CQWW CW 2012 - EI2KC claimed score!

I have just finished my participation in the CQWW CW contest 2012 and I have to report that it was fantastic for me. With just a 26-foot Butternut HF6V multiband vertical antenna, I managed to work 580 QSOs over the course of the weekend on 80 metres alone. I was participating as single band high power assisted on that band. I worked 65 DXCC and 15 zones. I think my zone count could have been a little bit better but I have no regrets with a claimed score of 60,560.

I just checked my log and it turns out I managed to work five new DXCC on 80m during the past 48 hours, bringing my total worked on that band to 123, so I am chuffed with that. I used the N1MM contest logging software and the interface is the CG Antenna SB-2000, which worked flawlessly.

The work I did on the Butternut on Friday paid off. The antenna can be made to resonate on any portion of the 80m band by sliding the 80m coil up and down. With a flat SWR of 1:1 the Acom managed 1,200 watts at one stage with 0 watts reflected.

Saturday evening was quiet on the band, but Sunday evening was a different story! As all the higher bands began to close, with the contest finishing at midnight, the multi band ops found their way down to the low bands, including 80m, where I had significant action at times. I ran a couple of pile-ups during the course of Sunday evening, and at one stage my rate was 88 QSOs per hour. Very nice, especially for this modest station in a small garden in the middle of a housing estate!

Anyway, I hope that those of you who participated enjoyed yourselves. It certainly was a great pleasure for me, and because 80m is generally poor during the day. I was able to spend some time with the family too!!

CQWW CQ - the story so far

Just a brief update about my participation on CQWW CW 2012. I am only taking part on 80 metres, with a view to increasing my DXCC worked/confirmed on that band. I am in the category 80m single op high power. I did search and pounce from midnight on Saturday morning for about two hours, and then a mixture of run station and search and pounce last night, on and off from about 5pm in the evening until 3.30am this morning.

My old Butternut, which is over 20 years old, was a bit grubby
so I cleaned around the capacitor assembly in advance of the
contest and it's working brilliantly.

At this moment in time, my totals are as follows (bearing in mind that I intend to return to the contest after dark this evening): QSOs: 329; Zones worked: 15; DXCC worked: 61. Total claimed score so far: 36,100.

The band is completely dead now. There's not a single signal to be heard on CW. That's how it was yesterday too, allowing me some time to do a bit of maintenance on the antenna. It is nicely resonant now, 1:1 where I need it, and I was able to get 1.2kW out yesterday with the Acom 1000 with only 1 watt returned!!

Some nice DXCC worked: P40F, PJ4A, HK1NA, J75Z, ZF1A, P40W, VP2V/AA7V, C5A, D4C. I may or may not enter a log. I didn't intend to enter the contest in a competitive capacity, rather just for enjoyment, and to get my DXCC count up on 80 metres. So we will see . . .