[K3VOA] HS0ZAR's participation in CQWW CW Contest 2019

[Ken Claerbout]

Here is a slid show and some comments on my participation in the CQ WW DX CW contest from Thailand the week before Thanksgiving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAVqinJqsCQ&feature=youtu.be

After arriving late Saturday night, I spent a few days in Bangkok and went up to the station on Tuesday.  The idea was to help the guys get the station ready, and to spend some time on the lowbands with the Optibeam and new Waller Flags for receive.  It turned out most of my time was spent working on the station.  I did so many PL-259's I had a blister on one hand.  Knowing what I know now, I would have ordered the proper tool kit ahead of time.  Dealing with RG-214 is a PITA.

During the contest, I had a few stints on 20 meters.  Sunday I took over from Champ E21EIC on 15, in the middle of a humongous European pileup, which was blast.  But keeping the rate up was a challenge.  I made our first attempt on 10 meters and had a great time running JA's and other Asians.  A few years ago while operating from JT5DX, I was struck by the number of zone 18 stations that would call us.  I had no idea so many existed.  You find out when you are in their backyard.  The same from Thailand.  During the 10 meter run, I was called by a bunch of Chinese stations, many with 2x3 calls, including a couple of BY3's in Zone 23.  Along with that were a number of Indonesian stations using their 7AA - 7IZ callsign allocation.  I commented to Fred at one point how I miss the good old days of being able to run a lot of this stuff on 10 meters from home.

I staked a claim on run station #2 for Sunday night, Sunday morning sunrise here, so we could try 80 meters to North America.  To that point we had not worked zone 5 on 80 so other than the quick multipliers, it wasn't a great strategic move.  But like Fred's efforts on 40, we wanted to try get HS in a few east coast logs on 80.

I had a great time!  It was fun seeing the guys again.  When you think about it, what an amazing event.  It's really a world wide party.  Teams traveling to all corners of the globe, others spending the weekend at a club or home station, even in remote parts like BY3 (zone 23).

73
Ken K4ZW