CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY - 2019
Call: P49X
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: P40L/P43Y
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: FK52al
Operating Time (hrs): 38:21
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------
80: 418 46 43 16
40: 997 53 70 25
20: 1435 56 73 25
15: 569 50 30 15
10: 94 28 16 13
------------------------------------
Total: 3513 233 232 94 Total Score = 5,827,016
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
What a fun weekend! Despite the dismal solar forecast and the recent FT craze,
legacy digital contesting was quite live and well. Why was 10 meters (sort of)
working? The solar storm going into the weekend made for constantly changing
conditions, but fortunately I experienced no RF blackouts, just drastic ups and
downs.
I wasn’t sure which entry category would work best for me from Aruba this
time. An all-band effort seemed ominous in these conditions but a single-band
caper might be boring, although one can push hard on a second receiver to
S&P while running on the same band. And, for this location, there is the
consideration of inter-station RFI which sometimes makes the higher
harmonic-related band completely unusable. (There is something external to our
station and antennas that is re-radiating the second harmonic across the entire
band and it comes and goes during the day, as though there is an enabling switch
that gets thrown. In last year’s WW RTTY I went low power for the first time
just because of this horrendous RFI issue.)
Ultimately, and at the last minute, I decided to go ABHP. Being able to run at
least two radios is a lot of fun and I would really miss that, especially on the
RTTY mode. High power would help ease the pain of the solar conditions. I had
to carefully select my operating frequencies when on 40 and 80 at the same time.
80 RFI is noticeable on 40 but not a practical problem. 20 wipes out 10 pretty
much, but who’s going to be on 10? Surprise! 10 was amazingly open for me
here in Aruba. I actually went SO1R on 10 for an hour and half late Sunday
afternoon. In retrospect, I made the right call on ABHP this year.
I fully expected to have zero contacts on 10 meters, as has been the case in
many recent contests. Then, the band opened Saturday around local noon and most
of NA was workable, including the west coast which hardly ever happens at this
point in the solar cycle. KH6, CR3, EA8, EA, TR8 were all easily worked. It
sure didn’t feel like the bottom of the cycle. I checked 10 every 30 minutes
on Sunday and never saw a signal peep. Finally, late Sunday afternoon, I
decided to take a flyer and go transmit to see if I could scare anyone up.
Well, guess what, the band was open but no one was there. A dead band scope can
be due to a closed band or an inactive band. This weekend, it was definitely
the latter for those of us down by the equator. I suspect only the N-S path was
workable which is great for us but not so much for higher latitude stations who
only have the few of us to work. That is all to say that I really appreciate
those who did get on 10 and work the handful of stations down here. To the
others, don’t forget the 10m position on your band switch!
Minute to minute operating conditions varied widely and often. One minute the
noise and the signals were all just one big mush. Other times, a band was quiet
and the signals were crisp and distinctive. In general, things got better as
the weekend played out. That actually worked nicely because Sunday had some
periods of very nice, quiet conditions here where very weak signals could be
worked. That’s when we’ve worked the big guns and need access to the deeper
layers of smaller signals.
In a few weeks, we will perform a complete re-build on the towers/antennas here,
so the 10 and 15 meter Yagis were down already, leaving only a C31 on 10 and 15.
That wasn’t a concern because I didn’t expect to work much, if anything, on
those bands. But, without a triplexer, that meant I couldn’t be on 10 and 15
at the same time. Despite having pretty good 15 and even some 10, the C31 was
plenty fine switching between the two while running 20 on the other radio.
The log stats are far below what I expect from a “normal” year for this
contest. The 3,500 QSOs this year compares to the typical 5-6,000 and this
year’s nearly 6M score pales against the 10-15M score I would normally expect.
But, even with an average QSO rate half normal and peak rates below past
experience, it was still a lot of fun. It also felt good to get back in the
“legacy” digital saddle after playing with FT this past year. Both are fun,
but very different experiences. Wouldn’t it be great if we could cherry-pick
the strengths of RTTY and FT to have the ultimate digital mode!
Thanks for the band moves and for working P49X on multiple bands. The
statistics are appended below. Thanks to Andy P49Y/AE6Y and John P40L/W6LD for
sharing their modest, but strategically located, cottage station here in Aruba.
