CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2019
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: SOAB LP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): ~20.7
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 21 7 14
80: 122 13 55
40: 201 24 82
20: 560 27 105
15: 134 20 61
10: 11 5 5
------------------------------
Total: 1049 96 322 Total Score = 1,239,370
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
There is nothing like the CQWW experience, loads of Dxpeditions and activity.
Sunday 20M activity was spread up to 14140 KHz and was very congested up to
about 14090. Low band conditions were definitely improved over last year, but
signals were weaker than when the SFI is 80-100. 40 did stay open into southern
EU through at least 03Z. My 80M dipole with tuner works better on 40 in EU than
the 40M quad loop about 23ft lower used to perform and a sloping dipole is much
better south than the dipole. The 80M GP works pretty well, but takes a back
seat to most all NA HP callers into EU and my noise level is a problem. Asia is
hard to work from here on any band, only zones 21 and 25 were worked on 20 and
only a very weak JH4UYB was heard from Asia on 20 Saturday evening.
It was a non-serious for fun effort, but I did operate most of the last 12
hours. I QRT'ed Saturday 1410-2120Z to visit a friend and missed most of what 10
had to offer along with a lot of the best hours on 15. 15 was open fairly well
to the Med area, not much farther north and was pretty marginal to the Med area
on Sunday with just a handful of strong signals. Oceania was sparse; I heard
5W1SA CQ'ing on 15 around 19Z and could not get his attention despite a signal
peaking S5-7 here. He quit CQ'ing with no Q's after about 2 minutes. I did
easily work ZM4 and KH6 right afterwards. 160 and 80 both were a challenge into
EU, but some EU were S9+ on 80 with Friday and Sunday evenings being best. A44A
who was S7 kept CQing Sunday at 2315Z despite several NA callers.
I was able to break most all of the pile ups where I persisted and broke some
big ones with 1-2 calls using smarts vs. brute force. But running on 80 or 40
was not very productive usually yielding back to S&P pretty quickly. 20 was
not as good as 2018 here. 20 seemed hopelessly crowded on the bottom 60 KHz or
so both days; any apparently open spots were usually occupied by some station in
Russia or Asia who was in the noise here. I ran from around 14064 up to 096
which does not produce rates as good as those running lower in band. The band
opened to EU late especially Sunday and closed early Sunday with my last
productive run ending about 1520Z with a good S&P rate until 17Z. 10
squeaked open to SA from 1820-1930Z Sunday.
Many thanks for the Q's and digging me out. I have to give props to G5W who has
an excellent NA Rx on 160, 3B8M for working me and many other NA on 80 through
15M, TK0C, and 6V7A. It always amazes me how single ops smoothly V47T, ZF1A,
TI7W, and 8P5A run the dual bands, kudos! Sunspots from cycle 25 are appearing;
we can only hope for much higher flux soon.
73, Jeff N8II
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