This year ARRL International DX Contest CW your 2016 Results The By Matt Wilhelm, W1MSW The sun is quieter, but we’re still making QSOs. Before every major contest, there is always speculation on how solar conditions and propagation will be during the upcoming event. Will this be “the one” with the best propagation? But in the years leading up to the solar minimum, the question turns to whether the high bands will open at all. That was certainly the fear for the 2016 ARRL International DX CW contest, Feb. 20 and 21. After a less-than-impressive peak of solar cycle No. 24, many participants wondered if this would be the year that 10 and 15 meters would go silent. In this contest designed for U.S. and Canadian stations to work the rest of the world, trying to cram all participants into 20 meters and below can be frustrating and certainly hampers a smaller, low power station’s ability to find and hold a run frequency. Luckily, conditions held out this year and 1.85 Dave, W9QL and his trusty, four-legged million contacts were made by participants around the companion, Brett, teamed up for the contest to world. chase DX and make enough contacts to earn his Conditions DXCC award. [David Pritchard, W9QL, photo] Participation First, some comparisons to last year. A total 4,059 logs were submitted this year, which was down about six per Having your call listed in the Top Ten boxes is a great cent. More impressive was that the QSOs logged were a accomplishment and it takes a certain level of 22 per cent reduction compared with 2015. Part of that can competitiveness to make it there. These operators have certainly be attributed to less-than-ideal 10 meter worked incredibly hard to hone their skills and stations to conditions. Happily, this story isn’t all doom and gloom. be the best in their category and are certainly deserving of Stations did report 10 meter activity between North this recognition. Contest participants each have their own America and Europe and Japan on both Saturday and reasons for operating over the weekend that range from Sunday, and although the band conditions were reduced, competing with their peers for a top spot to getting on-the- as Skip, N1IBM, said, “…guess we were lucky we had any air to make a few contacts. Some participants focus on opening.” With more than 35 per cent of the total contacts beating their past scores or accomplishing other goals they made on 15 meters, it was certainly the place to be and the set for themselves before the contest and some are focused soapbox comments and results agreed that conditions on on making contacts to contribute to their club’s aggregated both 10 and 15 meters were best on Sunday as we moved score in the Affiliated Club Competition. Whatever the further away from a solar storm earlier in the week. With motivation for a station’s participation, it is important to less activity on 10 meters, the percentage of contacts made remember that the winner tables only represent a small on 15, 20 and 40 meters were up over last year with 80 and percentage of the participants. For this year’s ARRL DX 160 meters staying about the same. Investing resources CW, almost one-third of the logs submitted contained into improving low-band antennas as we approach the fewer than 100 contacts. Without participation from all solar minimum will certainly be a strategy many stations types of contesters, the operators listed in winner tables will be looking at in upcoming years. would have a very long and boring weekend. 