73,
Ed P49X/W0YK
_________________________________________________________________________
Rigs (2): Elecraft K3S (2), with P3 (2) and K-pod (2)
Amps: Alpha 86 & 91B
Logging software: WriteLog 12.44A on three networked PCs, one for each SO2R
radio and one master as backup.
Tower 1: 3 elements 20 meter (reflector fell off) 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
Tower 2: empty at present, 55 feet
Tower 3: C31XR at 43 feet
RX antennas: four 500-foot beverages using K9AY switching box/preamp
____________________________________________________________________
-------------- 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 70 114 0 0 184 184 5.2
0100 0 9 92 55 0 0 156 340 9.7
0200 0 20 75 0 0 0 95 435 12.4
0300 0 21 93 0 0 0 114 549 15.6
0400 0 71 68 0 0 0 139 688 19.6
0500 0 40 54 0 0 0 94 782 22.3
0600 0 18 45 0 0 0 63 845 24.1
0700 0 10 22 0 0 0 32 877 25.0
0800 0 3 6 0 0 0 9 886 25.2
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 886 25.2
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 886 25.2
1100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 886 25.2
1200 0 0 5 69 1 0 75 961 27.4
1300 0 0 0 99 36 0 135 1096 31.2
1400 0 0 0 88 41 0 129 1225 34.9
1500 0 0 0 104 51 0 155 1380 39.3
1600 0 0 0 80 61 0 141 1521 43.3
1700 0 0 0 69 99 2 170 1691 48.1
1800 0 0 0 50 0 26 76 1767 50.3
1900 0 0 0 52 15 15 82 1849 52.6
2000 0 0 0 46 86 0 132 1981 56.4
2100 0 0 7 20 24 0 51 2032 57.8
2200 0 0 34 43 0 0 77 2109 60.0
2300 0 0 39 50 0 0 89 2198 62.6
0000 0 11 50 17 0 0 78 2276 64.8
0100 0 37 53 0 0 0 90 2366 67.3
0200 0 30 45 0 0 0 75 2441 69.5
0300 0 24 53 0 0 0 77 2518 71.7
0400 0 59 37 0 0 0 96 2614 74.4
0500 0 38 46 0 0 0 84 2698 76.8
0600 0 12 35 0 0 0 47 2745 78.1
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2745 78.1
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2745 78.1
0900 0 15 10 0 0 0 25 2770 78.8
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2770 78.8
1100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2770 78.8
1200 0 0 0 21 0 0 21 2791 79.4
1300 0 0 0 60 6 0 66 2857 81.3
1400 0 0 0 67 14 0 81 2938 83.6
1500 0 0 0 32 38 0 70 3008 85.6
1600 0 0 0 47 18 0 65 3073 87.5
1700 0 0 0 44 6 0 50 3123 88.9
1800 0 0 0 58 15 0 73 3196 91.0
1900 0 0 0 49 27 0 76 3272 93.1
2000 0 0 0 29 14 25 68 3340 95.1
2100 0 0 0 8 9 26 43 3383 96.3
2200 0 0 26 25 8 0 59 3442 98.0
2300 0 0 32 39 0 0 71 3513 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 418 997 1435 569 94 3513
Gross QSOs=3603 Dupes=90 Net QSOs=3513
Unique callsigns worked = 1981
The best 60 minute rate was 191/hour from 0008 to 0107
The best 30 minute rate was 196/hour from 0038 to 0107
The best 10 minute rate was 228/hour from 0057 to 0106
The best 1 minute rates were:
