CW5W Summary by Dennis, W1UE

CW5W by Dennis Egan, W1UE

I had the unique opportunity this year to visit my friends in South America, Oms PY5EG (ZW5B)

and Jorge CX6VM/CW5W, and do some contests.  I did CQWW CW as ZW5B, ARRL 160M as CX/W1UE, 10M RTTY as CW5W, and ARRL 10M M/S as part of the CW5W team.  In short, it was a great 3 weeks!

Jorge CX6VM, gave me a quick primer on CX 10M propagation, so I had a decent knowledge of what to expect when the contest started.  BTW, Jorge has 5/5/5 for Europe, 5/5/5 for US/VE, and 6el @ 200ft for multipliers and DX.

I started the contest using the 6el to JA; the first hour went well, putting 80 stations, mostly JA, in the log.  I stayed up until 0325Z; activity had died quickly after the first hour, but my totals at this point were 105Qs and 9 mults.

I started looking LP to Europe around 0700Z, but never heard anyone and my Cqs went unanswered.  I tried a couple of times to get something going, but basically heard nothing and couldn’t get a CQ answered.  Finally, at 1151Z, I was able to work my first European.  Here, I got my first shock- at 1210Z I worked EA8AH, I gave him #108 and he gave me #230!  I had thought I was doing well, but to be behind by 122 Qs at this point told me I wasn’t.  Europe really never opened strongly, but over the next 4 hours I was able to put 81 Qs in the log, with 31 mults.  So, as Europe closed, the totals were

195Qs and 38 mults.  More importantly, I had only worked 3 US/VE mults at this point.

It was finally time to work US/VE Qs.  Europe was no longer a distraction, so the antennas were put on US/VE.  Now, it was just a matter of keeping BIC (butt in chair) and not get discouraged by the fairly slow rates.  It was grind it out time.  My only hope of catching EA8AH was that he didn’t get a good opening to the states, so I kept BIC in kept Cqing.  7 consecutive hours the rate averaged 50/Hr, and the US/VE mults just coming.  Last multiplier worked was 3D2KM (I finally could hear him).

Final tally- 563 Qs, 52 SP, 43 Countries.  SP that I didn’t work that I normally figure I would work were Vt, Wy, WV, Mb, and Sk.

Continent Breakdown:

NA – 344
Asia – 122
Europe – 81
So Amer – 15
Oceania – 6
Africa – 5

Total – 563

Many thanks to Jorge CX6VM for his hospitality and the use of his station.

Dennis W1UE