Monday, November 26, 2018

#cqww DX CW contest review

Event: CQWW DX CW 2018
Section: Single Operator 160m QRP assisted
Logger: N1MM+ / FLdigi / CWskimmer
Station: Icom IC-706 MK2G 4W (minimum power)
Antenna: Inverted-V (2x20m) apex 12m

Well, I've choosen one of the most difficult sections in the contest. 160m QRP with a too short and not so efficient antenna. But hey, I can tune it and first tests friday evening showed some spots from Germany on RBN. I've choosen this section for a reason....it's possible to make another "Netherlands Record". Fun to have a goal as I will never be able to compete with others in a CW contest. Actually I've tried 160m QRP a few years ago but after 1 hour calling with no one coming back to me I decided to do 80m or 160m low power then (can't remember). I set my goal to 25 QSOs at least but surprisingly I already made 30 QSOs at Saturday. So next goal was 50 and after a lot of effort I finally end the contest sunday evening with 52 QSOs. The thing I really have to take attention to should be a good CW keyer, I still use FLdigi to generate audio CW on USB. I'm already figuring out a simple keyer that works on my computer. Hope to have it ready before the 10m ARRL contest in 2 weeks. I didn't run too much with QRP, a few times just to see if I was spotted at the RBN. Actually did S&P 99% of the time. S&P for QRP contacts means you have to search for stations that are at least +60dB otherwise you will not be heard. It occured to me that there is nothing wrong with my receive I even received japanese stations. But I had the idea some really strong stations did have directional receive for DX. I name 9A1A, OG55W and OL1A for example, they were really strong here but I was not able to make any QSO. Best receive for me was SJ2W (congrats), worked them twice (sorry), they had a strong signal and they got my call correct already the first time I called in both QSOs.

This contest was a great experience. It was not easy and you need to have a lot....I repeat, a lot of patience. Sometimes calling 15 minutes for one station and then in the end just half a contact sometimes is depressing. At the other end, I managed 52 QSOs this way and think that's not at all bad.



Netherlands records PE4BAS CQWW CW:

SO Assisted 80m QRP 2014
SO Assisted 160m LOW 2016
SO 80m QRP 2017

4 comments:

Peter pa4o said...

Dit zal wel weer een Nederlands record opleveren Bas.
Ik heb alleen aan dupes al een 50 meende ik hihi

Peter

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Peter, met meer dan 2000 QSOs wil ik dat ook wel geloven. 160m QRP is niks voor jou ;-). 73, Bas

Jan, OZ9QV said...

Definitely a good result with QRP. I am not sure I would have the patience ;).
73 de Jan, OZ9QV

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Thanks Jan, so far I'm the only participant in the Netherlands so I guess I got aanother netherlands record again. 73, Bas