Last weekend of October means one thing: CQ World Wide DX SSB. This year I took part from Pantelleria Island (IOTA AF-018) as IH9/OK1M, CQ Zone 33, African Italy, a separate country multiplier in CQ WW. Category: Single Operator All Band Assisted, Low Power (SO(A) AB LP).
This was my first real all-band single-op effort in a contest of this size, and it was a tough one. Running 100 W is sometimes pretty frustrating during the contest, when the big guns are calling over you and you feel like shouting into a wall. But in the end it works. Most of the multipliers came through, and even with low power you can get some interesting results. I still feel like I learn something new every hour I spend in the chair.
Claimed result
| Band | QSOs | DXCC | Zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 160 m | 64 | 29 | 6 |
| 80 m | 447 | 57 | 13 |
| 40 m | 196 | 54 | 14 |
| 20 m | 638 | 87 | 20 |
| 15 m | 757 | 99 | 30 |
| 10 m | 478 | 89 | 29 |
| Total | 2580 | 415 | 112 |
Operating time 45:45 hours, 2,261 QSOs in run and 331 in search & pounce. The best rates came on Saturday morning on 15 and 10 m (around 180 QSOs per hour), and 80 m turned out to be a very good band in the evenings and at night with 447 QSOs. 160 m was the hardest one: the Italian allocation is only 1830–1850 kHz, so SSB really fits into just a few kHz.
Station
The station was very simple but fully functional:
- Icom IC-7610 (100 W) + DXLog
- 7-element multiband Yagi for 20/15/10 m at 12 m – more about the antenna
- Verticals for 160, 80 and 40 m
- RX Beverage pointing north
I already have a list of ideas for what to improve next time.
Thank you
Thanks to everyone who called and had the patience to dig me out of the noise! And sorry for the slightly complicated call. IH9/OK1M is a mouthful on SSB, and one station even flatly refused to go through the intellectual effort of logging such a long callsign. Fair enough, I guess. 🙂
Huge admiration, respect and congratulations to everyone ahead of me in the results, and thanks to those behind me for keeping it fun. Thanks to all for the points and QSOs. I hope the IH9 multiplier on every band made a few people happy!
📸 Full photo gallery: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZTs4rWBUVj3xyqVY8
73 de IH9/OK1M
