Category Archives: Contesting

ARRL DX Contest SSB 2013

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 5, 2013

Last weekend I participated in SSB part of ARRL DX Contest. Unfortunately I had not enough time and was QRV only for 2 hours…

Short contest summary:

  • Time On: 2 hours
  • Bands activated: 10/15/20 meters
  • QSO count: 43 (40 to the USA and 3 to Canada)
  • Multipliers: 29
  • Claimed score: 3 741 points
  • Contacted U.S. states: CT, MA, NH, RI, VT, NJ, NY, MD, PA, AL, FL, GA, TN, VA, TX, MI, IL, WI
  • Contacted Canadian provinces: MB, ON, PEI

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CQ WPX SSB 2012 Certificate Received

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 5, 2013

About three weeks ago, I received certificate from SSB part of last year’s CQ WPX contest. It was a very nice surprise: I hadn’t expected it at all + it arrived exactly on my birthday!

The certificate is for 1st place  in Czech Republic in SO AB LP Tribander/Single Element category (overlay). My total score in the contest was 612,896 points (688 QSOs, 428 multipliers).

This year’s CQ WPX SSB is held on 30th – 31st March. Unfortunately, I’ll be in the mountains during that time, but hope to see you in CW part…

My certificate for CQ WPX SSB 2012

My certificate for CQ WPX SSB 2012

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CQ WW DX Contest SSB 2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: October 29, 2012

Last weekend I participated in SSB part of CQ WW DX contest. I didn’t try for some serious score, just wanted to have some fun and was QRV only on higher bands (10, 15 and 20 meters.)

Here are a few notes about my contest activity:

  • Total time on was 15.5 hours
  • During the time, I managed to make 640 QSOs, most of them – 205 QSOs – on 10 meters band
  • My claimed score is 175 648 points (998 QSO points, 56 CQ zone multipliers, 120 DXCC multipliers)
  • 73 different DXCC entities were contacted, one of them (TG – Guatemala) was new to me
  • Most QSOs were made to the United States (113), European Russia (50), Spain (38), Asiatic Russia (34) and Canada (22)
  • 25 different CQ zones were contacted; most QSOs were made to Zone 5 (94), Zone 14 (82), Zone 16 (76), Zone 4 (32) and Zone 15 (26)
  • The longest contact was to Australia, to Zone 29 (Western Zone of Australia)
  • My most favorite band was 28 MHz, where I managed to make a lot of QSOs to North America and Caribbean

I liked the contest a lot, hope to hear you in CW part.

73! Ondra, OK1CLD

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Results of CQ WW DX SSB 2011

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 16, 2012

Results of SSB part of last year’s CQ WW DX contest were just published on contest website (or maybe a few days ago, I wasn’t checking very often…).

For a few last weeks, I was quite looking forward to them, since my claimed score in CQ WW DX SSB 2011 was better than ever before. (If you’d like to, you can read more about my participation in the contest  in one of previous articles on this blog.)

As I learnt just a few minutes ago, my final score is 447,529 points (847 QSOs, 232 Country multipliers and 79 Zone multipliers), thanks to which I’m the 1st in SO AB LP category in the Czech Republic!!!

This year’s CQ WW DX SSB is held on 27th – 28th October, hope to hear you then!

73! Ondra, OK1CLD

Update 18.10.: Just received a certificate, the first one I’ve ever received for CQ WW DX!

My certificate for CQ WW DX SSB 2011

My certificate for CQ WW DX SSB 2011

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SSB Liga 05/2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: May 5, 2012

Today, for the first time after a few years, I participated in SSB Liga contest. It’s a two hours long Czech and Slovak contest, held each month on 80 meters band SSB. Connections may be made only between Czech and/or Slovak stations and contest exchange is OK/OM district abbreviations.

I really like the contests where exchange is some location information and not just serial number – because I’m much more interested in where I managed to call to, than in how many contacts the other station made… Another thing I like is that max power that can be used is 100 Watts, which means the contest is a good practice for me, since I use 100W all the time…

In this morning’s SSB Liga I managed to make 92 QSOs into 54 OK/OM districts. Most of them (70 QSOs) were made while calling CQ. My total score is 4968 points and according to contest website, at the moment of writing (5th May 21:34 CEST) I’m on the 21st place out of 49.

I had a really great time during the contest and regret not participating before. If I have time I’ll definitely participate in the next month’s part.

