[ADXA] W5ZN CQWW CW

[Nick Kennedy]

Great summary and super impressive.  DXCC on four bands in one weekend -
wow!

73

Nick, WA5BDU


On Tue, Nov 26, 2024 at 3:18 AM <w5znjoel at gmail.com> wrote:

> I previously posted about gearing up for CQWW CW this past weekend. I talk
> a lot about goals and since I decided to go all out, I set some for my
> effort. Now, I consider myself an expert DX’er and will mow right over you
> in a DX pileup and I’ve won some of the VHF contests, setting a new
> national record twice. But HF contests require a significantly different
> skill set that I haven’t mastered. Some of it is geographical location. I
> will never be able to compete with the east coast folks since Europe is a
> huge contest center that favors the W1, 2, and 3 ops. I like to compare
> contest notes with my buddy K1ZZ in CT and keep up with multi-ops at K3LR
> and W3LPL. Locally our contest super hero is N5DX and K5GO. I am not even
> close to that level, far from it – to quote AC-DC, “It’s a long way to the
> top if you want to rock and roll” !
>
>
>
> As I noted in my earlier post, I love a CW fray and had a great time this
> past weekend but I fell short of my goals. I wanted to break 5 million
> points but only made it to 4,912,671. I missed three of my QSO goals also.
> The totals were:
>
>
>
> 160 - 17 (goal 50)
>
> 80 - 206 (goal 300)
>
> 40 – 757 (goal 750)
>
> 20 – 448 (goal 750)
>
> 15 – 509 (goal 500)
>
> 10 – 744 (goal 500)
>
>
>
> Even though I exceeded my goal on 40, 15, and 10 I was deficient on 160,
> 80, and 20. I didn’t worry too much about 160. Even though prop had been
> good the few days leading up to Friday night the band folded and went
> basically dead. 80 was decent, but not as expected. For 20 meters, I’m
> simply not good at moving to 20 when needed during openings on the other
> bands. The highlight here was Saturday between 2300z and 0000z with a
> massive 10 meter opening to SE Asia. Signals from HS, XV, DU, BY YB, V85,
> HL, and JA were 20 to 30 dB over S9. Quite amazing. By comparison, Sunday
> night around the same time, just before the contest end, I could barely
> hear JA’s at that time! I also enjoyed hearing some severe over the pole
> flutter on the Russian signals and zones 17, 18, 19, and 40. Reminded me of
> “old times”!
>
>
>
> You can see my claimed totals at
> https://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=RvYizV77nYJneU
>
>
>
> I’m not good at SO2R. For you new folks, that is “Single Op 2 Radio” and
> even though some radio manufacturers brag that their radio is “SO2R” please
> understand that is an operator skill, NOT a radio !!! It takes considerable
> practice and experience to even reach low proficiency. I’m far from it.
>
>
>
> The station performed extremely well. I was very, very pleased with
> everything. I consider myself and expert at station building, I’m just
> lacking as an HF contest operator. Regardless, the station performed
> flawlessly for the entire contest period.
>
>
>
> I basically achieved DXCC on four bands and hit sixty on 80 meters. Only
> 11 on 160 with a dead band.
>
>
>
> I got up Friday morning at 4 AM with my customary morning routine and did
> some final checks and assessment throughout the day and had lunch with Kim
> at noon. I started the contest right at 6 PM local time Friday. I was up
> through the night Friday night and all-day Saturday. Around 2 AM Sunday
> morning my body told me I needed a nap as I was starting to doze off so I
> grabbed a 3-hour nap on the couch in the shack and was back on at 5:30 AM.
> I did take a one-hour break at noon on Sunday for lunch and a 1 mile walk
> down the road and back for a little exercise.
>
>
>
> Sunday at 6 PM when the contest ended, I exported the log into my regular
> station log, uploaded to LoTW then generated a Cabrillo file and uploaded
> it to CQWW. I then assessed the station and began shutting things down. I
> strolled into the den, picked up a drink and sat down in my recliner. About
> 5 minutes later I abruptly woke up to some cold and wet in my lap – I was
> holding my drink, fell asleep, and dumped it all over me !!!!! It was time
> to ditch the recliner and go to bed.
>
>
>
> Summary – I love CW and really enjoyed the weekend.
>
>
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN
>
>
>
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