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 1 of 14 significant lead in multipliers was enough to secure the win. Single Operator, High Power K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 5,780,583 N5DX 5,413,950 VY2TT 5,373,720 N2NT 4,980,456 K1ZZ 4,949,100 AA1K 4,473,360 N1UR 4,244,220 The lush landscape surrounding TI5W on the north slope N2IC 4,196,370 of Tenorio Volcano. This year N3KS, KL9A, and WX3B W9RE 3,729,519 operated at the station and won the DX Multioperator, N9RV 3,472,524 Single Transmitter, High Power and set the all-time record for the category. [Kamal Sirageldin, NK3S, photo] In the Single Operator Unlimited High Power category, Frankford Radio Club members took the top three spots with a very close finish between first and second place. After log checking was complete, Chas, K3WW beat out Records Bud, AA3B, by a mere 70K points, which I’m sure will provide some good spirited intra-club competition that so All-time records in W/VE were safe this year by a many of us rely on to keep us in the chair during contests. significant margin, but the same cannot be said for the DX records. In the DX Single Operator, High Power category, Single Operator, Low Power W2SC set the all-time record operating as 8P5A in Barbados. Tom was able to accomplish this despite W1UE 3,729,132 struggling with software issues at the beginning of the VE3DZ 2,930,445 contest. Not too far away in Aruba, John, W2GD, WA1Z 2,830,800 operating as P4ØW, broke the all-time record for Single N5AW 2,345,166 Operator, QRP by nearly one million points. Important NA8V 1,630,581 factors such as the lack of QRN, low signal absorption on N4TZ 1,545,804 80 and 160, and diminished 10 meter propagation between EU and W/VE all fell into place for his outstanding effort, K2PO 1,244,310 John writes. Further West, Kam, N3KS, Chris, KL9A and K5KU 1,191,078 Jim, WX3B, operated from TI5W setting the DX record W2ID 1,144,932 for Multioperator, Single Transmitter, High Power. The K1VSJ 1,110,108 team reported it was plagued by RFI on most bands and multiple power outages leading up to the contest. The noise culprit turned out to be a bad streetlight sensor they Despite reporting difficult conditions on 10 meters, were able to mitigate by modifying the low-band receive Dennis, W1UE, did an impressive job of producing a antennas and using the noise blanker on their transceiver. distinct win in the SOLP category from Greg, W1KM’s, Fortunately, the power stayed on throughout the event. station in EMA. Dennis wrote that Greg’s “new four- For a more complete look at the records, browse to the the square on 160M is working truly great.” That was well records archive at www.arrl.org/contest-records, which represented in Dennis’ score with the highest number of are maintained by Bob Schreibmeier, K3PH. 160 meter contacts and multipliers in both the SOLP and SOHP categories. Here at home This year most W/VE categories had a well-defined winner. One exception was the close SOHP race between Alex, LZ4AX, operating as K3CR, and Kevin, N5DX, operating remotely with his call from N2QV. Both stations were neck and neck in QSO count throughout most of the contest, but on Sunday at 1500Z, Alex pulled ahead. A 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 2 of 14 incredible 2.7M win over 2nd place. Participation in the Single Operator Unlimited, High Power MSL category was down this year, but the stations that did K3WW 6,394,752 compete put in the effort. KØUK was able to win big in AA3B 6,325,407 Colorado, beating out other stations located in the Northeast. Multioperator efforts can be a fun way for N3RS 5,709,645 friends to spend the weekend together playing radio, so if K6ND (K1XM, op) 5,354,640 you’re looking for something new to try, this category has K1RX 5,069,220 plenty of room for teams looking for a place to compete. N4AF 4,790,430 AB3CX 4,726,512 VA2WA 4,464,072 KV2K (K2NG, op) 4,409,307 K1LZ 4,229,514 Single Operator Unlimited, Low Power W4IX 2,969,415 W1MSW 1,977,996 W3KB 1,770,624 N4XL 1,714,656 KG4V (N1EN, op) 1,652,796 WO1N 1,639,950 VA3DF 1,592,745 WØUO 1,561,950 W9XT 1,508,931 AA4FU 1,318,248 Sometimes a change in plans works out for the better and that’s exactly what happened for John, K4IX, operating in the SOULP category. “I originally planned on doing this as SOUHP from the NQ4I Station, but found out on Monday there were weather-related equipment issues and not enough time to get the station ready, so I decided to do it from my station, but low power,” John wrote. Although it required him to work on his low-band antennas, he was able crush the competition with nearly