Breaking Down CQWW CW 2007: Contesters Want More Sunspots

By Jamie Dupree NS3T, radio-sport.net 

"Let's hear it for some sunspots" - Jeff Briggs VY2ZM/K1ZM

The conditions got even tougher on the high bands this year for the CQWW CW contest, as even the top guns were hard-pressed to squeeze much out of 10 meters.

"Ten meters was quite poor," said John Crovelli P40w/W2GD, who is currently in second place. "Virtually every 10m QSO was a struggle."

Crovelli though didn't stay away from 10, knowing he needed both the contacts and the mults.

"I might have spent too much time trying to scare up something on 10M, but I felt it was a reasonable gamble. Overall, much more time was spent searching for mults during this contest than in prior years, and fortunately for me often with good results."

While Crovelli only scratched out 106 contacts on 10 meters, that was big time compared to Jeff Briggs VY2ZM, who had just 17 all weekend.

"This contest presented absorbed conditions impacting the higher latitudes, often experienced by the OH contesters in Finland," said Briggs, "where a kind of auroral "blanket" absorbs RF on the higher bands."

Even stations in Argentina, which often tally big numbers on 10 meters had little to work. The LT1F multi reported only 432 contacts there this year.

"It was the worst conditions I've ever had from the Azores," said top European scorer Toni Linden CU2A/OH2UA.

"20 meters closed about 3 hours earlier than last year and overall I had 11 hours of rate less than 100 Qs'," said Linden. "The 2nd night I had huge difficulties to stay in the chair when rates dropped to 60 Q's/hour or so. It was a loooong night."

Linden and others also felt like conditions on the low bands were somewhat disturbed as well in the CQWW CW.

"I was calling many European stations without even getting a question mark back," said Linden. On 160 meters, "I worked only one PY (PY2WC) and got P40W as a double multiplier there just 15 minutes before the end of the contest."

Caribbean operators also noticed that the high bands were down a bit as well.

"I truly expected an opening on 10 meters at some point, but it never happened," said Joseph "Bud" Trench V26K/AA3B, who leads the low power ranks.

"Although 15 meters did open, I did not have the kind of rates to Europe that I've enjoyed in previous years," said Trench.

"I also believe that 80 meters was down a bit from last year in that I never was able to generate a good European run," said Trench, who only made 137 contacts on 80 with EU, and only put 6 Europeans in the log on 160 meters.

As for those operating in Europe, it wasn't exactly a drive in the country on a Saturday afternoon.

"Conditions on 10-40 meters were awful and even worse than in the SSB test," said Tonno Vahk ES5TV, who only could work 200 US stations on 20 meters.

Vahk tried to make up for it on 80 and 160, where he combined for 51 zones and 160 multipliers.

"The two hour JA opening on 160 Saturday evening was probably the coolest opening of the contest," said Vahk, who worked 52 JA's on Topband.

Back to the northwest, Andy Cook M6T/G4PIQ tried his best to duplicate his top ten claimed finish in the CQWW SSB contest, but also ran afoul of conditions.

"In the SSB leg I was far enough south to get away with it while Tonno at ES5TV got stuffed by poor conditions," said Cook. "This time I was the wrong side of the curtain. Look at the scores from Southern Europe on 40 & 15 and you can see the differences."

Cook had big numbers on 80 (1,338 Q's) and 20 (1,556) but couldn't come near that on 40, with 817 contacts.

"40 meters remained a problem from up here since it stopped being runnable to the US around midnight," said Cook.

On the plus side, 20 meters offered a lot of positives, no matter the QTH.

"20 was a never dry well of activity," said Ken Widelitz VY2TT/K6LA. "So many Russians. R/U-something-number-two more letters - endless, just amazing activity."

Widelitz said he tried his best to look for mults to make up for the somewhat depressed conditions.

"I didn't find any unusual openings, although I was sure looking for them," said Widelitz.

Down in South Africa in Zone 38, Bernie van der Walt ZS4TX was trying to provide as many unusual multipliers as possible, but he fell short of his goal of beating the single op Zone 38 record.

Van der Walt said he realized he wasn't hitting his QSO targets, "I concentrated on working multipliers on the low bands which was a lot of fun."

"But I think the DX'ing went on too long and the QSO total suffered even more," said the South African.

This reporter can attest to the fact that the ZS4TX signal was booming into the US on 80 meters on the first night, but on the other end, it's all QRN.

"The reality of operating 80m from this end of the world is entirely different from what you may expect to achieve being used to contesting in NA or EU," van der Walt told radio-sport.net.

"First of all you have to contend with S9+ static 90% of the time. Combine that with weak signal levels from the main concentrations of contesters and you have a very undesirable band to spend time on and further aid to your fatigue," he said.

From the ZS9X contest station, van der Walt managed to put 219 stations in the log on 80 meters, as he made 4,225 Q's for 6.4 million points, putting him on the fringe of the World Top Ten box.

"Any contester who wants to operate from ZS9X for a contest weekend is welcome to contact me," said van der Walt.

"The station is outside the city on a small hill with accomodation available on site for additional operators in case you want to make it a team effort."