So this contest just went badly for me. With the ongoing COVID-19 situation I decided to enter from home, knowing that it would be a struggle with my very modest station.
In both 2018 and 2019 I operated from big stations in Maryland and it was a great contest, but this time even though the SFI was up I found it a real struggle to work Europe. The Caribbean was loud but had huge pileups and some stations in Africa were loud, but they were small in number and my antennas were hearing more continental USA than anything else.
As it happens I stuck to 15m in the most part, and it was nice to see 15m open. I did work a few European countries in some small runs. Other than that I swept around on 10m to work some new countries there and also did the same on 20m.
In total I worked 6 all time new DXCCs and quite a number of new band slots. Here is the raw output from N1MM+ for all bands.
Band QSOs Pts ZN Cty Pt/Q 14 10 26 6 10 2.6 21 65 176 15 36 2.7 28 10 28 8 10 2.8 Total 85 230 29 56 2.7 Score: 19,550 1 Mult = 1.0 Q's
As I’d made a mistake and not read the rules I was running 150W, thinking that was still low power I had to enter the SO(A) SB15 HP category. D’OH!
Here’s the final entry:
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2020 Call: AD5XI Operator(s): AD5XI Station: AD5XI Class: SO(A)SB15 HP Operating Time (hrs): 6 Summary: Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 80: 40: 20: 15: 65 15 36 10: ------------------------------ Total: 65 15 36 Total Score = 3,315 Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
This is normally a contest I really get stuck in to, but motivation was lacking and I just didn’t get serious. With this sort of station it’s a much better experience from the UK as there are many more ‘local’ QSOs available, albeit for fewer points.
On the plus side I bumped into some good friends and worked some nice new DX, like ZD7, 5T3 and 9G5 all on 10m! Who thought that would happen in 2020…