ZS2EZ RTTY CONTEST REVIEWS

-2009 RTTY CONTESTS-

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CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 RTTY ROUNDUP
The first contest of the season, this has always been one of my favourites. This year was however the most disappointing one yet. I got started on 20m a little before contest starting time, and when 18h00 arrived ZS2Y was my first contact! I had a brief run of about 15 minutes working EU, then the calls just dried up. I resorted to S&P, struggling to eke out contacts until 21h00 when I decided to pack up for the night and try again in the morning. I was up again at 02h00, hoping for better luck on 40m. This proved even more disappointing - by 05h30 I had only managed 39 Q's on 40m, and was becoming seriously despondent!! 15m only began showing a bit of life at around 10h00, and never really got going either. Only some 40-odd stations made it into the log, with no NA stations heard. 15m was dead by 12h30, and when I switched to 20m I was astonished to hear the States coming through already - hardly any EU to be heard!! I could not get any sort of run going on 20, and had to resort to S&P for most of the contest. Finally got a small run going on 14.128 quite late in the evening, but overall struggled along. Final total was 261 Q's, extremely hard work!!!
Highlight was working PZ5RA on 40m - a new one on that band!
This was the first contest since installing the INRAD filters into my Kenwood TS-870S, and they have made a BIG improvement!
RESULT: 1st AFRICA SOAB HP, 1st SOUTH AFRICA SOAB HP

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 BARTG SPRINT
One of the hardest contests conditions-wise that I have ever participated in!! This ended up as 40-20 only contest, as the other bands were conspicuous by their absence! 20m only really got going late on Saturday evening, with a couple of moderate runs into EU and NA. 40m on Sunday morning was nothing short of pathetic. I got going at 02h00 UTC (04h00 SAST), and for some time K4GMH was the only signal audible on the band. By the time 40 died out at around 05h00 UTC I had the paltry total of 17 QSOs for the band. During the remainder of the contest I had to be content with scraps, and called it quits around 10h00. Shortly after that my misery was relieved when I heard and worked Petrus ZS8T on Marion Island on 20m SSB! Contest total was 166 Q's, all hard-earned!
No real highlights in this contest!
RESULT: #230 SINGLE OP CATEGORY

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 CQ WPX RTTY CONTEST
Very much a contest of two halves! This contest started well, with good conditions on 40 and 20 early on. The 30-hour limitation however meant that I had to plan my off-times, and I had planned to take Saturday morning off from around 07h00 UTC, as I figured that 20 would die, and 15 would only open around 11h00. As it was, 15 opened at around 12h00 UTC, and I managed a couple of useful runs before the band faded out. 20m was also fairly good, and I went to bed at around 21h30 UTC with a respectable total. The next morning saw 40m quite challenging, but still managed to get my best-ever 40m total - 111 in the log by the time the band died. This included Andrei YN2S, for an all-time new one! When I switched to 20m, my beam was still in the position I had left it in - pointing over Central America. I was very surprised to be hearing JAs - not normal on long path at that time of day!! This coupled with a planetary A index of 18 should have warned me of what was to come!!! 15m did not open at all for the rest of the day, and 20 was seriously hard going. My score was also not helped by me spending an hour of Sunday afternoon calling the K5D Desecheo Island expedition on 20m CW without success!! (they were booming in on the long path, but the pileup was just too big!!) I only managed to put a couple of runs together on the Sunday evening, and really struggled my way to a final total of 563 Q's. This was however worth in excess of 700 000 points, largely due to my respectable 40m QSO count. Hindsight is always 100%, but if I had spent more time operating on Saturday and planned more of my off-time for Sunday I could have done much better. Still, a respectable score I guess.
Highlight of the contest was working YN2S (Andrei NP3D) on 40m for an overall new one.
RESULT: 1st AFRICA SOAB HP, 1st SOUTH AFRICA SOAB HP

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 BARTG SPRING HF RTTY CONTEST
Hard work, but plenty of fun. After moving my 80m dipole (now running into my neighbour's property with his permission) I had an extra band to check out, but found only a single 9A station there the whole weekend. 15m netted me only a single contact too, and many hours were spent listening to silence. 40 and 20 did however provide some action, and when 20 died out at 19h00 or so on Sunday night I at least had 232 Q's in the log - a lot more than I was anticipating after Saturday! Certainly not an easy one, but the adrenalin of the pileups made it worthwhile!!
Highlight was working 4U1UN on 40m - not a contest QSO but a new one on 40 RTTY!
RESULT: #99 SOAB CATEGORY

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 SP DX RTTY CONTEST
This one was a disaster from the off; a thunderstorm cost me the first two hours of the event, with static well over the S9 before lightning forced a total shutdown. By the time I got back on the air, it was very evident that the Propagation Gods had bypassed the Southern part of Africa this weekend! 20m was the only band with any activity, and it was very hard going! The band died totally by 17h45 UTC, with only 70 Q's logged. Only one NA station (N2BJ) was in the log. After finding 40 to be pretty much dead as well, I went to bed thinking Sunday could only be better - I was wrong! I was up at 02h00 UTC hoping to find some activity on 80 or 40, but instead found lots of noise and nothing else! The whole morning session netted just 2 Q's! I packed up the contest in disgust after working VK3TDX on 20, the only signal copiable at the time. This was 07h07 UTC. Total Q's was 73, 5 continents worked - missed SA.
Certainly no highlights in this one!

