The WA4TFZ CQ WW SSB 2003

Members of the Albemarlse Amateur Radio Club, including numerous Savant DX Group members operated in the CQ Magazine Worldwide SSB DX Contest. Among the operators were Ben Mills (KG4QVP), Mark Day (N4OQK), Bob Pattison (K4DU)*, Pete Thorsen (W4PRT), Jay Rostow (K4AZV) and Mario Gubo (W4/T95LWG). The Operation was held at the QTH and home of Jon Gefaell (W4OJ)* using his 80M Carolina Windom and Yaesu FT-900 with DXLabs software. Chiliburgers were prepared to provide fuel for the operators.

The solar weather was a major problem for this contest and the bands closed more than once due to solar flares resulting from two very large (Jupiter sized) and unstable sunspots. At least this was an even handicap for all players. What Solar Minimum?

Special Mentions go to Pete and Ben who did exceptional jobs at the mic and really worked the DX! Mario was exceptional, he stayed on site through the evening and late into the morning both nights working contacts and as control operator so we could do our best with his Extra class privileges! K4DU, Bob Pattison brought his Heil Headset which was very useful, especially with VOX. We also had the audio on the external speakers so observers/control ops could monitor the action. Mark Day came by and provided some moral support and also put a few in the log for us. Finally, Bob Dorsey, (W4RQ) dropped by to put a couple in the log despite his health problems and put big points on the board for the WA4TFZ Club submission. Bob went on and earned ~335,000 points working from his own QTH! Bob is an experienced contester, way to go Bob!

Some statistics; We logged contacts from 25, Oct 0001Z through 26, Oct 2359Z! with two sleep breaks. We had 351 QSO's, 82 DXCC Entities, 5 Continents (somehow we missed Oceana), 19 Unique CQ Zones, 51 CQ Band Zones, 195 WPX, 19 IOTABand Analysis shows 20M and 15M were about equal in contacts, 10M about half as much and a we made a token effort on 80M.


* Savant DX Group Member