on my own!
No second radio (explains low DXCC total as there must have been more countries
on.)
Final comments
Thanks for all the QSO´s guys n girls.. I had superb time in the pileups and
enjoyed evey minute of this contest.
Sorry for all the guys who wanted me to move band for that elusive Zone 37 on
other bands? It was the same for everyone.. I did not favor anyone!
See you next year! If not sooner!
Mats 5X1Z (SM7PKK)
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