CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: M6W
Operator(s): G3WW
Station: G3WW
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: IO82wt
Operating Time (hrs): 45:25
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 60 2 22
80: 156 9 43
40: 176 11 53
20: 274 11 48
15: 309 19 59
10: 207 19 60
------------------------------
Total: 1182 71 285 Total Score = 582,772
Club: CWops
Comments:
Not done an all band CQWW Phone since 2014 so quite rusty and almost 10 yrs
older and health issues. Pleased with my ‘bum in chair’ time but it is very
deceptive as the final 5 or 6 hrs were a real struggle and my rate nose-dived
Sunday evening fighting off tiredness. I definitely got my sleep strategy wrong
for this one.
Preparation began a couple of weeks before the contest. I used a single pulley
from a tree branch to support two antennas fed with two coaxes to give me a
high-band and low-band antenna. I homebrewed a pair of bias-T’s the week prior
to the contest to supply DC down one of the feeders to power a SGC Smartuner
that matched the inverted-L on the low bands. The fan dipole is wire and fixed
N/S. Obviously all wires are in close proximity sharing the same sycamore tree.
In addition, I laid about 40 radials of various lengths a few days before the
contest and assured the XYL that this is a temporary arrangement across her
lawn.
The high bands were far better on Saturday compared to Sunday; I unwittingly
focused more on 10 & 15 during Saturday. When conditions worsened on Sunday,
I added very little to my 10 and 15 scores and then found it difficult making up
lost ground on 20m in terms of QSOs and mults.
I didn’t hear a single JA or work YB, VK or ZL. The US zone 3’s were
virtually non-existent, as were KH6 and KL7 so conditions were far from
optimum.
The logger says 90% search & pounce and 10% run QSOs which sounds about
right.
Using low power on phone without beam antennas requires discipline knowing which
pileups to ‘have a go at’ and which to tune past. I stumbled upon one large
pileup for a Zone 8, hit the wrong key on the keyboard, accidentally sent my
callsign with the voice-keyer and the DX came straight back to me! Must have
been perfect timing but a pure accident as it was one I hoped to come back later
for.
And now a rant…
I was annoyed, no, angry, to hear so many stations from IARU Region 1 (Europe)
transmitting out of band on 40m phone i.e. above 7200 kHz. Over a very short
period, I heard IQ5PJ, 9A5M and LB7PI all work juicy 3-point stations/mults
whilst operating simplex (and I have the audio recordings). There are sure to be
countless other illegitimate QSOs made by cheating Europeans. The Region 2 ops
are complicit in this too, as they should know by now not to work anyone outside
of the Americas above 7200 kHz unless they listen split below 7200 for EU. The
contest rules do make mention of this behaviour.
Overall, a challenging weekend; a pity that condx on Sunday were down on what we
have got used to in recent weeks but that’s part of the game and why we enjoy
figuring out our options.
Thanks for the QSOs and for digging my call out of the splatter and mush that so
often in CQWW Phone.
FTdx5000, 100 Watts
10-15-20 Fan dipole (running N/S)
40-80-160 Inverted-L (horizontal long leg towards south)
73 Dez, M6W / G3WW
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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