These guys are getting better and better each year ... they have reduced the log-processing time of one of the major worldwide amateur radio contests in just under 5 months, while a few years before we were waiting impatiently for the CQ magazine to come out just before the respective contest, in order to find out our last year's participation ranking and final scores.
Lots of interesting results this time for the 2013 CQ WPX SSB Contest. Many new Country records and great scores overall by experienced and non-experienced participants. The battle between WW & WPX still holds well, still my personal opinion is that WPX is much more demanding and needs much more sophisticated stragegy and planning. Moreover, the 36-hour limit for Single OPs is an added value for this contest, since the off-periods should always be well planned and depend on many factors, such as current score, current mult total, propagation parameters. I.e. you are more likely to achieve a better result when your off-periods allow for retaining your stamina during the 2nd half of the participation as well as they allow you to plan working S&P for far away mults, that are only going to be available for a very short period and maybe LP (for my case, specific Pacific station from z31 and z32, KL7 and West Coasters).
This year, I decided to devote to a low-band, mostly due to other important obligations during the daytime, so 80m sounded a great choice, both for testing my new low band antenna and also try to work a few new ones (I did !!).
I used my FT-2K barefoot at about 95w and the aerial was an Inv-L totalling 27,5m in length, fed by my antenna coupler and aided by 48 random length radials lying on the rooftop. Total participation time was 21,5 hours. With the help of DX Cluster and low noise due to low humidity, I got my best ever result on 80m in a major scale contest. Station performed flawlessly, Muprhy had a few days-off and all these led to a score reduction of just 3,9% and only 9 QSOs out of 719 were cancelled.
And here is the pay-off:
This was my first worldwide victory in any of the WW & WPX contests, so this certificate of merit made me very proud.
Current station setup is being re-tested, aligned and maintained so it will be ready for October's WW SSB contest. Category of participation will be decided literally before the start and will depend upon other matters to be taken care of.
CU there anyway !!
2013 CQ WPX SSB results are already published here: http://www.cqwpx.com/results.htm
Lots of interesting results this time for the 2013 CQ WPX SSB Contest. Many new Country records and great scores overall by experienced and non-experienced participants. The battle between WW & WPX still holds well, still my personal opinion is that WPX is much more demanding and needs much more sophisticated stragegy and planning. Moreover, the 36-hour limit for Single OPs is an added value for this contest, since the off-periods should always be well planned and depend on many factors, such as current score, current mult total, propagation parameters. I.e. you are more likely to achieve a better result when your off-periods allow for retaining your stamina during the 2nd half of the participation as well as they allow you to plan working S&P for far away mults, that are only going to be available for a very short period and maybe LP (for my case, specific Pacific station from z31 and z32, KL7 and West Coasters).
This year, I decided to devote to a low-band, mostly due to other important obligations during the daytime, so 80m sounded a great choice, both for testing my new low band antenna and also try to work a few new ones (I did !!).
I used my FT-2K barefoot at about 95w and the aerial was an Inv-L totalling 27,5m in length, fed by my antenna coupler and aided by 48 random length radials lying on the rooftop. Total participation time was 21,5 hours. With the help of DX Cluster and low noise due to low humidity, I got my best ever result on 80m in a major scale contest. Station performed flawlessly, Muprhy had a few days-off and all these led to a score reduction of just 3,9% and only 9 QSOs out of 719 were cancelled.
And here is the pay-off:
Current station setup is being re-tested, aligned and maintained so it will be ready for October's WW SSB contest. Category of participation will be decided literally before the start and will depend upon other matters to be taken care of.
CU there anyway !!
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