a 1M point lead between 1st and 2nd place. Single Operator Unlimited, QRP K9YC 388,020 VE3XT 42,465 K7MK 21,357 NA3E 17,100 VE9BWK 15,318 K4AHO 4,797 WA2NYY 1,539 And speaking of crushing the competition, the Multioperator categories were all won by significant margins this year. KI1G operated for the first time in the M2 category, which proved to be a good decision with a solid win from his Rhode Island station. The largest margin was established by W2FU operating MSH with an 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 3 of 14 Probably the most significant win this year was W3LPL Multioperator, Single Transmitter, High Power beating K3LR in the battle of the Multi-Multis. Tim’s W2FU 7,232,448 K3LR held onto the title for the last three years, but the K2QMF 4,506,489 Maryland team was able to win it back. Frank, W3LPL, attributed the win partially to this year’s propagation that N1MM 4,438,518 favored his station over his competition to the North. W5MX 3,463,317 Frank says it is factors such as these that keep him K3PH 3,249,900 interested in the game and coming back each year to try W2XL 2,572,731 and win again. K6LL 2,273,808 K5UA 2,102,265 AD4ES 1,970,100 AC4CA 1,586,910 Multioperator, Single Transmitter, Low Power KØUK 623,904 W3YI 382,104 W3WN 183,012 W4TG 181,440 N3ZV 105,300 NØCG 34,314 W1FM 8,901 Multioperator, Two Transmitter KI1G 8,934,618 NN3W 7,714,323 K8AZ 7,109,553 VE3JM 6,930,522 W1VE 6,125,328 K9CT 6,061,809 NØNI 5,600,955 W2CG 4,968,012 K4TCG 4,540,737 W2YC 4,490,892 Multioperator, Multitransmitter W3LPL 13,700,160 K3LR 12,482,748 WE3C 11,422,500 NR4M 10,499,202 WK1Q 9,024,867 W4RM 7,659,603 W4AAW 5,518,584 K1KI 5,115,240 NE2V 4,392,360 N6WM 3,955,392 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 4 of 14 Single Operator, 160 Meters K1WHS 22,692 N2OO 15,624 N7GP 12,600 W4ZV 8,316 W4AA 8,316 W2VO 6,318 AG4W 6,201 W3GH 5,661 KN2T 4,320 W8TOP (W8UVZ, op) 4,224 Single Operator, 80 Meters VY2ZM 208,527 W3BGN 99,897 K5RX 75,120 W1HI 40,548 W1XX 39,060 K4FJ 29,736 K1DM 24,111 KM4HI 22,176 K1MC 18,975 W1FQ 16,920 Single Operator, 40 Meters W9SN 371,952 N5FO 241,758 W6YX (N7MH, op) 234,555 KA1IS 114,750 N9CO 107,136 WA1FCN 75,816 WC1M 70,686 W4SAA 61,620 W5TZC 50,616 WK4U 35,244 Single Operator, 20 Meters N2MF 626,760 KD2RD 559,011 KVØQ 336,930 N4OX 158,745 N7CW 119,508 W2TF 115,515 NF8R 93,183 NK3U 72,072 K4TRH 55,200 N3GD 49,062 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 5 of 14 enough to allow the stations in this region to dominate the top spots in most of the categories. Single Operator, 15 Meters K3RV 585,519 Single Operator, High Power NY3A 546,786 8P5A (W2SC, op) 7,548,552 N7DD 428,400 TO7A (UT5UGR, op) 6,668,505 N4WW (N4KM, op) 394,809 6Y1D (RA1A, op) 6,202,404 W6YA 354,816 KP2M (KT3Y, op) 6,010,524 K5WK 317,664 D4C (YL2KL, op) 5,828,427 W2UP 303,930 CU4DX (EA5KA, op) 4,805,370 K8AJS 257,400 CR6K (CT1ILT, op) 3,858,990 W9ILY 254,205 KH7M (NA2U, op) 3,749,652 W2AW (N2GM, op) 251,472 CR3A (OM3RM, op) 3,401,568 E7DX (E7ØT, op) 2,617,824 Single Operator, 10 Meters K2SSS 62,220 Single Operator Unlimited, Low Power N2PP 46,350 WB9Z 41,535 KP4KE 4,378,641 K9BGL 40,683 NP2P (N2TTA, op) 3,782,151 K2PS 28,800 EF8R 1,773,696 W3DF 15,600 CN8KD 1,344,150 K3SWZ 14,580 EC4TA 915,687 W5GAI 10,701 F4DXW 909,144 KD5J 9,840 DLØUM (DL7FER, op) 711,480 KN4Y 9,576 YO3JR 677,688 LU7HZ 547,740 DL1QQ 536,010 Around the world The place to be for a winning score in the DX categories was certainly in the Caribbean and surrounding entities. In fact, only two categories were won from outside the Winning the SOHP, Tom, W2SC, operating as 8P5A in Americas: CR2X operating Single Operator, 15 meters Barbados writes that, “Scheduling conflicts prevented and Karel, OK2FD, operating in the new category this participation in this contest for the last 10 years.” After year, Single Operator Unlimited, QRP. having some problems with software configuration and a couple stops in the first two hours, everything came together to win with a all-time record setting score. Single Operator Unlimited, High