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| Minimum Time, Maximum Fun during CQ WW SSB 2012 |
This past weekend was the CQ World Wide SSB DX Contest. I only had a handful of hours to operate but my goal was to spend as much time on 10 meters as possible. I also wanted to have a bit of fun on 15 meters. Once the contest started, I deeply wished I had the entire weekend to operate. Sometimes personal things get in the way of our hobby. But with weekends like this past one, a few hours on the air is better than none in my humble opinion. It was not long after the contest started that the fun meter was pegged.
Highlights for this weekend were like any other, running into many an old friend and contesting regulars. Propagation on 10 meters was open to the East Coast and West Coast at the same time. Central and South America was booming in as well. There were no shortage of Japanese operators and they were booming in each and every evening on 10 meters. I heard but did not work an Australian station as well. I had several East Coast stations come back to my CQ telling me they were working me off the back of their antennas as they were pointed to EU and Africa. When the bands are hot, 100 watts can sound like a KW!
I've not been a big SSB contest guru for the last several years and I think the reason is simply the bandwidth used and the fact I lack adequate pin point filtering on that mode with my Icom. I've used my internal filters and also made use of the PBT and Notch filters but just never seem to be able to wash away adjacent splatter. CW contests are a different story as my internal filters pretty much give me the ability of having a crowded frequency all to myself.
I operate nothing special here for the most part. I do utilize a Heil Pro-Set Plus! as my main voice to airwave interface. I love the headset as it has the ability to utilize both the Full Range and DX audio filters not to mention the Phase Reverse In & Out function on receive. It's not the most comfortable headset but I think it pairs up wonderfully with the Icom. I always try to keep conscious of my ALC and Compression when operating SSB. I have received many a compliment on my audio and this weekend I received another from VE7XF. Made me feel pretty good actually as I strive to operate as band and width friendly as possible.
I found 10 meters truly exciting and just packed during the time I could operate. I checked and I heard contesting from 28.300 all the way up to 28.756 with a few just beyond that! And it was wall to wall in between those frequencies! I managed a find a few tight spots and called CQ and accomplished a few decent runs on 10 meters. I also ran a bit on 15 meters after 10 closed down. All in all, 10 turned out to be as exciting as I had hoped.
One of the things I noticed this weekend was how many forget about how SSB signals work when transmitting. I was listening to a PY1 station who was actually transmitting on 21.450 calling "CQ Contest." This was of no concern to me as I just listened knowing full well if I had called him, I would have been out of band. Sadly, I heard several USA stations call and work this PY1 station. With their voice passband, each and every one of them was operating out of band and if there was an Official Observer (OO) listening, many will probably be receiving a white little postcard in the mail in the coming weeks. For those not familiar with this, you can google "Suppressed Carrier" or "Voice Passband" or even operating near band edge which should help your understanding. Also, being familiar with FCC Regulation 47 CFR 97.301 is also helpful.
I know much more about this now as I made that same mistake about 4 years ago and received one of the white post cards I was referring to. My signal was observed and heard by an OO as I went back to a CQ'ing station at the top of 20 meters, 14.348 + or so. My signal was observed on frequency 14.350.5, or out of band. I'm very thankful for the notice and the OO was totally professional about his notification to me. So if you're new to the hobby or find yourself near a band edge either by frequency allocation or your license limitation, be aware of where you may be transmitting. I keep the card hanging in my shack as a reminder.
I ran statistics on my log and my just over 6 hour effort is detailed below. My main goal was of course 10 meters but to work and focus on the lower 48. I'm hoping to complete my Worked All States (WAS) with Logbook Of The World (LOTW) and I think I needed only 3 more states. Of those 3 states, I know I worked at least one who uses LOTW and I'm hopeful the others do as well. I will eventually know once all the logs have been uploaded.
