G3TXF in CQWW-CW Contest - Nov 2013

G3TXF Claimed Score : 10m SOSB - Assisted : 2,122 QSOs : 39z : 164c : 944,356 points
Two 4-el 10m yagis being prepared and installed for the 2013 CQWW CW Contest weekend. QRZ the PY? Take-off towards South America. Unusually the CQWW CW weekend enjoyed some exceptionally calm weather.
Apart from the last hour (18-19z) on the Saturday the hourly QSO rates were generally down compared with two years ago (2011). Ready for moonbounce? One of the two 4-el yagis at 80ft used for CQWW CW
Saturday : First QSO (RG6G) was at 0640z and the last QSO (LU1DZ) was at 1940z. Continuous operation for 13 hours. The band conditions in the morning were evidently disturbed, but there was plenty of activity on 10m. At times there were loud echos on many signals. On several occasions G3TXF heard multiple decaying levels of echo from his own signal. The echo in the morning made it hard to copy some signals, particularly those from South America which appeared to be on a skew path.

The small handful of JAs worked were coming from the East (over the Indian Ocean) rather than from North-North-East on Short Path. There was no sign of any JAs on the Long Path. Again, as has been the case in several recent 10m contests, more BYs were worked on Saturday than JAs.

The afternoon opening to the USA did not get going properly until some time after 14z and lasted until about 1845z. Plenty of Zone 3 stations were worked, but unfortunately nothing was heard from Alaska and Zone 1. By the end of Saturday 39 Zones had been worked, with Zone 1 being the only one missing.

In past years Zone 37 has proved to be a troublesome Zone to find, but a J28 (z37) was worked early on Saturday morning. All the other Zones dropped into place nicely with KH7XX (Long Path / South mid-morning) providing z31 and with both AH2R and AH0K providing z27. 5R8IC provided z39. Z81R made z34 easy to work. Two Canadian stations were worked in z02. Various TFs and XP2I provided z40. JT5DX and JT1E were handing out plentiful contacts with z23.

As usual the last half hour on 10m was spent trying to work any South Americans that could still hear me. Unfortunately by this time in the Contest most South American stations are beaming towards the USA and can be a little deaf to any remaining European callers.

Two nice surprises around 17z were N8A (KH8) and FO5RH both on the Short Path (NW). A full-house of the rarer UK "DX-Mults" were worked : two on Shetland: GZ3F and MZ8A; two GJs: GJ2A and GJ3YHU; together with GU4CHY, GD6IA and a small bundle of GIs.

Ended Saturday with 1,178 QSOs, 39z and 142c.

Sunday : First QSO (P3F) at 0700z and last QSO (PY2HR) at 1900z. Sunday's 10m operation was slightly shorter than Saturday's.

During Sunday 944 QSOs and 22 Countries were added to Saturday's total. [There was still no Zone 1 / Alaska to be found on the Sunday]. The opening to the USA on Sunday dried up at about 1815z, about half an hour earlier than on the Saturday, and the final QSO (PY2HR) was 40 minutes earlier than the final QSO on the Saturday (LU1DZ).

Countries 'seen' or heard but not worked : 5H, CP, HH (4V), KL7, PZ, T7, XW and V3.

The combined total of W/VE QSOs (977) represented 46% of the QSO total.
DX
Top 40
-
 DX
Top 40
W
910
 LU
13
UA
216
 OK
13
UR
138
 PA
12
UA9
81
 SM
12
VE
67
 GM
10
DL
65
 JA
10
YO
40
 LY
10
OH
29
 9A
8
SP
25
 OM
8
EU
24
 VU
8
LZ
23
 EI
7
I
20
 5B
6
PY
19
 BY
6
F
17
 HS
6
HA
17
 S5
6
G
16
 SV
6
EA
15
 XE
6
UN
15
 YL
6
YU
14
 CX
5
LA
13
 EA8
5
G3TXF has participated in CQWW-CW in 43 out of the past 46 years !
The table shows the number of QSOs made with each of the Top-40 Countries worked, with the non-European countries highlighted.
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