CQ WPX SSB Contest

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I had a decent showing for the weekend’s annual WPX (Worked All Prefix) SSB contest.  The WPX Contest is sponsored by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes and is held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW).  Tthe contest draws thousands of entries from around the world.

I worked off and on Saturday and Sunday, even though the SN was only about 48.  My overall claimed score was over 98k points - a new personal record for me - and I was one contact shy of 100k.  The longer you work, the faster your score racks up!

This was the first contest where I was able to use diversity receive feature on my FlexRadio 6600.  RXA input was connected to the new “Loop on the Ground” receive-only antenna I installed especially for this event.  The dipole was connected to ANT1,  which was also for transmit.  I used the Mercury IIIs amp on Saturday but ran barefoot on Sunday - 100W into an OCF dipole.

The exchange is call sign, signal report and serial number.   I used the ACLOG WPX contest logger with FlexAPI for spots integration during the event.  DX spotting enabled, for with filtering for the target frequency only.  Band changes are limited just like Power based on the contest entry level.

I was very pleased with the results, but admit I had much more success with the lakehouse than at the home QTH, even with the diversity receive.   Multiple SSB contacts to Hawaii and Alaska which are rare.  I worked 248 contacts, 47 countries and racked up over 476k DX miles.

Given the Ukrainian crisis, there were no Russian stations to be worked during the contest.  Propagation was great, but I only heard 1 or 2 Russian stations over the weekend anyway.   I do believe the contest rules stated that no points would we awarded for contacts made with Russian stations during the contest.

Several new DX contacts were completed including Australia, Norfolk Island,  Marshall Islands, French Guiana, Suriname, Canary Islands, Bonaire, Saba, St Eustatius, Aruba, Portugal, Cape Verde, and Ireland. 

Here’s map of my QSO contacts made during the contest.   73, de WX7V.




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