ARRL Inter. DX Contest, SSB

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The international DX contest was this weekend March 5th and 6th.  The contest is designed to encourage W/VE stations to expand knowledge of DX propagation on the HF and MF bands, improve operating skills, and improve station capability by creating a competition in which DX stations may only contact W/VE stations. 

I started Saturday morning using my relatively new ZS6BKW antenna.   It lived up to its reputation as a modified G5RV.  Optimized or not, I struggled to make any contacts.  I could hear plenty of DX but most stations couldn't hear me.  I completed 1 QSO on 80, 1 on 40, and a few more on 20 before giving up for the day with 12 QSOs logged.  I fired up the amp but that didn't make much difference.   

On Sunday I switched over to my Wolf River Coil and manually tuned the antenna for each band using the wonderfully "Made in Ukraine" RigExpert AA55 Zoom antenna analyzer.   The WRC is easy to tune for 10, 15 and 20 meters using an antenna analyzer to find the resonant point for each band.    

I used the Mercury IIIS amplifier for the rest of the contest, transmitting about 500 watts based on the power rating for the WRC Silver Bullet Platinum 1000. The bands "came alive" with the WRC and I finished the day with 84 contacts including a Hawaii and Alaska.  

Contest Summary:  
Raw Score: 246 Qpts x 63 Mults = 15,498 Total Points.  
Total DX Miles (QSOs in USA not counted) = 217,261
 Average miles per DX QSO = 2,586
5 Continents, 36 Countries

QSO Propagation Map by Band:











Solar Cycle 25 Conditions 











73, Chris de WX7V




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