Claimed score: 1,993Q 33z 122c = 728k points

Nov 2003 - G3TXF entered Single Operator All Band (SOAB) in CQWW CW

Claimed score: 3,570Q 138z 463c = 4.75m points

Both contests were operated from G3TXF's North Devon QTH in WAB Area SS44.

Here G3TXF is seen fixing an ancient Hy-Gain 204-BA antenna to the head-section of an M80 Versatower.

For CQWW CW three towers were used each with a 4-el monoband HF yagi : 20m, 15m and 10m.

For LF a 40m rotary dipole was installed on the same tower as the 4el 10m beam.

The 80m and 160m antennas were dipoles with centres at about 75ft.

The CQWW CW 2003 configuration is shown here. The 80ft Versatower on the left has a 4-el for 15m. The Versatower in the middle (and furthest away) has a 4-el for 20m, with the right-hand Versatower supporting both a 4-el 10m yagi and a rotary 40m dipole.

An 80m dipole was tied under the 20m beam on the further tower. A 160m dipole was tied under the 15m beam on the left hand tower. No separate LF receive antennas were used (yet!).

The preparation work prior to CQWW CW took about ten days. Unfortunately not every day at the end of November is as bright as when this photo was taken. The QTH is on an exposed site 225m asl close to the sea, which gets very windy at times.

Claimed score: 1,993Q 33z 122c = 728k points

Conditions were much better than we had been lead to believe they would be, prior to the contest. With the SFI above 200 and K hovering between a 1 and 2, things turned out pretty well.

The last QSO (CE4B) was at 2141z on the Saturday and the last QSO on Sunday (LU1FF) was at 2056z, which is good going for 15m in late October!

Unfortunately I seemed to have missed several 'easy' zones. Seven zones were missed altogether: 1, 19, 22, 23, 26. 29 and 39. Never heard a KL7 in z1, although two KH6's were worked on z31.

The openings to JA were much better on the Long Path than they were on Short Path. In fact barely any JA's were worked SP at all. [The North Devon location with its clear sea-path take-off to the South West is particularily good for Long Path openings to Japan.]

A 4-el 15m yagi [80ft] was put up 'field-day style' for the event. All CQing was done manually (no DVK here!).

Funniest experience was hearing the station where the DVK voice was a bloke but the op appeared to be a YL!

Station : FT-1000MP (with a brand new Heil headset - great stuff!), Alpha 89 and CT 9.90.

Claimed score: 3,570Q 138z 463c = 4.75m points

Great contest. CQWW struck lucky again by hitting a high in the propagation. [Didn't the same thing happened in the SSB leg in October?]

G3TXF was awake for 50 hours in total for CQWW CW. Three hours operating time were lost because work had to be done sorting out various antenna problems on Saturday. Otherwise it was full-time operating, although mild halucinations (through lack of sleep) did set in towards the end of the 48 hours!

That burst of ionospheric disturbance at about 19z/20z, which made what remained of the HF bands sound like rusty-nails did nothing to help conserve what little concentration there was left.

G3TXF's CW copying ability goes steeply downhill towards the end of the contest. If there's more than one calling at the same time, the brain just ceases up!

The claimed score (4.7m) is marginally up on last year's. The number of QSOs was up by 10% (from 3,266 to 3,570), but the number of Mults dropped from 621 to 599.

CQWW CW is simply the best CW contest of the year - so many DX-peditions, so many great operators, so many great stations, so much to work!