I had no intention of making a serious effort in this year's CQWW CW contest, held this past weekend. I had some other commitments, so was not going to be able to sit at a radio all weekend.
However, on Saturday morning, seeing that band conditions were good on 10 metres (28Mhz), I decided to "dip my toe" in the contest and perhaps give out a few points.
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| A map of the DXCC worked during CQWW CW 2025 on 10 metres. |
However, having chosen a "run" frequency, I was quickly inundated, and in the first hour of what I thought might be "casual" operating, I had 124 QSOs in the log!
I was using my Yaesu FTdx10 transceiver, which demonstrates excellent selectivity and sensitivity and seems a great contesting rig. The antenna was my trusty Antron-99 vertical, which has been in use at this QTH since 2009.
Having logged 300 QSOs after a few hours of part-time operation, I decided to do some "search and pounce". I nabbed some nice DX, including VK6T in Western Australia, and later VR2CO (Hong Kong), BG0DLA and BA8AG in China, VU2TMP in India, 7A0F in Indonesia, AH2R in Guam, JS6TSE in Japan and 9M6NA in East Malaysia.
By Sunday, I could see that my DXCC total was over 80 countries, so I made it my mission to work 100 DXCC by the end of the contest, through a combination of running and S&P. A great surprise when running on Sunday morning was to be called by TZ4AM, giving me a new country and zone. There was some nice African DX to be worked too, including TL8GD, 9J2FI and TY5FR. Also logged were 3B8M, 3B9KW, XW4KV and 5J0EA.
At 16:44 UTC on Sunday, I logged XE1CT for my 100th country, and a new zone. I was thrilled. By the time the 10m band closed at around 6pm Sunday, I had logged two more "new ones", VP9I in Bermuda and CE0Y in Easter Island.
Total QSO count: 585
CQ Zones: 31
DXCC: 102
Claimed score: 145,901.
