Setup
The SSB part of the ARRL DX Contest this weekend was a phone contest contacting DX stations only. I used the X6100 running 10W and 41-foot random wire out front window from Mountville.
Exchange
The exchange was:
- Me:
59 <state> (PA, papa alpha) - Them:
59 <tx power>
Score
My raw score
for my 42 contacts was 3 * 42 * 37 = 4662,
but I’m sure some logs may be busted,
so it’ll be less.
I qualified as low power, limited antenna.
I logged directly into QRZ.com. I could take time to understand their entire callsign and then call back.
Logs I submitted:
START-OF-LOG: 2.0
CALLSIGN: KC3WWC
CONTEST: ARRL-DX-SSB
CREATED-BY: adif2cabrillo.com version 3.0.1
QSO: 14318 PH 2024-03-02 0331 KC3WWC 59 PA VP5M 59 100 1
QSO: 14288 PH 2024-03-02 0416 KC3WWC 59 PA V3O 59 1000 1
QSO: 7227 PH 2024-03-02 0438 KC3WWC 59 PA KP4AA 59 1000 1
QSO: 7191 PH 2024-03-02 0455 KC3WWC 59 PA EI7M 59 1000 1
QSO: 7181 PH 2024-03-02 0500 KC3WWC 59 PA TM6P 59 1000 1
QSO: 14271 PH 2024-03-02 0609 KC3WWC 59 PA EW5A 59 1000 1
QSO: 14264 PH 2024-03-02 0612 KC3WWC 59 PA WP3C 59 100 1
QSO: 28379 PH 2024-03-02 1622 KC3WWC 59 PA OM0R 59 1000 1
QSO: 28396 PH 2024-03-02 1645 KC3WWC 59 PA OL8W 59 700 1
QSO: 28455 PH 2024-03-02 1707 KC3WWC 59 PA SP8R 59 1000 1
QSO: 28499 PH 2024-03-02 1726 KC3WWC 59 PA YT1X 59 1000 1
QSO: 28516 PH 2024-03-02 1728 KC3WWC 59 PA IO5O 59 500 1
QSO: 28586 PH 2024-03-02 1735 KC3WWC 59 PA TK4TH 59 500 1
QSO: 28582 PH 2024-03-02 1742 KC3WWC 59 PA E70T 59 1000 1
QSO: 28589 PH 2024-03-02 1757 KC3WWC 59 PA P40L 59 1000 1
QSO: 21280 PH 2024-03-02 1826 KC3WWC 59 PA SP8R 59 1000 1
QSO: 21294 PH 2024-03-02 1830 KC3WWC 59 PA II2S 59 500 1
QSO: 21298 PH 2024-03-02 1837 KC3WWC 59 PA EW5A 59 1000 1
QSO: 21322 PH 2024-03-02 1843 KC3WWC 59 PA II2Q 59 500 1
QSO: 21330 PH 2024-03-02 1850 KC3WWC 59 PA SN2B 59 1000 1
QSO: 28649 PH 2024-03-02 2244 KC3WWC 59 PA LT3E 59 1000 1
QSO: 21445 PH 2024-03-02 2318 KC3WWC 59 PA P40L 59 1000 1
QSO: 21420 PH 2024-03-02 2322 KC3WWC 59 PA 8P5A 59 1000 1
QSO: 21345 PH 2024-03-02 2350 KC3WWC 59 PA PJ5/SP9FIH 59 100 1
QSO: 21338 PH 2024-03-02 2352 KC3WWC 59 PA ED8W 59 1000 1
QSO: 21290 PH 2024-03-02 2357 KC3WWC 59 PA ZF1A 59 1000 1
QSO: 14237 PH 2024-03-03 0013 KC3WWC 59 PA TM6M 59 1000 1
QSO: 14247 PH 2024-03-03 0020 KC3WWC 59 PA 9A1A 59 1000 1
QSO: 14258 PH 2024-03-03 0022 KC3WWC 59 PA IO6T 59 500 1
QSO: 14258 PH 2024-03-03 0025 KC3WWC 59 PA TI1T 59 1000 1
QSO: 14272 PH 2024-03-03 0028 KC3WWC 59 PA LP1H 59 1000 1
QSO: 14284 PH 2024-03-03 0035 KC3WWC 59 PA IO5O 59 500 1
QSO: 7194 PH 2024-03-03 0048 KC3WWC 59 PA SP8R 59 1000 1
QSO: 7258 PH 2024-03-03 0101 KC3WWC 59 PA J62K 59 1000 1
QSO: 7236 PH 2024-03-03 0241 KC3WWC 59 PA NP4Z 59 73 1
QSO: 14330 PH 2024-03-03 0312 KC3WWC 59 PA II2Q 59 500 1
QSO: 28308 PH 2024-03-03 1457 KC3WWC 59 PA S55OO 59 1000 1
QSO: 28327 PH 2024-03-03 1511 KC3WWC 59 PA 9A7V 59 1000 1
QSO: 28367 PH 2024-03-03 1526 KC3WWC 59 PA NP2J 59 1000 1
QSO: 28369 PH 2024-03-03 1532 KC3WWC 59 PA SJ8R 59 1000 1
QSO: 21285 PH 2024-03-03 2332 KC3WWC 59 PA HK1T 59 1000 1
QSO: 21338 PH 2024-03-03 2343 KC3WWC 59 PA T42T 59 1000 1
END-OF-LOG: 2.0
Problems
I had some problems conveying my call over phone:
- Stations heard my “3” as “2”
- Stations don’t expect “WWC” (“whiskey whiskey charlie”), and hear it as “VWC” (“victor whiskey charlie”).
I made 42 valid contacts, and 4 were outside my privileges as general. I’m not accustomed to thinking about the boundaries in the SSB portion of the bands.
For my future reference, I noted voice ranges for general:
- 3800-4000 khz
- 7175-7300 khz
- 14225-14350 khz
- 21275-21450 khz
- 28300-29700 khz
Question on Tuning SSB
During the contest, people were tuned all over the place and not aligned on 1 or 0.5 khz. I tried to align with them, but sometimes higher was easier to read, but does that shift my voice for them? RIT/XIT may have been the answer for longer contacts, but not for this quick stuff. A woman’s higher voice confounded me a bit as I tried to fine tune.
Conclusion
I had great fun yelling my callsign all weekend, and it’s the most I’ve ever used my microphone.