Contesters from all around the world anxiously await the last weekend in October as they prepare for the CQ World Wide DX (SSB) Contest. This is a contest that rewards operators or teams that make long distance (DX) contacts. The objective is to reach as many of the CQ zones (https://www.dxzone.com/dx29097/cq-zones-map.jpg) in as many different countries as possible. Scoring is calculated by the number of contacts x (# of CQ Zones + # of Countries). The contest runs on 6 bands (160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m). This year we had multiple operators running a single radio on high power.
Conditions were good and our team was ready for the start. At the contest opening we were hearing signals from all over Europe on the 20m and 15m bands. Getting into the rhythm of the contest, log files were growing as contacts piled up. Eventually the best hunting swung to South America and the Caribbean. Conditions continued to be favorable for 15m and 20m as the day wore on. Signals were tightly packed across the band making Search and Pounce a good method for bagging contacts and multipliers. When operators could find an un-claimed piece of spectrum Running yielded good results with recurring pile-ups.
We logged 615 QSOs and made contact with 87 countries. Not a record for number of QSOs, but a solid effort from the team. Our longest distance contact was with YB3KM in Indonesia a whopping 13,143 km. Now that’s DX!
Summary by Doug Jeffery VA7JDJ