Power V26M (N3AD, op) 5,191,725 Single Operator, Low Power G5W (G3BJ, op) 2,313,765 NP2X (K9VV, op) 4,610,385 EF6T (EA3AIR, op) 2,176,500 KP3Z (NP4Z, op) 4,272,912 SN7Q (SP7GIQ, op) 2,172,735 VP9/W6PH (W6PH, op) 3,811,890 CE2MVF 2,095,218 NP3A 3,259,872 IO1T (IZ1LBG, op) 1,904,952 YV8AD 2,491,482 OK7M (OK1DIG, op) 1,854,144 EF2A (EA2OT, op) 2,280,960 IR2C (IK2PFL, op) 1,852,560 HI3TT 1,730,394 EA5FV 1,719,480 HI3Y 1,499,808 EI5KF 1,331,172 PY2NY 1,419,834 EIØDX (G4XUM, op) 1,410,918 While high band propagation from North America to Europe and Asia was not completely shut out, it was down 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 6 of 14 Like many of the W/VE Top Ten winners, the DX Single Operator categories were won with a significant margin. When N3AD says, “The V26B station performed flawlessly,” he’s not kidding. He completely crushed the competition in the category with a 2.8M lead over second place operating as V26M from the Antigua station. However, this was not the case for the Multioperator categories. Single Operator, QRP P4ØW (W2GD, op) 3,570,936 HB9BMY 227,664 S5ØXX 193,125 LZ2RS 116,706 EF7AAW (EF7AAW/QRP, op) 112,488 IK6FWJ 102,336 LU8ADX 96,030 IZ3NVR 92,247 JH1OGC 86,292 DKØPO 66,420 TI5W and ZF1A battled it out in the Multi-Single, High Power category with WRTC teammates Chris, KL9A, and Dan, N6MJ, on opposite sides of the field. If you worked either team over the weekend (and you probably did) you know both displayed impressive operating skills. Both teams worked the same number of multipliers, but in the end TI5W was able to put more contacts in the log and won with their record-breaking score. 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 7 of 14 Single Operator Unlimited, QRP OK2FD 328,287 EA2DVR 6,615 PE2K 4,590 JK1TCV 3,927 UTØUM 3,744 R7RF/6 3,060 R7FO 2,808 JA7KBR 1,620 JR1LLD 189 LY2BGP 126 Single Operator, 160 Meters HK1R 134,850 NP2J 88,086 YV1KK 83,985 CU2KG (OH2BH, op) 67,473 V31YN (DJ4KW, op) 38,148 HC2AO 31,602 HA8A (HA8DZ, op) 22,533 EU1WW (EU1W, op) 4,332 M5O (G3LET, op) 3,234 UYØZG 756 8SØDX (SMØDSG, op) 756 Single Operator, 80 Meters XE2X 209,745 CO2JD 152,703 KH6/WB4JTT (WB4JTT, op) 60,684 S52AW 54,120 YU6DX 41,652 YT3J (YT1AA, op) 29,016 DJØMDR 24,570 LU1FAM 20,538 R7NW 19,278 DJ5EU 13,020 Single Operator, 40 Meters P49Y (AE6Y, op) 338,001 6Y4K 310,680 HK3TU 241,020 IR1Y (IK1YDB, op) 210,984 S53A 203,727 S5ØC (S53RM, op) 196,479 YT7A 195,750 S51YI 180,090 XE2S 175,938 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 8 of 14 9A9R 173,520 Single Operator, 20 Meters FY5KE (F6FVY, op) 421,083 SJ2W (SM2LIY, op) 302,808 TM6M (F1AKK, op) 288,042 OH8L (OH8LQ, op) 238,632 EI1Y (SQ6MS, op) 232,227 GM5A 209,352 OK8NM (OM6NM, op) 206,607 S5ØK 204,480 LU5FF 204,045 RTØF 168,681 Single Operator, 15 Meters CR2X (OH2PM, op) 323,460 TM5Y (F8DBF, op) 289,323 MM3T (GMØELP, op) 251,517 EIØPL (F5SDD, op) 243,180 VK2IA 229,158 CX2BR 195,660 TMØR (F5MNK, op) 192,420 IR1R (IK1HJS, op) 177,300 9A7V 175,320 LU6UO 173,283 Single Operator, 10 Meters HK1X 336,123 CW4MAX (CX2DK, op) 280,440 TO1A (F5HRY, op) 273,060 LU5FC 261,540 LW6DG 252,048 P4ØLE (K2LE, op) 195,231 XR2K (CE2LML, op) 154,338 TI8/AA8HH 103,272 LW8DQ 96,102 PY2XC 58,320 Multioperator, Single Transmitter, High Power TI5W 7,591,320 ZF1A 7,112,070 NP2N 5,400,612 KH6J 3,632,643 IR4M 2,933,304 IR4X 2,856,882 IO5O 2,057,250 DL1A 1,851,003 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 9 of 14 ES5Q 1,825,776 HG1S 1,813,650 Multioperator, Single Transmitter, Low Power V31TP 5,591,466 PJ6A 5,356,539 VP5K 4,397,823 ZW8T 1,909,104 OL1C 632,790 CE1CA 444,600 ED4R 373,005 ET7L 183,312 YU2A 136,968 F8KLY 105,561 Multioperator, Two Transmitter PJ4X 8,901,270 P4ØXM 8,476,512 T48K 7,595,616 VP2MWA 6,354,828 PS2T 5,574,807 PT5A 5,310,900 ED7P 4,002,786 LX7I 3,648,285 OL7M 2,561,976 HG7T 2,324,835 Multioperator, Multitransmitter PJ2T 9,825,354 KH6LC 7,028,070 CR3W 6,156,906 9A1A 3,706,425 JA3YBK 2,397,600 JE1ZWT 1,360,077 LZ9W 147,345 GM9N 17,976 RW4CRV 4,386 UIØL 888 2016 [Contest] Full Results – Version 1.0 Page 10 of 14