(work in progress)

Great fun! Like last year, I worked as allowed by the family (one of these Octobers, I'll have to go on a hamcation, to work uninterrupted and see how well I can do) but was allowed a bit more than last time and closed out early with a total of 210 contacts. Majority on 10m, unlike last time with very few 10m contacts, and 15m. I logged a TON of Europe and South America (extra Brazil and Argentina for some reason) - Hopefully some of those countries I'm missing on QRZ will confirm. I just hopped all over the place, back and forth between 40/20/15/10, basically tuning from one end to the other, over and over. Didn't notice as much activity on 40m this year, aside from everyone being squished between 7175 and 7200 Khz. Last year, the Caribbean was all over 40m at night.

One gripe… I figured out why there is a “good sport rule” on the CQ-WW site about not taking more than three calls before providing your callsign. Nobody wants to listen to you for five minutes before they realize they've already worked you. At least do what some of the others do (say the damn thing so fast that it's almost unrecognizable) to at least give the hunters a hint! :)

Some highlights:

Worked that same Hawaiian station (KH6J) on 40m again, as well as 20m and 10m!

Worked EU Russia on 40m (RU1A) - I don't get out far on 40m, probably not above the average stations noise floor. As my antenna just generally isn't high or long enough… good at NVIS though. Anyway, these guys have a pretty insane antenna farm: (http://www.ru1a.mirradio.ru/viewpage.php?page_id=3)

Five Japan contacts on ten and fifteen meters. I don't think I currently have ANY confirmed SSB with Japan. Hopefully that will change when one of these confirm!

I may have worked every island in the Caribbean, this time logging Montserrat and Saint Barthélemy, which I missed last time. Speaking of islands, I also picked up and logged Galápagos!!

Logged some new countries: French Guiana, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Balearic Islands, San Marino.

CONTEST: CQ-WW-SSB
CALLSIGN: N3DMV
LOCATION: MDC
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: NON-ASSISTED
CATEGORY-BAND: ALL
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW
CATEGORY-MODE: SSB
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-OVERLAY: CLASSIC
GRID-LOCATOR: FM19lx
CLAIMED-SCORE: 96800

EF8R J62K LP1H 9Z4BM RC9O VA3MW KP4PR KI5GTR PJ6Y LN8W RU1A TO4K KP2B VP2MPN K7ZS KP4AA NN7CW 8P5A W4MLB V47T VE7BC PJ4K KH6J VE2DXY PJ2T PJ2T KH6J W7VO VC3Z DF7A S53MM RL3A YT8WW IB9R 9A5Y RU1A HG6N SQ5EBL WB2ZAB AC4VO YP8T OZ1ADL J62K E7OT T7OA OM7M IP4X CR6T SP8R HG7T TM4ZZ EI7M SN2M LZ5R II2S OH5Z DL5RBW ED8G S57AL ES9C EA1DR PJ2T OK7K DP6A ZF1A P33W TO4K HK1T NP4VM CR3A HK1O P49Y P40W KL7G VP2VRX PJ6Y PP4T PJ4G EF8R HP1XV LP1H TM7A CT7BJG OK7O PA1AW IP4M PA9M V26B DP7D IB9T PJ6Y GM5G EF8R TI7W LU3DK SP8R CR6P T70A KV0Q IP4M CR3A ED7W AD4EB IO5O JA3YBK JA5OVU K7ZS F8ADY CR6K SO9I 9A/W3WM RL3A CQ3W IZ5CML OT2A IO6T OT7T SP8IMG F4KMI DM0Y 9A1P II9P DK5QN LZ2VU VE9XX TM2Y OM7M IV3JVJ IQ5PJ IP4M IZ5EKV TM2BF GE5E DF0HQ SP8R M6T PJ2T KP4PR K5TR EA6MR TK4TH XE1AVY FP5AC CE2WK XE2SSB WP3C CU2ARA ZF2AA HC5AI 8P5A LW3EK PR2A EI9E UA7K S57AL II9P ED2X VE4VT AY7J XE2W OA4O TI1K PV2G PZ5DX FY5FY DR1A P40W ZW5B HD8R PV2K K7SS PX2W VE5UO PY2WB VP2MPN CB4K PR1T PR2K PY4JW KH6J V31VP ED3X CQ9A JH1KRC CA2EBM V26B JA7YRR HI8JCD XQ6CF LW2DHD PJ4K HI8J PX5X CA6SNT RU1A VE3VN TM0T NP4VM EB5A KP4AA PR1T V47T LU3WC CN3A LU5VV 8P5A LP1H JH7QXJ KL5DX JJ1MBU LU3DX

N3DMV W3 2024 SO LOW ALL (C) 73,470 181 47 111 11.5

Pretty leisurely affair. I worked for two or three hour periods at random times as allowed by family. Most work was done in the early mornings and in the afternoons. All hunting. I tried calling CQ a few times on different bands but didn't have the patience for more than five minutes - no one was calling. I have a feeling that the bulk of my DX was with big gun stations having huge and high antenna arrays.

So many islands on 40m, to include some I didn't have: Bonaire, Curacao, Turks/Caicos, Cayman, St. Kitts/Nevis, Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica, T&T, Montserrat, etc.

And then this beauty: 40m to Hawaii is amazing to me. I almost didn't call, as I thought it was impossible!

Some other interesting connections on 40m:
Mexico, Honduras, Columbia, Portugal, Spain, Cape Verde

20m and 15m was awesome. Many many European countries and a few Oceana/AU.

10m was a bust for me. I couldn't get out at all on the horizontal random wire, but heard everything which made it hurt more. When I put up the vertical, the noise was extremely high. One morning, a few days before the contest, I checked on several WebSDR stations, around the world, and I was making it pretty much every where with that vertical.. real shame about the noise. I only managed a few contacts to EU Russia, one to Latvia, Mexico, Belgium, Italy. Maybe ten total for 10m. :(

CONTEST: CQ-WW-SSB
CALLSIGN: N3DMV
LOCATION: FM18KA
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: NON-ASSISTED
CATEGORY-BAND: ALL
CATEGORY-MODE: SSB
CATEGORY-TIME: 24-HOURS
CATEGORY-OVERLAY: CLASSIC
CLAIMED-SCORE: 74892

Call	Year	QTH	Zn	Category	Score	QSOs	Zn	Cty	Hours
KC3NLT	2023	W3	5	SO LOW ALL (C)	5,238	46	23	31	3.9