Slow Start
Had a slow start with no propagation to Asia at the opening bell. Asia didn’t open until much later in the evening. Europe was open, but rates were only about 70 to 80 per hour. Here’s a breakdown:
Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat
CALLSIGN: KW7Y
CONTEST: CQ-WPX-CW
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
OPERATORS: K7RL
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
0000 0 0 4 70 0 0 74 74 3.3
0100 0 0 11 61 0 0 72 146 6.5
0200 0 0 10 77 0 0 87 233 10.4
0300 0 0 23 61 0 0 84 317 14.1
0400 0 0 33 49 0 0 82 399 17.8
0500 0 0 11 58 0 0 69 468 20.9
0600 0 1 6 77 0 0 84 552 24.6
0700 0 0 38 55 0 0 93 645 28.8
0800 0 18 80 1 0 0 99 744 33.2
0900 0 19 46 3 0 0 68 812 36.2
1000 0 14 45 1 0 0 60 872 38.9
1100 0 2 77 0 0 0 79 951 42.4
1200 0 1 11 2 0 0 14 965 43.0
1300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 965 43.0
1400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 965 43.0
1500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 965 43.0
1600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 965 43.0
1700 0 0 0 17 2 0 19 984 43.9
1800 0 0 0 63 13 0 76 1060 47.3
1900 0 0 0 42 31 0 73 1133 50.5
2000 0 0 0 57 27 0 84 1217 54.3
2100 0 0 0 39 4 0 43 1260 56.2
2200 0 0 0 55 0 0 55 1315 58.7
2300 0 0 0 48 0 0 48 1363 60.8
0000 0 0 6 41 0 0 47 1410 62.9
0100 0 0 24 22 0 0 46 1456 64.9
0200 0 0 6 57 0 0 63 1519 67.8
0300 0 0 20 37 0 0 57 1576 70.3
0400 0 0 16 41 0 0 57 1633 72.8
0500 0 0 13 43 0 0 56 1689 75.3
0600 0 0 15 26 0 0 41 1730 77.2
0700 0 0 20 40 0 0 60 1790 79.8
0800 0 0 17 31 0 0 48 1838 82.0
0900 0 1 48 8 0 0 57 1895 84.5
1000 1 24 28 0 0 0 53 1948 86.9
1100 0 3 54 0 0 0 57 2005 89.4
1200 0 0 39 2 0 0 41 2046 91.3
1300 0 0 0 40 0 0 40 2086 93.0
1400 0 0 0 35 0 0 35 2121 94.6
1500 0 0 0 33 6 0 39 2160 96.3
1600 0 0 0 0 13 3 16 2176 97.1
1700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2176 97.1
1800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2176 97.1
1900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2176 97.1
2000 0 0 0 45 9 0 54 2230 99.5
2100 0 0 0 8 4 0 12 2242 100.0
2200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2242 100.0
2300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2242 100.0
Total 1 83 701 1345 109 3 2242
Gross QSOs=2277 Dupes=35 Net QSOs=2242
Unique callsigns worked = 1832
The best 60 minute rate was 99/hour from 0648 to 0747
The best 30 minute rate was 106/hour from 0656 to 0725
The best 10 minute rate was 126/hour from 0246 to 0255
The best 1 minute rates were:
3 QSOs/minute 93 times.
2 QSOs/minute 463 times.
1 QSOs/minute 1037 times.
There were 449 bandchanges and 189 (8.4%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
3 8
4 899
5 607
6 689
7 3
8 31
9 5
Multi-band QSOs
1 bands 1489
2 bands 284
3 bands 51
4 bands 8
5 bands 0
6 bands 0
------- S i n g l e B a n d Q S O s ------
Band 160 80 40 20 15 10
QSOs 0 26 382 1039 42 0
As the sun went down, my rate picked up and signals increased, but I never did see rates above 100 per hour.
Key Clicks Galore
Key clicks reached an ugly peak during this contest. Here’s a picture of the wide, broad signals that plagued the band:
Sandwiched between two wide signals
Sandwiched between my CQ Frequency are two wide signals with key clicks. Fortunately, the Flex 6600M has great filtering and those key clicks didn’t disturb my copy. If anything, it may have protected my frequency. No one could survive above or below me.
Check out this wide signal:
Are you kidding me? Terrible. Almost as wide as an SSB signal. These are merely examples of the weekend’s wickedly wide and carelessly clicky calamities.
15m Black Hole?
It’s been a while since 15m was a productive band. This weekend proved it’s still a productive band, just not around here. Many stations racked up 300 to 500 Qs.
Could I have tried harder and worked more stations? Maybe. But I doubt it. It was never great.
20m – The King of Bands
20m was the money band. Although not as good as last year, it still was the place to be during the daylight and night time hours.
Europe was highlighted during the day, with Asia starting about 9:00 PM local and lasting until about 2:00 AM local.
40m – The Queen of Bands
Not much Europe, unfortunately, but our friends to the north in Canada helped out with much needed 4 pointers. Asia was runnable for six hours or so.
The long daylight hours made it tough to rack up big numbers, but the band was still quite good, and once the sun went down, static levels subsided.
That’s a wrap on CQ WPX CW. Thanks to all for the Qs and the Paul, KW7Y for the use of his great call.
73, Mitch, K7RL
