When it comes to shortwave contests, it’s got to be the CQ WW DX Contest. For most radio amateurs, this contest is more than just a national holiday—they prepare for it all year long. Some travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers to remote corners of the world to compete with other radio amateurs for 48 hours.
Dočítate sa:
Why participate in the CQ WW DX Contest?
Winning the CQ WW DX Contest is considered a great achievement, but just as it’s not about winning the Olympics but about participating, we’ve decided to participate in the CQ WW Contest as well. Is an opponent with different equipment and a different location an equal opponent? No. So we’ll only be comparing ourselves to ourselves and finding out what our abilities and skills are.
Since we finished building the vertical antenna shortly before the contest (for the 80-meter band only so far), our setup was improved, and we were curious to see if the new antenna would prove itself.
OM4Q Operators
Since there isn’t much interest in SSB contests in our radio club, we gathered as a small team: Mojo OM6MW, Vilo OM0AAO, and Rudo OM4TQ. Just like last year at OM4Q.
We started the contest later than planned because Mojo OM6MW didn’t respond to our repeated wake-up calls. We broke our rule and let him sleep in, and after that, it was impossible to wake him up. It should be noted that he had warned us about this in advance, so we only have ourselves to blame. Therefore, we started the contest about 30 minutes late.
Since I was plagued by health issues throughout the contest—which also significantly affected my voice—a real handicap in SSB contests—the start of the contest wasn’t very fast. I focused more on “search and pounce” than on calling out my call sign. While this method isn’t as fast as calling out my call sign, it allows me to select stations strategically—specifically those that are high-scoring and, if possible, multipliers.
Live Scores and Analysis of the CQ WW DX Contest
From the comparison on CQcontest.net, you can see that while we’re trailing OZ0TX in the number of contacts, our scores evened out by this morning. Later, OZ0TX pulled ahead of us, which is due to a much better result on the 40-meter band. The live score showed that SN7H was also hot on our heels. They even overtook us on Sunday when we slowed down. However, it was clear that we couldn’t match them on the 20-meter band. While our number of contacts on this band stopped at 459, SN7H made 961 contacts there. An excellent result!
Comparison of OM4Q / SN7H / OZ0TX scores in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest
Comparison of OM4Q / SN7H / OZ0TX contacts in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest
Comparison of multipliers for OM4Q / SN7H / OZ0TX in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest
Vertical Antenna vs. Inverted-V Antenna
The new vertical antenna performed excellently. Surprisingly, this antenna is stronger for receiving than the inverted V. This morning I even double-checked to make sure the antenna switch wasn’t wired backwards, but I was assured that it wasn’t. So we’ll probably have to take a closer look at the antennas.
Potential Areas for Improvement in Contesting
We didn’t catch the opening of the 10-meter band during the day, so those 9 contacts after the first day are more the result of tropospheric propagation via ground waves than an actual opening. The 15-meter band closed relatively early, as did the 20-meter band.
Since last year—which marked exactly 10 years since my first CQ WW contest, back when I was on the MW5W team—we took a more social approach and focused on visiting other stations, it seems we’re trying harder this year. Here’s how the score progressed in 2017:
CQ WW SSB DX Contest OM4Q Score by the Hour
Mojo OM6MW handled the bulk of the transmitting during the evening and night from Saturday to Sunday, with Rudo OM4TQ assisting. When I took over, there were nearly 1,200 contacts in the log. The strongest segment was between 21:00 and 22:00 UT, when they logged 125 contacts (4 multipliers, 130 points).
Comparison of OM4Q and SN7H in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest by band
Comparison of OM4Q and OZ0TX in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest by band
In the morning, Jožko OM4AQ arrived for a consultation and check. As a result, transmissions were suspended for a while, and SN7H caught up in points.
Later, Majo OM6MW managed to catch an opening on 10m, bringing our score on this band to 78 contacts and 33 multipliers. I, in turn, managed to catch an opening on 20m toward NA, where a large number of stations called in during the call sign call. During that hour, our score increased by 106,000 points—the largest gain of the entire contest.
Toward the end of the contest, we took turns operating more frequently. In the penultimate hour, I also managed to trigger a pile-up of EU stations on 80m with a call, and this hour was the fourth most successful in the contest in terms of the number of contacts.
Of course, the contest plays out differently in years when the solar flux is higher. However, according to https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/solar-cycle-24-status-and-solar-cycle-25-upcoming-forecast, we’re relatively low with an SFI of 69, which is reflected in the results of all stations.
OM4Q’s score progression by the hour in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest
OM4Q’s QSO rate progression by the hour in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest
OM4Q’s hourly point gain in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest
OM4Q’s hourly multiplier gain in the 2018 CQ WW DX SSB Contest
In the end, our score stood at 2,005 contacts and 1,618,432 points. Compared to 2017, we improved our score by 54% and our number of contacts by 58%. Thank you all for a great experience, and we look forward to seeing you in future contests as OM4Q and OM0A!
