CQWW-Recap

[WB7X]

What an event.

10m gods were smiling. Made about 325 contacts with about a guesstimate of about 80% on 10m. Most of the rest on 15m.

I just crawled up and down the band, contacts all the way up to about 29MHz.

Of all the contacts, I would say less than 25 were stateside.

All of this with the IC7K/AH-4/S9V-31 at 100w. This event I didn't miss the Alpha.

Hopefully all of these DX guys use LOTW. :)

Guys, get on HF.


EDIT: I see why this one heard me. http://cn2r.net/cn2r/index.aspx

[W6SDM]

I am with Bill. That goat that I sacrificed to the 10 meter propagation gods was received with favor. I haven't seen 10 that active since the 1960s. I was torn between going on the Mingus run or working this contest. As it turns out, I had to stay close to the land line this weekend so that decision was made for me. I didn't play to win and probably won't submit a log other that LotW, but here is how I did:

Operating the Flex 3000 SO1R with 500 Watts, PEP.
Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, & 10
Total time operating: 18 hours
Contacts Made: 398
Unique DXCC entities worked: 75
New to me: Ceuta and Melilla, Ivory Coast, & Vietnam

And, yeah, I worked CN2R on a couple of bands. Every time the XYL complains about my antenna farm, I show her his and what I *could* be putting up. I wonder what that guy does for a living. Probably king or something.

[WB7X]

When I logged into eQSL, I see they now have an agreement with CQ to use their service for the CQ awards. All but one can be done online.

That was interesting.

I'm not submitting for the event, but always do eQSL and LoTW.

I heard a couple of chinamen but they couldn't hear.

I think there is an ARRL event late in NOV.

[W6SDM]

Okay, I typed a whole message, went to post it, and -poof- it went away. Just like that. Let's see if I can remember what I said. That's getting harder and harder to do at my age. :)

Thanks for the info on the CQ awards - that makes it worth another visit to eQSL. I just checked in and I have 260 cards waiting for me - I haven't been there in a month or so. I think I might spend a few bucks, upgrade my membership, and see if I have any awards coming.

eQSL is a great service for those who use it. I wish they would upgrade their web interface - it looks like something from the early 1990s. The other issue I have is that eQSL is owned by one person. If anything happened to him either personally or financially, one could be left holding the bag on awards. Some of the awards take years to achieve. Nevertheless, while the eAwards don't interest me, the CQ awards do. Nothing, however, rivals the prestige of the DXCC, which has been around over 70 years.

[WB7X]

eQSL and LoTW both serve valid, distinct, separate purposes.

LoTW as you have written is the cat's meow for ARRL, and now some other, awards. The fees are super reasonable and the obvious efficiency on not dealing with various postal services is a big plus. Most folks don't get that LoTW is NOT a QSL service.

eQSL is an equally great service for those that enjoy receiving a "card" for a contact. While a lot of the eQSL cards are canned from the available choices, if one takes the time to upload a personal picture, you can have a very nice card. (I'm remiss there also).

Also some of the organizations like 10-10 etc accept the eQSLs for their awards. That is a big plus for members of those organizations.

I have already received some nice "personalized" card from the CQWW. Printed or not, it is a nice touch.

Times being what they are, I'm not interested in cards or awards that I have to spend vast amounts of money on. I will still mail a card if one is received, but I'm not going to pay to keep a DX station living a good life on a tropical island. :cool:

BTW, this isn't really for you Steve as I know you know all of this. More for those lurking that may have been propagandized on the whole eQSL vs LoTW thing.

ETA: I feel your pain. I have typed entire TECH articles and had them go Twilight Zone when the submit button was hit. I now right elsewhere and cut/copy/paste. I'm thinking it's a time-out thing??

[W6SDM]

You speak the truth, my friend. LotW are as different as Tigers and Elephants. If you look through the thread I started on eHam, you can see how many people don't really understand that - and some have been around for decades.

I did make up a custom card for eQSL. What I do with the nicer ones that I receive on there is do a screen capture of the card, save it as a jpg, then display it on my digital frame in the shack. This thing rotates through a couple of hundred cards and it's a nice effect.

[KE7KUS]

So there I was, Saturday morning attempting to break through the pileup which was hovering around E51Z. I kept calling, but knew I was competing with some pretty heavy hitters. My ground mounted vertical with 100W just couldn't top some of the "Big Guns" out prowling the airwaves. I figured I'd sit out a call or two and let the high-powered hams score their contacts and maybe I'd pick up some crumbs off the table when their reflexes on the foot switch were no match for my fingers on an old-fashioned hand-held mic. Sure enough...I found out that my setup was indeed no match for an Icom 7000 coupled to an S9 31' vertical, especially when operated by none other than the intrepid WB7X, who deftly beat me out and scored the contact. After a few more tries, I gave up, but picked up E51Z later that evening as 10m was closing down.

All in all, I knew I was outgunned for the contest, but in the week leading up to the feeding frenzy, I found myself able to work a number of stations who were setting up their "mini-DXpeditions" and were simply on the air looking for signal reports and putting the gear through the paces prior to the "Big One." In the three days leading up to the contest, I put the following new ones in the log: FP, PJ5, TX7, E51, and 9M6. Most of those were either 10m or 15m, and I also found 10m to be as wide open as the Treasury Department's checkbook. Never having seen 10m open like that before, I now understand the rave about 10 "when it's open"...pretty amazing. I'm really looking forward to the CQWW CW Contest November 26th & 27th!

[WB7X]

Kurt, you're a card! Jolly Joker. :)

I guess size doesn't matter after all.

My overall method was to go up to the top end of 10m and slowly work down. A lot of activity up high.

I play with the pileups a few times but then tune off and work the S5 guys that are being ignored, usually first call. Heck, I was working stations with on meter reading even with the preamp on. Great band.

Anyway, I'd work down the band, go to 15m up the band, rinse and repeat to see if the propagation had changed. The neat thing was there seemed to be a whole new group of stations on Sunday, except for the big guns of course.

And you're right, the "pre event" stations were working pretty heavily Friday and got a bunch.

[W6SDM]

Ah, got him on 2241 10/30 UTC. That was a new South Cook for me. There are two other guys that work from there and are pretty easy to get most weekends.

Kurt - the trick when you're running barefoot is to get your XYL on the mic. The DX will ALWAYS come back to you. :)