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CQ WPX Contest SSB 2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 26, 2012

Last weekend, just like on every last weekend of March, I participated in SSB part of CQ WPX contest. This time, unlike the year before, I decided for SO AB LP category (TB-WIRES category overlay).

Screen of my log (N1MM) at the end of the contest

Screen of my log (N1MM) at the end of the contest

My best result before this year’s competition was quite low, only 415 QSOs and 280 694 points, so this time I was determined to take the contest a little more seriously – and set my goal  to 700 QSOs.

I started at 00:00 UTC on 80 meters band. To my pleasant surprise, conditions seemed really good. I could hear a lot of stations and had no problem calling them. After first four hours, there were 135 QSOs in my log and more than hundred of them from 3.7 MHz. 40 meters band wasn’t so good, even though I liked a lot e.g. QSO to HK1T from Colombia!

Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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ARRL DX Contest SSB 2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 5, 2012

Just two weeks after CW part of ARRL DX Contest, it was the time for SSB part. I was determined to try for my best result in SO AB LP category, but it didn’t start well.

After the contest start, I could hear only a few U.S. stations, but not very well and they couldn’t hear me. After about 20 minutes I gave up and went to sleep, having my alarm clock set for 2 a.m. However, CONDX on the band were even worse then before! After short lookup on the Internet I learnt that reason was probably M Class Solar Flare and decided to go to bed.

ARRL DX SSB 2012 - QSO map

ARRL DX SSB 2012 - QSO map

Mistake was that I woke up quite late, after 7 UTC. My friend told me he managed to make a few QSOs between 4 and 6 o’clock… At about half past seven I managed to make only 2 QSOs, to Pennsylvania and Maryland – and just hoped higher bands would be better… Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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ARRL DX Contest CW 2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: February 21, 2012

Last weekend I participated in CW part of ARRL International DX Contest. I decided for SO AB LP category.

My equipment was:

Unfortunately, I couldn’t have been QRV for the whole time, because I had to stay in Prague until Saturday morning. I started contesting at 11:30 UTC, on 20 meters band. Start wasn’t very good for me, during first two hours I made only 22 QSOs. Problem was, that it was a quite difficult for me to find U.S. and Canadian stations between stronger European ones.

ARRL DX CW 2012 - QSO map

ARRL DX CW 2012 - QSO map

Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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CQ WW DX Contest SSB 2011

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: November 4, 2011

Hello, today I’d like to write here something about my participation in last weekend’s SSB part of CQ WW DX contest. I enjoyed the contest a lot and even managed to make much more QSOs than in any contest before!

I decided to take part in SOAB LP category, since I had an equipment for all bands except for 160 meters. Here’s the list of what I used:

On Friday evening, I prepared a plan for the whole contest. For every hour I set a certain QSO count I’d like to make during that time. Planned total was 850 QSOs and as it later turned down, it was very realistic.

CQ WW DX SSB 2011 - QSO map

CQ WW DX SSB 2011 - QSO map

Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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IARU HF World Championship 2011

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: July 12, 2011

Always read the rules CAREFULLY before the contest. That’s the thing I’ll certainly remember after last weekend’s IARU HF Championship. As usually, I decided to be QRV on one band, 20 meters SSB and spend there most of the time – and just two hours before the end found out that there is no single band category in this contest! That’s why I have no chance for a good placement…

But neveretheless, I still enjoyed it. I managed to make 205 QSOs,  143 of them on 20 meters band and the rest on 10 and 15 meters. My total time on the air was 10 hours and 50 minutes, during which 19 ITU zones and 26 HQ stations were contacted. Surprisingly, I also made QSOs to two DXCC entities that were new to me – JX (Jan Mayen) and ZA (Albania).

Here’s the list of all contacted ITU zones:

ITU zone 14 MHz 21 MHz 28 MHz All bands ITU zone 14 MHz All bands
29 27 25 10 62 7 2 2
28 29 7 0 36 8 2 2
37 14 2 0 16 17 1 1
27 15 0 0 15 19 1 1
30 11 1 0 12 20 1 1
39 2 3 2 7 21 1 1
18 2 0 0 2 45 1 1
31 2 0 0 2 5 1 1
32 2 0 0 2 9 1 1
36 0 2 0 2 – – –

Read More (list of DXCC entities) »

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