Congratulations to all my colleagues for great achievements in SPDX 2020!

Particularly touching is the photo of Kamil SQ5JRN (I also heard him) with a baby on his lap 🙂

My story:

Saturday, getting closer to the contest. I walk around the garden and look at my wires and 2 element beam. I wonder in which category to start to have fun and make a great result. I decided for SOTB MIXED.

Analyzes of last year’s results show me the most active hours/bands, as well as the hours when my colleagues (SP2QG, SP5ELA) slept. An interesting observation concerned the emission. Work mainly CW, so play it for me!

The beginning is approaching, everything is heated, the N1MM log is set, the key and the microphone are connected, PA lights up.

15:00 (all UTC times) – I am on CW at 20m, the antenna is turned to the west – I call the first CQ and … PA refuses to cooperate – the brand new Ameritron fell, and only on Friday everything played. Hey Mr. Murphy … Quick decision – I remove the cables and plug in the bare transceiver.

15:16 – first QSO with OY1CT. It is not bad, although there is no crowds at 20m. So I go to 40m and it starts … HI

I am called by several stations, each fast, and I trasmit 25WPM so that they do not mistake the callsign. I set the filters to 350 Hz, otherwise you can’t pick out calls, even parts.

It went… in the first hour I keep a rate of 120+ at 40m. I check 20m if they are W/K stations… it is too early and the Italian responds – this is SP contest only 🙂 . As I explained to him that HF is a Polish prefix, he was bowed … HI. I return to 40m CW and ride without a handrail.

16:44 – I jump to 20m CW and SSB for a moment, but it’s weak. A few multipliers only. So I’m going back to 40m CW and it’s great. Ears tame, only sometimes Vibroplex sticks on dashes… Mr. Murpy, what’s up?

After 2 hours of fighting the pileup, I change to 80m CW. 112 QSO in an hour … I’m shocked. Plenty of stations, many multipliers. What about 40m? I check and work for an hour CW/SSB, then I return for 80m for 90 minutes and again 40m CW.

22:30 – something touched me and I switch to 40m SSB, and here K1XX and KC1XX S9 so I pass and quickly switch to CW. K/W at this time at 40m ???? – too early… But who is arguing? Suddenly I remembered that for ARRL CW contest I hung 2 elements wire-beam on 7MHz directed to W/VE. And it was worth it. In an hour I count dozens of overseas, some on SSB.

April 5 – 00:00 – I switch to 80m CW to the very beginning of the band. And it goes like string until 01:00. Suddenly it stops as if people have gone to sleep. This and I, already slightly sleepy, think of a nap. 2 hours regenerate the body wonderfully and I go back to the fight at 80m CW until 05:00, checking 40m as well. I have to remember about the multiplier, because that counts. 14MHz sleeps like dead, around 6:30 I’m doing something there, but I call the stations. For my (100W) CQ there are no takers, so breakfast and 30 min. snooze. Good relax! I sit down to the station and work at 20m. I’m making up for QSO on 14MHz. It looks like I can make 1000 QSOs. That would be the best result since moving out of Warsaw. There, I had the entire roof of a skyscraper for myself. Fine beam and vertical on 3.5/7. And here in the countryside… I have a beautiful garden and I did not think of placing masts and full-sized stacks 🙂

The end of the competition is slowly approaching, less nand less stations, most of them done. So I’m looking for multipliers and I tire A61FK at 20m. Deaf or what? Finally he put the whole call together. So I rotate beam west and to my joy the USA is coming out! A beautiful competition finale. On the counter I have 1145 QSO’s , so it’s great. Switching off the station, the microphone and headphones go to the closet. I look at PA … and I remember times when I did several hundred QSOs on QRP. Today’s few sunspots are not enough, so QRP is dormant for now. I also heard several of ours – SP5ELA, SP5AUC, SQ5JUP, SQ5JRN, SP5EWX. I’m going to upload the log, all checked.

Summary of the result:

HF5WIM, Polish Amateur Radio – DX contest – 2020-04-04 1500Z to 2020-04-05 1500Z
Band    Mode    QSOs    Pts    Mul    Pt/Q
3,5        CW        383       469    38      1,2
3,5        LSB            9            9      0      1,0
7            CW        470       596    44      1,3
7            LSB          64         76       2      1,2
14          CW         180       280    22      1,6
14         USB           39          61     11      1,6
Total: Both        1145       1491   117     1,3
Score: 174 447
1 Mult = 9,8 Q’s
SP, Polish Amateur Radio – DX contest – 2020-04-04 1500Z to 2020-04-05 1500Z – 1145 QSOs
HF5WIM Max Rates:
2020-04-04 1640Z – 4,0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 240 per hour by
2020-04-04 1843Z – 2,5 per minute (10 minute(s)), 150 per hour by
2020-04-04 1906Z – 2,0 per minute (60 minute(s)), 119 per hour by

73 de Włodek HF5WIM

PS. Włodek HF5WIM is also known as SP5DDJ