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For my money, the CQ Worldwide DX CW contest is the biggest, best and most fun contest of the year. I look forward to this one like no other, and it’s this coming weekend. If you operate Morse code and want to work a ton of DX in a single weekend, get on the air and join the fun.

CQ Worldwide CW is the subject for Episode 15 of Zone Zero. Let’s dive in!

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If you were wondering where Zone Zero has been for the past month, worry not. No self-respecting contest podcast would dare miss the opportunity to preview one of the biggest contests on the annual calendar.

CQ Worldwide CW is a mammoth contest, with more than 8,000 competitors expected to jump in this weekend.

(See the year-over-year entry statistics).

If you think Morse code is on the way out, think again. Last year the CQ Worldwide CW contest had 8,341 logs submitted. The Phone contest a month earlier had just 7,576 entries.

Think about that. There were 765 more entries in the Morse code version than the SSB or Phone version of this contest in 2016. I don’t think most people would have ever expected that, but it is borne out by the CQ Worldwide entry statistics.

Generally, over the past 20 years we’ve seen a steady — and in some years very healthy — increase in the number of entries in this contest near the end of November. To give you an idea of the popularity growth, let’s take a look at 1996 versus 2016.

Two decades ago, 2,885 logs were submitted, and in 2016 a grand total of 8,341 logs came in. That’s 5,456 more competitors. Remarkable.

Curiously, in the CQ WW Phone contest the highest number of entries ever was in 2013, at the peak of Cycle 24, when nearly 8,500 logs were sent in for scoring. But the CW contest had its peak last year – three years after the Phone peak, and well into the decline of the current Solar Cycle. I don’t now why they aren’t in sync, but it is a curious phenomenon.

Why the growth in Morse code contest participation? Well, I think it’s a combination of technology and demographics. Contesting with automated systems – in particular the maturity of logging software like N1MM Logger that works seamlessly with transceivers to make operating so simple even I can do it – is a huge factor. The barrier to entering a high-speed Morse code contest today is far lower than it was two decades ago.

And the other factor, I believe, is demographics. We’re a lot older, and that means more of us are retired or at least able to devote the time it takes to seriously compete. Families are grown, our careers are either well in hand or behind us. And because we’ve been at this for decades, more of us have stations that are more than a radio on a side table. The kids are grown, and more of us have earned the time we spend in leisure.

We may be getting up there in years, but I firmly believe this is a golden age for ham radio contesting. Alas, the bulge of retired hams who enjoy competing will not last forever, and while there are a lot of younger hams getting into contesting, they will never match the numbers of those licensed in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

I am determined to enjoy this while it lasts. I dread the days when I am ready to retire in a decade or so (I’m only 52 now and need to keep working forever, it seems). We’re losing so many wonderful hams every year, and it leaves me a bit sad after a contest like the ARRL Sweepstakes earlier this month that reveals how old we’re getting.

But for now, in CQ Worldwide CW, we have more to celebrate than ever before. You’ll make more contacts per hour across the entire 48-hour weekend than at any time in the long history of amateur radio. So let’s get on the air and make hay while the sun shines.

The rules

Depending on where you are in the world, you’ll get one point for contacts with other countries on your continent (the exception is North America, where you get two points for contacts in other North American countries).

If you work a station on another continent, you get three points.

Now, multiply those contact points by the number of CQ Zones and DXCC countries worked on each band.

It’s all pretty simple, and your logging software should be able to keep track of everything for you. I use N1MM Logger. It’s free and I believe the most comprehensive contest software available for CW, Phone and Radio Teletype contesters.

My setup

For this contest, I think I’ll run in the high-power unassisted category. I’ve gone high-power every year since 2007 – because I got my first amplifier in December of 2006.

Because I have been very busy competing in contests each weekend since the last episode (hence the scarcity of episodes this month), I have a good idea of how the bands will be from this corner of the world.

I predict that I’ll have very brief morning openings to Europe on 15M, but should be able to work Europe most of the daylight hours on 20M with the best conditions around 1600z to 1800z. So, I know what bands to be on during the daylight.

The contest begins at 4 p.m. Friday here. From previous years, I know I should start on 15M pointing at Japan. But after 45 minutes, I will want to skip directly to 40M, as most of North America will have gone there from the very beginning.

