CQ WW SSB 2025 – CQ3W SOA 10M |

29. Oktober 2025 · DF7EE (Flashback)

Here we go again! CQ WW SSB 2025 in Madeira, operating from the CR3W station in Santana.

As usual, we arrived at the station on Tuesday, activated the north tower and put a radio in place. The main setup day, as always, was Wednesday. We activated the South Tower and the portable mast with the 10m 4-element antenna.

So we had a Spiderbeam pointing into Europe at 20m, a 4-element monobander at 12m pointing to the US, and a 3-band beam with 3 elements at 16m to 10m for SA.

For a change, I brought my ICOM IC-7610 from Germany instead of the usual IC-7300, mainly to add the RX antenna option and the SO2VFO capability. The latter was actually not used at all during the contest.

Before the contest, I ran some FT8 QSOs and around 400 10m SSB QSOs for propagation and station checks – saved to voice for the weekend.

On Friday, a couple of hours before the contest, we had some VIP visitors coming down to Santana from the CQ9A operation.

From left to right: DF7EE aka CQ3W, Chris KL9A, Dan N6MJ, Dave KM3T and Will W9KKN.

Everything was set, and the contest started with some promising rates right out of the gate: 109 (half hour), 272, 235, only 172 and 238. I thought that was a good start, but unfortunately, it did not hold up that way.

I had some very slow hours below 200, where I called CQ without any takers. Having CQ9A, CR3A and CT3KN on 10m at the same time did not really help. Just 2,600 QSOs after day one was not very promising, and the hope for an assisted WR was buried right away.

Day two was not really better until some very good final hours. Why can it not be above 250 all the time? The fastest hour was 275 QSOs, but I have had above 300 from Madeira before. The best 10-minute rate was 360.

Time distribution!

Some nice runs!

As always, the US is the biggest contributor for QSOs.

At the end, I was able to finish a little bit above last year’s score, but only a tiny bit:

CQ WW SSB 2024

CQ WW SSB 2025

The official claimed/raw scores are out, and the seven-year streak has come to an end?

The gap is only 3.5%!

Update February 2026 – The gap is about 0.5 QSOs – I have to settle for number 2 in the world!

269 points gap in a 2.4 million score – that was f**** close!

Congratulations to HK1T for the #1 world spot!

I have to settle for #2 world (and last place Afrika) with a gap of 0.011% in score and 269 points.

Given that a 3 point QSO from Madeira is worth 567 points, the gap is about 0.5 QSOs!

I have not seen a closer call in all these years of contesting and I have to do a few more QSOs in October 2026 again.

What I have learned?

Further improve my error rate!
Keep pounding – one QSO can make a difference!
I would love to be single mult one time in my live.

Here is a short video recorded by DM1MT in Schöneck of how CQ3W sounds near home:

Thanks!

A big thanks to the Team CR3W, who let me use the station in Santana for the 25th time now, and to my wife Yvonne, who lets me get away two times a year and takes care of everything else!

Another big thanks to an old friend who helped me with the setup, teardown and, most importantly, live support during the operating hours! I am going to miss you next time.

I am open for support applications from now on.

The usual map:

As always – FT8 Haters, stop here and read this instead: