CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: K2AX
Operator(s): K2AX NY3B KE2D
Station: K2AX
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: SNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 41.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 63 9 22
80: 262 20 62
40: 215 22 60
20: 889 31 108
15: 810 27 103
10: 230 16 42
------------------------------
Total: 2469 125 397 Total Score = 3,540,726
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Overall, not a bad weekend. Conditions were “interesting”. Although the K
& A indices were high, there was better propagation on the upper bands than
I remember seeing the last couple of years.
We were thrilled with what we did on 15m and for a while it was ahead of 20m.
That changed on Sunday when we had a fantastic run on 20m and it edged ahead of
15m but even then 15m still kept producing at a good clip.
It was nice to see some action on 10m again and not just the 2-3 dozen QSOs and
a handful of multipliers. Although it was nothing like 15m, or 20m, 10m seemed
opened most of the day on both days and there were always some new Qs to go grab
with an occasional new multiplier. There was lots of South America on 10m and
there was even a respectable path to Europe as well for a while on Sunday. One
tiny thrill was late Sunday afternoon when KK6P got on10m and we finally managed
to get zone 3 on all 6 bands. Our thanks to the Rolling Ranch Contest Club for
helping us and so many other needy souls with the 10m multiplier.
In case anyone thought Murphy lost our address, we were not so lucky. We had
problems with two of the rotators about 3 hours before the start which we
managed to sort out to a workable degree. Then, with an hour before the opening
bell, we discovered that the 40m beam was completely dead. We did some quick
troubleshooting and determined it was definitely the antenna and nothing in the
shack. With very little time left before the start, we decided we would do what
we could on 160m, 80m, and 20m first and then figure out what to do next.
20m stayed opened much later than I expected on the first night and we got about
90 Qs there. Once 20m closed up (or seemed to for a while) and without enough
traffic on 80m or 160m to warrant two radios, I set about constructing a 40m
dipole with materials I had on hand. In the dark, I was able to build, tune,
and raise this antenna using an existing halyard at the 25 ft. level on one of
the towers and I put it up as an inverted V. This would be the only 40m antenna
we would have for the entire contest.
On Saturday, WC2K came over and climbed the 40m tower and was able to diagnose
the problem with the beam. Unfortunately the repair will be a project that was
beyond the scope of what we could do this weekend. We really appreciate Rick
coming over to help us determine the nature of the problem on such short
notice.
After we finally go on 40m late the first night, we discovered that 20m was open
to Europe unusually late and the signals were surprisingly strong. We worked a
lot of Europe on 20m as late as 0825 UTC (4:25 am ET).
160m did not produce as well as last year with 2 less Qs and a 12 fewer mults.
My theory is that this is because of the overall lack of stations in the
Caribbean due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
While we did manage to wring 215 Qs and 82 mults from 40m, this is down
significantly from our effort last year. We were able to elbow our way through
most, but not all, of the pile-ups and work the majority of what we heard and
saw on 40m but the dipole did not give us to moxie to run. I’m still happy
that we managed to salvage what did there.
In the end, we finished with over 1 million points more than our score from last
year so we can’t really complain.
Thanks as always to Mark (K2AX), Donna (W2DOB), and the O’Brien family for the
use of the great station and for letting us invade their home for the weekend
and also their help and hospitality.
Onward to CW!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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