By 0045z each day, I will want to head to 40M to gather all the Caribbean and South American multipliers I can. 40M has been very long in recent weeks, with the US East Coast very loud from out here near the West Coast. But Europe hasn’t been all that strong. I know I will need every European country I can get into the log on 40M to be competitive.

For antennas on 40M I have a rotary dipole that will work nicely for most of North America, and a 2-element wire quad that points at Europe. It’s very low, with the bottom corner of the diamond-shaped elements just five feet off the ground. But it’s still a few dB better than the low rotary dipole, and when conditions favor it, the quad will be heard in Europe.

After a few hours on 40M, I’ll have to go down to 80M. There, I have just one antenna, but it is a doozy – an array of three full-sized ¼-wave verticals in a triangle pattern that allows me to fire my signal in any of six directions. It’s not perfect, being entirely homebrewed and of my own design, but it does work. Especially across North America and into the Caribbean and South America. Again, I’ll have to rake in every available multiplier on 80M to be competitive.

This year, for the first time, I expect to make more than a handful of contacts on 160M. That’s because I will be using the new AL-80B amplifier making about 500 watts more than the 100 watts I’ve been able to muster before now.

The Top Band antenna is an inverted-L using a folded counterpoise. It’s not the best configuration (it needs to be re-hung next spring) but I expect to add a hundred more US and Canadian contacts on 160M than ever before, and perhaps add to my 160M DXCC total, which sits at just 19 right now.

Because the low bands are the only place to be for about half of the contest weekend, you have to dredge all you can from those bands.

Secrets from the past

If you’ve listened to previous episodes, you know I make a big deal out of my contest notes. I keep a diary of my contest experiences, for future reference. And it could pay off this weekend.

In the2015 running of this contest, I discovered an unexpected 20M opening to Europe in the hour after my local midnight (beginning around 0830z). That opening produced steady runs — from Israel to Ireland — all the way to 1000z.

Will the solar cycle’s decline since 2015 still support that midnight opening to Europe on 20M? I don’t know. If it happens I can’t expect it to be a massive opening, but you can bet an Easter donkey that I’ll be there watching for it.

Trying new things

There was a time, a few years ago, when I could enter a contest and try hard and I’d earn a certificate for my section. I have quite a stack of those, but running a single radio is no longer competitive. Many of the stations I want to compete with now operate SO2R – that’s single-operator two-radio. I just don’t have the mental horsepower to do that very well, but the station is equipped to run two bands at the same time.

So, this year I will give it a serious try. SO2R on CW will take some practice. My intention is to give it a try on 40M and 80M, running the amp on 80M and 100W on 40M with the rotary dipole to keep working domestic stations.

I’ll do this because my 80M array and the 40M dipole are physically about 150 feet apart, providing a bit more separation to keep the receivers happy. I can put a 40M bandpass filter on the low-power radio to help, too. Sadly, I burned out my 80M bandpass filter a few years go by mistake, and haven’t tried SO2R much since then.

I figure if I can make 20 extra contacts per hour on the second radio, through the wee hours of the night I can boost my score quire handily. The simple exchange in CQWW – 599 and a zone – won’t overly tax my brain. Famous last words, right?

Okay. I am totally psyched for this weekend’s contest. I’ve booked off work a couple of hours early Friday afternoon, and if that pans out I will have some daylight before the start to do a quick antenna walkaround.

As I’m preparing this episode, on November 21, there are no sunspots, 10.7-cm solar flux is at a miserly 74, the A-index is at a whopping 19, and the aurora is crackling overhead at 8.1 or 48 gigawatts of power in the ionosphere. That doesn’t look good for the coming weekend, but things can change in the space of a few days. Fingers are crossed.

That’s it for this episode of Zone Zero. Check back next week and I’ll have a post-contest report. I predict I’ll end up with about 1,400 contacts and 150 multipliers for a score of about 500,000 points. That’s a lot less than the 1.75 million points I had in 2015, but about as good as I can hope for with conditions in the shape I am expecting for CQ Worldwide CW 2017.

Sunspots or not, I can hardly wait.

Thanks for listening. Let’s go get ‘em. I’ll see you out there.