CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: K7RL
Operator(s): K7RL
Station: K7RL
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: WA
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 28 9 8
80: 109 19 33
40: 669 29 71
20: 1413 36 118
15: 180 18 40
10: 2 1 2
------------------------------
Total: 2401 112 272 Total Score = 2,276,352
Club: Western Washington DX Club
Comments:
First full-time SOAB HP effort since 2015. Back then 10m and 15m were very much
in play – ah, the good old days. This year, I knew it would mostly be a 20m
and 40m event and was not disappointed. I'll summarize the weekend using a
classic Clint Eastwood movie title: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
80M and 160M
It was great to hear EU come back on the low bands. 160m and 80m were alive with
signals from ES, OM, DL, SP, OK, I, and RP (no northern EU at all, which was
strange). Zone 33/35 was also very active and fairly easy to work. Special
mention goes to OK7K, who was a beacon on 160m the entire contest.
The bad part is most couldn’t hear me. Worked OK7K and DR1A on 160m, but heard
and didn’t work at least 6 other EU countries. Major bummer.
The ugly part is it was the same scenario on 80m. Heard and tried to work at
least 10 EU stations, but none could hear me despite their signal a true S7 to
S9. In hindsight, that was the most disappointing part of the contest. I felt
like a SWL. Major bummer times two.
40M
Good signals from EU, JA and the rest of Asia all weekend. Caribbean and SA were
loud. Nice JA runs both nights, with Saturday morning being the better of the
two.
Unfortunately, no EU runs – bummer. Never heard a peep from northern EU, and
very few below 7.100 worked split. Double and triple bummer.
40m was bursting at the seams. I’d classify this as ugly, but obvious. I mean
really, where else is the entire world supposed to go when the high bands close
early? Oh yeah, and if the U.S. wants to work the world, we all have to
basically occupy a space between 7.128 and 7.200 on SSB. What could possibly go
wrong?
10M, 15M and 20M
Felt like any activity on 10m and 15m was a bonus. 15m was surprisingly good
compared to how dead it sounded leading up to the contest. Had some short JA
runs, which was a plus. Zone 33/35 guys were very strong and D4C was a beacon
all weekend on every band (except 10m, right?). 20m featured solid JA and EU
runs both days, with Saturday being the better of the two.
Unfortunately, 10m never opened anywhere beyond my backyard. If it did open for
2 nanoseconds, I missed the window. No zone 14 or 15 on 15m, and even though I
tried to frequently check, the 20m run to EU during the window of opportunity
was crazy and required my full attention, so maybe I missed it, but I don’t
think so.
Predictably, 20m was a zoo. Ugly SSB splatter was a major issue and forced me to
reacquaint myself with every possible filter variation my rig had to offer.
Layers of stations on the same frequency or very close by only added to the
chaos.
Summary
All-in-all, a fun contest with the added challenge of operating during a solar
minimum. Thanks to all for the Qs, and everyone that travelled to exotic
locations to make it that much more exciting for the rest of us.
73, Mitch, K7RL
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