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 ALESSANDRO VOLTA CONTEST
Missed this event due to unforseen family commitments

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 SCC RTTY CONTEST
Very difficult conditions made this one hard work - but at least there are some positive signs! North America was heard for the first time in several months, and there were some good signals from Asia as well. Struggled for any sort of run into Europe, with a smallish burst late Saturday afternoon. Found only one workable signal on 40 on Sunday morning (K4GMH, not strong but worked first call - great ears Mike!), and a solitary station (ES5Q) on 15. A paltry 76 QSOs logged, but just glad to be back in the saddle after the Winter hiatus! Once again missed out on 1 continent - Oceania this time.
No real highlights as such this time.

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 CQ WW RTTY CONTEST
What a contest!! After something of a slow start on 40m, this one really exploded into life. Great conditions on both 15 and 20 saw good runs and pleasing totals.
Saturday morning saw 15m wide open, and an extended run encompassing the East (JA, BV, 9M2 etc), EU and NA . 20m likewise provided excellent signals from EU and NA, and by Saturday evening a respectable QSO total in the mid-300's had been racked up.
As an experiment for this contest, I had erected a Cushcraft MA8040V vertical antenna to give a different approach on 80m. Whilst high noise levels due to rainy weather didn't help much, I did manage to add 4 contacts on 80, including OY and Z7 on Sunday morning! This added a bit of excitement for me. The antenna also proved to work well on 40m - whilst not my best performance on 40 (started a bit late and missed the best conditions) results there were quite respectable.
15m started slowly on Sunday, and family commitments took me out of the shack for a few hours, arriving back around lunchtime. To my surprise, 15m once again exploded to life, seeing me sail past the 500 mark with ease. A later burst of well over 100 stations in an hour on 20m saw me finally end on a total of 715 QSOs by the time 20 died at around 19h00. Despite some good signals on 40 from EU, I was unable to make myself heard there, and decided to call it a day. My best-ever QSO total in a contest, and a very satisfactory outcome. 715 QSOs for a points total of 522 996. 15m alone netted 498 QSOs consisting of 66 DXCC entities and 22 Zones!
Highlights were working FT5GA on Glorioso Island on 20m, and adding OY and Z7 on 80m!

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 MAKROTHEN CONTEST
After the stunning activity of the CQ WW RTTY contest, this one was more of a reality check! 80m and 40m failed o produce anything exciting, and it appeared that many of the NA stations had decided to give this one a miss in favour of their Sprint event. Nevertheless, 15m and 20m provided fair returns. This is one event that gives us more isolated stations a bit of an edge, as distance comprises the score. Thus a single QSO to EU nets in excess of 9 000 points, whilst EU-EU QSOs are worth a LOT less!! Whilst still a disappointing tally, my 214 QSOs were worth over 2 MILLION points!! There were some notable contacts, including TF3PPN in Iceland and KL8DX from Alaska, both useful distances. Overall a very enjoyable contest - just a pity about the lack of participation!
Highlight was KL8DX calling ME!!!

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 JARTS CONTEST
Always one of my favourites, this year's event did not disappoint. Despite dismal conditions and poor weather, this contest still managed to provide some surprises and an acceptable QSO total. 80m was again non-existant, and 40m not much better - only 8 QSOs for the whole weekend. There were also several hours of stony silence on the bands, which certainly didn't help. This however was balanced by good runs on 15m on both days, and Sunday night produced excellent results into the USA on 20m, despite very high static levels due to rainy weather. Whilst it was overall a hard slog, the final total of 310 QSOs was satisfying - at one stage it did not look likely that I would even break the 250 mark. What was surprising that there was not a single JA station in this total!! A couple of West Malaysian stations were worked with relative ease, but JA was not even heard the whole weekend!!
Highlight - nothing much really memorable, probably R1ANC on 20m was about the best!

CONTEST SUMMARY : 2009 WAE RTTY CONTEST
Missed this one entirely due to visitors - my cousin and 85-year-old aunt visited us from Johannesburg, and family had to trump contesting this time!

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