CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: K3ZM
Operator(s): K3ZM
Station: K3ZM
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Virginia
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1304 State/Prov = 59 Countries = 65 Total Score = 730,312
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
One of my favorite wintertime activities is working Asia and the Pacific long
path in the afternoon on the low bands. But it is harder to do that from down
here than it is up in the Northeast. And on 160 meters, the propagation is
just not there to JA in the afternoon. We have to listen to our colleagues way
up the coastline run JA’s that just are not even there. What is an operator
in the South to do in the face of such envy? Poke fun at them!
YOU NOT FROM AROUND HERE, BOY!
If you call that stream running through the woods a “brook,” then you’re
not from around here.
If you’re one of the first U.S. stations to start hearing EU in the
afternoon, you’re not from around here.
If you don’t eat grits for breakfast, you’re not from around here.
If you thought a peanut inverter referred to a guy tipping up a jar of
Planter’s in order to get a mouthful, you’re not from around here.
If you periodically drive over the border into a neighboring country to buy
prescription drugs, you’re not from around here.
If you think summertime is when you’re supposed to be doing antenna projects,
you’re not from around here.
If you put vinegar on your French fries instead of ketchup, you’re not from
around here.
If they can’t grow cotton where you live, you’re not from around here.
If you refer to the chest of drawers in your bedroom as a “bureau,”
you’re not from around here.
If your bartender pours Maker’s Mark and not Wild Turkey, you’re not from
around here.
If you never wear shorts in December, you’re not from around here.
If you do not reflexively respond “Yes, Sir” and “Yes, Ma’am,”
you’re not from around here.
If roughly half the wintertime population of your state is comprised of Low
Band radio operators, you’re not from around here.
If you feel more at home in Fenway Park than you do at the Bristol Motor
Speedway, you’re not from around here.
If you have met one of the two major candidates for the Democratic presidential
nomination at a Town Hall meeting, you’re not from around here.
If you even have Town Hall meetings, you’re not from around here. We meet at
the Bojangles.
If the nickname of your state has the word “tax” embedded in it, you’re
not from around here.
If you need to ask directions to the nearest shooting range, you’re not from
around here.
If you have grinders in sub shops instead of machine shops, you’re not from
around here.
If you don’t have to wear a hunting cap and vest when you do antenna work,
you’re not from around here.
If you are not in the habit of saying “bless his heart” at the same time
that you insult someone, you’re not from around here.
If you have not adopted the preferred form of the second person plural, y’all
aren’t from around here.
CQ 160 CW 2016
The band seemed to have lots of open spaces. Quite a contrast to ARRL 160 last
month, where we were all snuggled together like a row of stink bugs on a cool
autumn night. I wonder if activity was a little down.
This contest reminds me of a Junior High School dance. Early in the evening,
all the boys are gathered on one side of the gym and the girls are on the
other. The point of the dance is to bring them together and yet they simply
hang with their like kind for the first couple of hours. One of the specific
objectives of CQ 160 is to engage in inter-continental QSOs (thus the point
structure) but each side happily chats it up with their brethren until they get
tired of each other and nature takes its course. Finally, we end up dancing
with each other in 10-point happiness. For me, this was even more true this
year. My first EU did not go into the log Friday evening until 2359Z. So I
tried to work on my QSO total. My hourly rates started out as follows:
95
74
90
78
90
75
45
69
Although I did not work EU at my sunset on Friday, I enjoyed a long trickle of
EU QSOs later in the evening and ended up putting 164 EU’s in the log by
bedtime. At that point, I had 856 Q’s, 50 countries and 58 states/provinces
and a score of 355K points. I worked one JA and one VK at my sunrise Saturday
morning. Did not hear KL7 all weekend.
I never experienced any bothersome QRN, although there was what seemed to be
Earth noise of about S3 on Friday evening until the later hours. Then it was
very quiet.
The second night, I worked lots of EU’s at my sunset and enjoyed a steady run
of EU QSO’s for many hours until the sun was coming up at G3. Total EU
contacts for the weekend was 369, which includes a handful of dupes. I missed
LAB and the rare VE stuff. Worked about 7 KH6 stations. Cool. Lots of
countries represented from South America and Caribbean. That was nice. Some
good DX was 7Z1SJ and ZS4TX Saturday evening.
Signal levels were low from EU at my sunset on Friday evening. But not
everyone had this problem. Moments before the contest began, I heard VY2ZM
handing out 589 to EU stations that I could barely tell were in there. Bless
his heart. . .
73,
Peter K3ZM
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