zondag 7 april 2013

CQ WPX SSB contest 2013 - 1000 Miles per Watt

I had great fun in the CQ WW WPX SSB contest 2013.
I worked with 58 stations from 21 DXCC countries from all over Europe.
But I also met 19 stations outside of Europe.
I did not expect to work so many DX stations and certainly not from South America. hi

Click to enlarge
To be sure that I would be heard with SSB, I choose to
use the highest available power of 2.7 W.

As a 100% CW operator, until now, I discovered in this
contest, that working with phone, is much easier and faster 
than operating with CW.

In this contest I discovered that working in SSB with QRP
takes about the same patience and perseverance as
operating with CW in QRPp *.
* QRPp is a power of less than 1 watt.

The advantage of CW over SSB is about 13 dB.
(20 x in power)
So 2.7 Watts in SSB, can be compared
with 2700/20= 135 mW in CW.

In Europe most of the QSO's were made on 20 m.
Most of the QSO's outside of Europe were made on 15 m.

1000 Miles per Watt QSO's
The table  below shows only the QSO's that were made with more than 1000 miles per Watt.
The table shows the day and the time.
UTC= 14 means the QSO is made between 14:00 and 14:59 UTC.
This is interesting, since the table also shows changes in propagation.
You can see that I could reach North America from 14:00 UTC on Sunday. (KU1T)


Every time I heard Gilles, VB2T on the band, I tried to make a QSO.
At first he could not hear me, but the propagation slowly got better, so I managed to make
a QSO after 18:00 UTC.

The first station from South America, Rogerio, PY2OE, could be worked after 18:00 UTC.

The QSO with the PQ5B contest team was made in the 5th band sweep.
In each band sweep I encounter the same stations again and again. Usually I call a few times.
When I am sure that my signal is not heard, or when the station is uninterrupted answering
other stations, then I continue the sweep.
After 19:00 UTC the propagation was good enough to make the QSO with PQ5B.
It took a lot of patience and perseverance, but I really enjoyed it.

Click to enlarge
Since I worked with a fixed power of 2.7 Watts in this contest,
every QSO over a distance of more than 2700 Miles is good for
1000 MPW.
In total 11 out of 77 QSO's were made with more than
1000 miles per Watt.


4 opmerkingen:

  1. Hi Bert. Very good SSB results. I thought you were one of those operators who didn't know where the microphone was, hi.

    73 Dick

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    1. Hello Dick, since I started as a HAM I have always used CW, first with a homebrew CW TRX.
      I became aware of the use of phone when I read that other Bloggers were using SSB. I entered the CQWW DX SSB contest last year, but the CQ WW WPX SBB contest was even a greater success.
      Even with 2.7 W in SSB I can make 1000 MPW QSO's. hi 73, Bert

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  2. Good morning Bert, nice to see the SSB results using QRP. As Dick said above I am one of those op's that does not own a mic! I was considering getting one for the KX3 for when I am out and about with it.
    Mike

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    1. Hello Mike, I always used CW. I always thought, that it would take more than 2.7 W, to make QSO's with SSB. hi.
      It's strange to hear the voice of the operator, when he gives a remark other than the report and serial number in a phone QSO. 73, Bert

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