CQ WW DX CW contest 2019

No lack of action
The CQ WW DX  CW contest this weekend was the first contest as VE9KK unfortunately, most of Saturday and into the evening I was not feeling well at all. I gave the contest an off and on again effort during this time. Sunday was a very late start as I wanted to get my rest to get over this bug I had.  In summary, the weekend went as follows:
        Band     QSOs     Pts  ZN   Cty  Pt/Q
7 6 18 3 5 3.0
14 10 29 6 10 2.9
21 2 5 2 2 2.5
Total 18 52 11 17 2.9


Score: 1,456
I found Sunday to be a tough one my signal was just not being heard and I am guessing it was just the propagation? The few times I was on the radio on Saturday I had no issues making contacts. Some of the bonus things here at VE9KK were:
- The new Astron power supply worked just fine. 
- I was able to work Europe on 40m which never happened at the old QTH with the MFJ 1788 antenna. 
- Speaking of antennas it was a joy to use the End fed antenna, I was able to change bands without returning. The magloop I used for so long had to be re-tuned on the same band and for sure on band changes. 
- On Saturday (when I was on) I was able to get into Europe, Central America and South America without issue. 
During my time on Sunday during the contest I was greeted with an on screen message that N1MM+ stopped working as it was not able to communicate with com3. Com3 is my CAT control for the Icom 7610 and in a nutshell, this meant I was having RFI issues with one or more of my USB cables. I thought I had solved this issue already with snap on chokes?? I had a fast glance at the snap on chokes an noticed some had "un-snapped". I shut things down and spent well over an hour to fix the situation once and for all!! More on that later this week in another post. I restarted the rig and software and did a few tests and I was good to go, but the bands did not seem to want to co-operate. Having said that the bands sure were alive with opportunity. I heard nothing from the south pacific or Asia. Overall, I had a great time while in the chair at the radio and am looking forward to other CW contests. 



Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

3 Responses to “CQ WW DX CW contest 2019”

  • G3LHJ:

    Had a great time in the CQ WW CW over the W/E, my usual entry of QRP on 20m,
    condx’s here in the UK were good, although 20M was closing quite early in the evenings, my time in the chair was 8Hrs, total Q’s were 311, 56 Countries,
    17 Zones, 43,332 Points, did not hear anything from the Far East or OC.my main DX was into the North America’s, Caribbean & South America, but nil VE7,6,5 or 4,my Rig was a Elecraft K2 at 5W & a Moseley TA33Jr at 25ft.
    73 de Derrick G3LHJ.

  • Mike ve9kk:

    Good evening Derrick and thanks for the comment, I found conditions on the east coast here to be good but as you said 20m was closing early and it was here as well. You did amazing as a QRP entry in the contest and the K2 is a great radio. I have built 2 of them. My wife is from Yarm England and goes over every summer to visit here mam and other relatives. At 5 watts QRP and netting 311 contacts you did fantastic!! Derrick have a good week and maybe on the next CW contest we can make contact or on FT8 is you are on this mode?
    Thanks again for taking the time to comment,
    73
    Mike
    VE9KK

  • Derrick G3LHJ:

    Good evening Mike, yes I love my little K2, I only use it for Qrp working & it’s a CW only rig, I didn’t build it myself got it from a good friend of mine Chris G4BUE, he was changing to a K3, that was about 10 years ago hi.
    yes, also do quite a bit of FT8 operating, but my first love is always CW.
    OK your Xyl is from YARM, I had to look that one up hi, see it is up on the NE Coast near Middlesbrough, that’s about 400 miles from me down here on the SW coast, I’m about 25 miles SW of Exeter, S.Devon.
    Been into Ham Radio since 1946, at the age of 16, also with my Dad, he become licensed in 1949 as G3GDW, I did a lot of operating as a Jnr Op.
    did my National Service in the Royal Signals 1952 to 54, held ZC4LW when I was posted to Cyprus, was able to keep skeds with Dad at home, , in 1956 passed the RAE and was licensed as G3LHJ.
    enough of my rambling, hope to catch you on FT8 some time Mike.
    73 Take care Derrick G3LHJ (G3L).

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