Report on the CQ WPX CW 2015 Contest

Update 02/01/2016: Well, the final results are out! I am happy to report that I managed to capture #1 South Africa, #1 Africa and #2 World in the category I entered. As it turned out my decision to use 10m was a good one and chasing multipliers rather than lots of QSO's also work. I think I can safely say that my contest strategy is working!

You can see the certificate below.

I am quite happy with the result!

Contest Report:

Having competed in the SSB leg of this contest earlier this year I decided to give the CW leg a go as well. The plan was not so much to have a really competitive score, I knew that was not feasible due to my back problem that prevents me from sitting for long periods, but I thought I would have some fun and maybe collect a new QRP entity or two. I also realized that I would not be able to take my usual “Monday off after the contest” due to work pressure so that would rule out working the contest till 2am local time.

The few days before the contest started showed me that conditions were not great on 10m, I was hoping for a 10m single band entry, so the decision was made to give 15m a try. I also planned to look around the other bands when 15m was closed for a few new ones. This turned out to be good strategy.

Equipment selection was not easy, my initial thought was to use one of my large Yaesu's simply because I know them so well and I have 100% confidence in them. But since there was a new toy in the shack, one I was really impressed with, I decided to give the Yaesu FT-991 it's first real test. Using it during a large contest would sure prove if the receiver was good enough and it would also prove how robust the radio is working hard for such a long period.

Having fun with the superb little FT-991

The Friday night before the contest I managed to get to bed by 10pm, not a bad “start”!

30/05/2015: Day one. Having decided that it was not worth being up at 2am for the contest start, the higher bands are all closed at that time this time of the year, I only woke up at about 3am (01h00 UTC) and I was in the shack and operating by 01h30 UTC. Even this proved to be too early with only a few weak stations being heard on 40m with all the other bands quiet. Since it was quite cold I headed back to bed for another hour after only managing to work 2 stations on 40m despite considerable effort. QRP on 40m when signals are weak is not easy....

I was up again by 03h00 UTC, signals were a bit better on 40m and I managed to work a few more stations but the going was slow. Eventually I had worked all the stations I could hear so I QSY'ed to 20m where there was a bit of life as well. 15M was still dead quiet.

It was still not easy on 20m with signals being very low. At one point I was wondering if maybe it was the radio so I quickly moved the antenna to the FTdx-5000MP, no difference at all convinced me that the 991 has a great little receiver.

During the next 1.5 hours 20m produced only about 20 contacts, I then had a quick listen on 15m and there was life! A quick QSY and now the real contest was on! Signals were low but I managed to work a few stations before my back was so painful I decided to take a shower and breakfast break.

After a good breakfast I was back in the shack and the signals on 15m were stronger. Since I was running QRP (about 4.6W on 15m according to the meter) I knew I had no chance of calling CQ and holding a frequency even if anyone heard me so the name of the game was search and pounce. Not a good way to have QSO rates but fun as it allows you to pick interesting calls to work.

As the day progressed 15m got better and better but my back got worse so I ended up working 1 hour and taking an hour off to go rest. At this point I wished I had already moved a radio into the bedroom with an cable extension for the antenna. But it was too late now for that...

I managed to get the hourly rate up a few times with the highest rate the first day being 43. There were a few smaller bursts as well but the totals climbed slowly. The interesting fact was that my multipliers, in this case the unique prefixes, were almost equal to my total QSO's! I suppose this was due to the fact that I was picking interesting calls during my S&P operation.

The one thing I noticed was that I heard on a few US stations and I worked even less. Normally the late afternoon produces lots of US contacts on the short path. I am not sure if it was simply conditions or that none of the US stations pointed their antennas further south. The US stations I could hear were all working strings of EU and some JA stations. Well, maybe tomorrow would be better.

15m started closing soon after sundown so I moved to 20m for a few more contacts, after that a few more on 40m but by 8pm local time (18h00 UTC) my rates were so low that I called it a day. At this point my totals were quite low, but that was to be expected with all the time I lost resting my back.

At least I could go to bed early for a good nights rest. I also decide to get up even later the next morning.

31/05/2015: It was really cold this morning but a heater in the shack soon sorted that out. By the time I was up and running around 03h00 UTC there was some life on 40m and I managed to work a few more stations before moving up to 20m just after dawn. 20m produced some good signals and I was having fun. After my shower and breakfast break I had a listen on 15m and I could hear many stations! Seemed like 15m opened a bit earlier than the day before!

Even though I could hear many stations, mostly from EU, I found it extremely difficult to work them as they could simply not hear me. But I suppose I should be used to this, my little QRP signal from the South when everyone is pointing east or west combined with huge local signals in EU does not make it easy for them to hear my weak signal.

As the day progressed, with my now normal hour on hour off schedule, the totals slowly edge up and as the day heated up signals got stronger and rates climbed. Soon I was back to the point where I could work most stations with only a few calls. The one thing though that kept my rates lower than yesterday was the simple fact that I had worked most stations I could hear! This caused the rates to drop again and I ended up making my breaks longer, when the 10 minute rate dropped below about 5 I would stop and wait for an hour or so before returning with the hope that there would be some new stations to work.

At least this strategy allowed for a nice Sunday lunch complete with wine with the SW, not something that usually happens during a contest weekend. She also kept me supplied with coffee and snacks the rest of the day, I cannot ask for any better support!

During late afternoon I did manage to work a few US and Canadian stations, better than yesterday bust still not many even though a few gave me “big signal” reports. I missed the fun of a nice NA pile-up or two.....

By late afternoon I was setting myself simple targets, 300 QSO's total and 200 on 15m, not competitive totals but I was happy to settle for what I could get. Eventually I made it, but only just as 15m closed earlier than yesterday and I simply did not have the energy to go and work more stations on other bands as my back was killing me by now. I cannot wait for the operation that would hopefully sort out my back so that I can run a full 48 hour contest again like in the past!

My log is sent in, was easy, export to Cabrillo and upload. Now the wait starts to see the results but that would most likely only be in 10 months or so. Before then I will get an idea of how I did by looking at claimed scores on the internet but you never know, not everyone posts claimed scores.

All my equipment worked 100%, the antenna gave me quite a few “big signal” report and the little FT-991 behaved perfectly. The receiver never had any problems even when 15m was crowded with strong signals. Not even once did I wish I had used another radio, well done Yeasu, you have set the standard again for smaller radios!

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