CQ WPX RTTY Operating Report

Managed to work a few in the CQ WPX RTTY contest this weekend using a basic setup at home. The rules for the contest  can be found online and the exchange is 599 and sequential number.

Station Kenwood TS990 @ 30 to 200w.

Antenna 1 – Doublet Antenna 10m per leg @ 10m

Antenna 2 – 9m vertical roach pole with CG5000 Auto ATU at the base.

Antenna 3- Avanti Sigma 5/8 wave ground mounted vertical for 28 MHz

In total I worked 114 stations, mostly on 21 and 28 Mhz. It was nice to see the higher bands open with a good selection of stations worked from NA – 55, SA – 7, EU -43, AF – 4, AS – 8. The operating was search and pounce and ad hoc during  the weekend. I did hear Mexico and India but I was unable to work them on my wire antenna.

The amplifier is a solid state HAL1200 that will run up to 400w RTTY and is rated at 1.2KW.

The vertical antenna worked well using the auto ATU at the base, the CG5000 is rated at 800w PEP and 250w continuous, so being driven by the TS990 at 200w RTTY is no problem. I found the 9m roach pole would load quite well on 14 and 21 MHz, although the antenna length was not well suited for 28 MHz. The 5/8 wave vertical worked well on this band, and most stations I could hear was able to read me.

Here is a look at the 21 countries worked.

 

I did hear quite a few JA stations around 8am on 21 MHz.

Pleased to work V55V in Namibia and P40FA and P49X in Aruba.

In North America I was able to work   55 stations in 20 states.  West coast states included Arizona, and Nevada.

 

 

 

 

 

I used SH5 a contest log analyser  to create some KML files to view some of the QSO on a world map

 

73 Dave M0TAZ