Are You Ready For CQ Worldwide SSB DX Contest?

And the bands are open today, 15 is booming!

 

Yes I'm ready and I'm currently on the W A R C bands until the contest is over!!!

 

10 and 15 are both open so far during the contest--even from the PNW

 

Been busy with it on and off since the start last night. I am a relatively new ham, and have been having fun with the various State QSO Parties. My first impression (starting on 20m) was that this is a zoo! Then entire spectrum scope on my IC7300 lit up white and red on both 20m and 40m - never seen the bands this active. The QRM was atrocious. Even if you did hear a station you wanted to work, you couldn't copy the call or zone over the guys who just kept calling and calling and calling. In the first 3 hours, I made 4 contacts - almost decided to give up on it.

Today was a bit better. 15m was open all day, and 10m had some activity most of the day. And both of these bands had much less QRM and were workable. A few hour of casual operation (I do this for fun, not profit) I logged 14 more contacts. Most in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America - but some in Europe and Africa. Was really surprised at the 10m and 15m band openings, and I actually made my very first 10m contacts today.

Yeah, I guess I am now having fun!

 

Yeah, would be nice to have a highly directional antenna to help with the QRM. Currently, all I have is an OCFD up about 25 ft.

 

Worked more stations on 15 in half hour than I have in the whole previous decade. We might have a Sun after all.

 

10 and 15 were surprisingly good though 10 was pretty much open only to central and south America. A few Carib and a few Pacific...but at least it was open both afternoons of the contest.

 

That’s awesome to hear, glad you’re having fun!

I agree, 20 and 40 were packed wall to wall with no room, and that first night it was a pain. I went to 15 that first night and made a killing. 40 didn’t open up for me until *late* into the night. My results were about the same as your as far as geographical breakout goes. I did snag a few Japan stations early on, and an Aussie today. Good fun for sure.

Jeff, KF5KWO
Near San Antonio, TX

 

I made my money on 15 for this contest.

 

This was my first serious attempt at a big contest and had a blast busting pileups and sleeping on a cot for two nights in a garage ham shack.

This contest proved to me that you do NOT have to have a big gun station to be competitive and have a respectable finish.

Our station consisted of an IC-7300, amplifier, multi band wire and a 160M vertical. Look up K4GIG for yourself and see where we finished. By no means is it a huge score but where we placed unofficially to me is impressive.

With the IC-7300 you have to learn that the attenuator is a valuable tool in crowded conditions and use it.

 

I didn't get to participate properly this year, due to a change in work schedule. Only participated for a few hours and managed to get 210 QSOs, 66 countries, and 63,000 points. I'll take that.

15m was an absolute blast. Best I have seen there in many years. Everyone was spread out enough so nobody was stepping on each other, and there was tons of room to pick your own freq. and start calling CQ. 10m lit up for a little bit on and off, but wasn't great at my QTH. Don't think I saw a signal over S5 or so.

 

I made contacts on every band except for 160 because I don't have an an antenna for that band. 20 meters was its usual jam packed, with lots of pushing and shoving. I did hear a few brave souls actually having a qso while havoc raged around them. They must have had great notch filters. 15 meters was a little less crowded but surprisingly open almost as long as 20. I found more elbow room there and made many contacts. Search and pounce was my most used method. I also made some contacts on 10 and yes mostly to South America. 40 meters was also very good with the big guns mostly in charge. The good thing about CQWW though is they will work even us little guys because they want the 3 points. I tried calling cq but I would mostly get people who clearly don't know the exchange, or weren't worth any points. So back to search and pounce it was. Overall, it was a blast and I had a great time!

 

Interesting. On my '7300 I played a lot with the Pass Band Tuning, but didn't use the attenuator.

 

Hey, you were my second contact, 13 minutes in on 20m. No points, but did give me the multiplier. Thanks!