6 QSOs/minute 2 times.
5 QSOs/minute 25 times.
4 QSOs/minute 113 times.
3 QSOs/minute 330 times.
2 QSOs/minute 590 times.
1 QSOs/minute 754 times.
There were 1698 bandchanges and 1000 (28.5%) 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 0 271 622 943 500 78 2414 68.7
South America 0 4 21 43 36 11 115 3.3
Europe 0 137 329 413 26 0 905 25.8
Asia 0 0 11 24 1 0 36 1.0
Africa 0 3 3 7 3 4 20 0.6
Oceania 0 3 11 5 3 1 23 0.7
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 418 997 1435 569 94 3513
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 12
4 1352
5 1383
6 736
7 17
8 6
9 6
10 1
------------------ C o u n t r y S u m m a r y ------------------
Country 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------------
5B 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0.1
8P 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
9A 0 3 6 3 2 0 14 0.4
CE 0 1 1 5 1 1 9 0.3
CM 0 6 9 9 5 0 29 0.8
CP 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0.1
CT 0 0 4 5 1 0 10 0.3
CT3 0 2 1 2 2 2 9 0.3
CX 0 0 2 1 3 1 7 0.2
DL 0 34 62 85 2 0 183 5.2
EA 0 8 19 24 3 0 54 1.5
EA8 0 1 2 3 1 1 8 0.2
EA9 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
EI 0 1 1 1 1 0 4 0.1
EK 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
ER 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
ES 0 1 1 2 0 0 4 0.1
EU 0 4 2 3 0 0 9 0.3
F 0 9 18 22 2 0 51 1.5
FM 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.1
FP 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.1
G 0 3 13 21 0 0 37 1.1
GI 0 0 1 3 0 0 4 0.1
GM 0 0 3 4 0 0 7 0.2
GU 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
HA 0 6 9 11 1 0 27 0.8
HB 0 3 6 10 0 0 19 0.5
HB0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
HC 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
HI 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.1
HK 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 0.1
HP 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
HR 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
I 0 8 38 62 8 0 116 3.3
*IT9 0 4 5 1 1 0 11 0.3
J6 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
JA 0 0 5 21 0 0 26 0.7
JT 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
K 0 239 553 843 455 70 2160 61.5
KG4 0 1 1 3 2 0 7 0.2
KH6 0 2 3 3 3 1 12 0.3
KL 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
KP4 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.1
LA 0 3 3 6 0 0 12 0.3
LU 0 0 3 12 11 3 29 0.8
LX 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 0.1
LY 0 3 6 4 0 0 13 0.4
LZ 0 3 7 7 1 0 18 0.5
OA 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
OE 0 0 4 7 0 0 11 0.3
OH 0 2 3 12 0 0 17 0.5
OK 0 4 9 8 0 0 21 0.6
OM 0 4 4 5 0 0 13 0.4
ON 0 2 8 11 1 0 22 0.6
OX 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.1
OZ 0 2 2 7 0 0 11 0.3
PA 0 4 9 17 0 0 30 0.9
PY 0 1 8 18 20 5 52 1.5
PZ 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
S5 0 4 9 13 2 0 28 0.8
SM 0 1 6 2 0 0 9 0.3
SP 0 6 15 13 0 0 34 1.0
SV 0 0 1 4 1 0 6 0.2
SV5 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
TA 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
TF 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
TI 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
TK 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
TR 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.1
UA 0 3 13 11 0 0 27 0.8
UA9 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.1
UR 0 8 20 13 0 0 41 1.2
V3 0 2 2 2 2 1 9 0.3
VE 0 19 45 64 28 2 158 4.5
VK 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0.1
VP8 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
VU 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
XE 0 3 6 11 5 2 27 0.8
YA 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
YB 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 0.1
YL 0 1 5 6 0 0 12 0.3
YO 0 2 5 2 0 0 9 0.3
YU 0 0 5 4 0 0 9 0.3
YV 0 1 4 2 0 0 7 0.2
Z3 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0.1
ZF 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
ZL 0 1 4 0 0 0 5 0.1
ZP 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 418 997 1435 569 94 3513
------------ 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
-------------------------------------------------------------
04 0 84 252 373 216 31 956 27.2
05 0 121 217 339 178 25 880 25.0
03 0 54 130 197 92 16 489 13.9
14 0 70 154 220 10 0 454 12.9
15 0 46 122 154 14 0 336 9.6
16 0 16 38 27 0 0 81 2.3
11 0 1 10 18 20 5 54 1.5
20 0 5 17 14 3 0 39 1.1
08 0 6 12 14 5 1 38 1.1
13 0 0 5 14 14 4 37 1.1
06 0 3 6 11 5 2 27 0.8
25 0 0 5 20 0 0 25 0.7
07 0 3 4 5 4 3 19 0.5
33 0 3 4 6 3 3 19 0.5
31 0 2 3 3 3 1 12 0.3
09 0 2 4 3 0 1 10 0.3
12 0 1 1 5 1 1 9 0.3
32 0 1 4 0 0 0 5 0.1
10 0 0 1 3 1 0 5 0.1
30 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0.1
28 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 0.1
40 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 0.1
36 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.1
24 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
22 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
21 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
02 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
01 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
23 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
17 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 418 997 1435 569 94 3513
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 1131
2 bands 391
3 bands 275
4 bands 145
5 bands 39
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 69 327 649 78 8
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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