I hope you were able to enjoy some of the weekend activity! It looks like this winter will be another high band heavy focus for many if propagation continues like it has and did last winter. I've worked 20 meters so much over the last several years, I'm totally enjoying 10 (and 15, too) and if the band is open, I'm there!
Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat
CONTEST: CQ-WW-SSB
CALLSIGN: KL8DX
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
OPERATORS:
-------------- 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 0 0 0 22 22 22 3.1
0100 0 0 0 3 10 3 16 38 5.4
0200 0 0 0 0 10 0 10 48 6.8
0300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
0400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
0500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 6.8
1800 0 0 0 0 0 11 11 59 8.4
1900 0 0 0 0 0 45 45 104 14.8
2000 0 0 0 0 0 176 176 280 39.9
2100 0 0 0 0 0 179 179 459 65.4
2200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 459 65.4
2300 0 0 0 0 47 16 63 522 74.4
0000 0 0 0 0 169 0 169 691 98.4
0100 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 692 98.6
0200 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 694 98.9
0300 0 0 0 8 0 0 8 702 100.0
0400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
0500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
1900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
2000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
2100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
2200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
2300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 702 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 0 0 13 237 452 702
Gross QSOs=703 Dupes=1 Net QSOs=702
Unique callsigns worked = 636
The best 60 minute rate was 219/hour from 2039 to 2138
The best 30 minute rate was 262/hour from 2057 to 2126
The best 10 minute rate was 294/hour from 2100 to 2109
The best 1 minute rates were:
6 QSOs/minute 9 times.
5 QSOs/minute 29 times.
4 QSOs/minute 51 times.
3 QSOs/minute 37 times.
2 QSOs/minute 47 times.
1 QSOs/minute 94 times.
There were 6 bandchanges and 0 (0.0%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 0 0 0 9 219 439 667 95.0
South America 0 0 0 4 1 11 16 2.3
Europe 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Asia 0 0 0 0 17 1 18 2.6
Africa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Oceania 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 0 0 13 237 452 702
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 1
4 335
5 242
6 121
7 1
8 1
10 1
------------------ C o u n t r y S u m m a r y ------------------
Country 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------------
CE 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
HK 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
JA 0 0 0 0 17 0 17 2.4
K 0 0 0 5 199 390 594 84.6
KH6 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
KL 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
KP4 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
LU 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0.4
P4 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
PJ4 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0.3
PY 0 0 0 3 1 3 7 1.0
UA9 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
VE 0 0 0 4 19 47 70 10.0
XE 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.1
YV 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 0 0 13 237 452 702
------------ M u l t i p l i e r S u m m a r y ------------
Mult 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
05 0 0 0 4 76 197 277 39.5
04 0 0 0 2 98 144 244 34.8
03 0 0 0 3 44 96 143 20.4
25 0 0 0 0 17 0 17 2.4
11 0 0 0 3 1 3 7 1.0
09 0 0 0 1 0 4 5 0.7
13 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0.4
01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
08 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
12 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
31 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
19 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
06 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.1
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 0 0 13 237 452 702
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 575
2 bands 56
3 bands 5
4 bands 0
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 0 0 3 181 391
Excellent inputs. Keep sharing.
ReplyDeleteI also managed only a bit of time - I have five kids and things are busy HI HI!! I spent most of my time on 10m and a bit on 15, and a tiny bit on 20m and 40m. Some nice DX out there and some nice ones logged! What can you do, except enjoy your time on the radio?
ReplyDeleteSailin, thanks so much! I also enjoy your blog as well!
ReplyDeleteHamRadioIreland - You are so right and with 5 kids, you are
sure busy especially on contest weekends! My kids are all grown and moved on. One thing they will probably always tell you about their dad, they will forever remember those words "CQ Contest, CQ Contest" as they heard that many times emitting from the radio room. :0) Sadly, none of my kids have taken up the hobby but there is still hope as I think my youngest still has an interest. Boys and smartphones come first I guess. Priorities, hum...