A Successful CQWW CW 2024 for BARC Members
The CQ WW is the largest Amateur Radio competition in the world. Over 35,000 participants take to the airwaves on the last weekend of October (SSB) and November (CW) with the goal of making as many contacts with as many different DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible.
Several BARC Members entered the CW Section this year, Dave G3YMC, Mike G4DDL and Gopan M0XUU with Paul G4HLF also returning to CW after many years. Below are their accounts of the weekend, some of the operating technics they used and changes in propagation noticed during the event.
A fun weekend – Dave G3YMC
Well that was fun. Me, Mike G4DDL, Gopan M0XUU and Paul G4HLF took part in the CQWW CW contest which was running on the HF bands. Here using as usual my FT710 set to 5W and a low Long Wire in the QRP section.
Plenty of activity but found, maybe as a result of the sun going through a temporary quiet phase, conditions not as good as they might have been. A smattering of DX, a couple of BY stations on 10m and 15m, the odd JA but nothing from VK/ZL. Rather surprisingly I didn’t work the USA on 20m until Sunday morning, but plenty on the other bands, even 80m brought in a few. The Caribean and 3B8 from the Indian ocean added to the total, surprising nothing from Africa other than the universal CT3/EA8/D4.
| Band | QSOs | Pts | ZN | Cty | Pt/Q |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0.8 |
| 3.5 | 78 | 89 | 6 | 28 | 1.1 |
| 7 | 150 | 207 | 12 | 44 | 1.4 |
| 14 | 175 | 205 | 12 | 44 | 1.2 |
| 21 | 150 | 194 | 12 | 39 | 1.3 |
| 28 | 150 | 1012 | 61 | 1 | 98 |
| Score | 262,108 |
You will notice the round number of QSOs on the bands. I tend to operate in blocks of 25 QSOs on a band them move to another band which works well with my usual 30 QSOs per hour or so. Work up the bands in the morning as they open then move back down again, means no band gets ignored and doing this is a sort of mini target to aim for. But guess this is a unique ‘YMC feature….
I never seem to reach the 1000 QSO total but a total of 72 DXCC countries was more than I normally work. I finished early on Sunday evening when I had worked 40m out, 80m was hard work with my antenna, 20m was dying and don’t even think of Top Band, 29 hours in the seat according to N1MM so I don’t qualify to enter in the ‘classic’ 24 hour section.
73 Dave G3YMC
A good start that improved further over the weekend – Mike G4DDL
I also took part in CQWW CW, see below for QSO numbers. No round numbers of QSOs for me, I just start at one end of the band and work through to the opposite end and then change band. Like Dave I try to make sure I cover all bands but like him my antenna is poor on 160m.
I started well at 05:00 Saturday and had 300 QSOs before breakfast but then things slowed a bit.. I struggled on both 20m and 10m and could not work some stations that should normally be easy. Things picked up on Sunday with all bands better but on day 2 S&P means wading through all the people you worked Saturday to find some new ones. I worked VK, VR2, ZD7, JA, KL7 (Alaksa), OX, VP2E,VP5, VP9 all single stations worked once plus all the usual suspects many times. With Low power and indifferent antennas I can’t usually “Run” in this contest but had a couple of short runs here and there.
On Sunday the highlight was a run into USA on 15m with 20+ stations calling me in about 15 minutes many on the West coast California, Oeregon and Washington plus others elsewhere.
Not my best score as I was down on multipliers for some reason. 79 countries worked, 30 CQ zones. Good CW practice as my CW reader that I use as back up is not very good but it recorded many stations at 35 wpm and CR6K at 42 wpm!!! I managed 23.5 hours of operation to meet the CLASSIC entry requirements withseveral 1 hour plus breaks taken. In classic no internet access to clusters or Telnet is allowed and no broadband CW readers allowed (CW skimmers)
Lots of fun except when I was struggling on Sat pm! Some of my best rates seen for the weekend were:
180 per hour for best minute (silly really)
90 per hour for best 10 minutes (achieved several times)
60 for best hour (several times) overall rate for 23.5 hours was 39 per hour.
As mentioned mostly Search and Pounce but a few shortish runs too.
73 Mike G4DDL
“I was on 10m at that time, around 4pm, and found similar. Loads of USA
and a smattering of South America with the Europeans having faded out.
As the sun moved over I found the east coast stations had problems
copying me and the west coast ones in zone 3 came back first call! Then
down to 20m where I was surprised when the KL7 came back to me first
call and a JA added to the mix as well. Great stuff”. Dave G3YMC
A really enjoyable weeknd of contesting – Gopan M0XUU
As already commented by Dave and Mike, the CQWW CW was fun and i really enjoyed this one.
I think there is a limit on how many antennas one can put up in a city lot ! As always, I had a 2 band half-wave vertical up (15/10) with the idea of getting on both bands (with tuner on 10M). My main antenna was a doublet for 40/80 but very inefficient on 160 (still i managed to work few). For 20M i got a modified Moxon in the loft, fixed towards America.
I started from 0:00 Z on Saturday morning and continued till 4AM, and then i had a schedule which was followed for the weekend. It was a mix of both “S&P” and “Run”.
As you can see below, 40 & 80 were the better ones for me. 160 was a stuggle, i worked many stations on Sunday morning and only because others had better receive setup 🙂 20/15 were decent with both “S&P” and “RUN”.
10M was quite active on Sunday afternoon when i checked but i was not happy with the response and i felt it was because i was using the tuner in the radio. I decided to convert the 15/10 Vertical into just a single band so i get a better match on 10M (hoping to get 100+ on 10meters). So I went out in the rain (but it was warm) and changed the vertical to get a 1:1 match on 10 meters. Unfortunatly it was bit too late as the band closed soon.
Managed to work some difficult ones ZL, JA, VK, LU, UN, JT etc. Not sure if its just my antennas but mainland Africa was missing for me.
On Sunday evening, I got a ping from Paul G4HLF asking if we could have a contact on CW and we agreed to meet later that night. We had a contact on both 40 and 80 and from his messages, i can see we will have one more CW op on the way – So welcome Paul, looking forward for some CW qsos.
I will be always looking to improve my antennas (but no beams – only wires) or convince my wife to move house where i can put many antennas (we know how this will end).
73s and Good Luck everyone – Gopan M0XUU
Update – Raw Scores
The raw scores of last week’s CQWW contest have now been published.
https://cqww.com/raw.htm?mode=cw
These are before log checking but are a pretty good indication of the final postions.
Club entries are as follows:
- Dave G3YMCÂ QRP unassisted –Â 262,108 1st G (by a huge margin), 11th EU, 24th world
- Mike G4DDL Low power unassisted – 520,144 4th G, 53rd EU, 127 world
- Gopan M0XUU Low power assisted – 829,312 4th G, 96th EU, 177 world
Well done to all.
73 Dave G3YMC
