CQ WPX SSB 2020

This year CQ WPX SSB was under COVID-19 rules. My travel plan to Madeira and operate as CQ3W was cancled and plan B to the DX Hotel was also not so practical, beeing away from home in disfficoult times. The final decicion was to operate LX20i (LX7I) remote from my own cellar.

I started SO(A)/AB with a great run on 40m but some internet glitches killed that Idea as well. After a long forced break – till internt was back up – I decided to go Single Band 20m. This was already Plan-D or so.

With these conditions 20m is a big fight for frequency space all the time, and this is not the fun part of the hobby.

The setup was ICOM IC-7700 with RS-BA1 Software and single ACOM-2000A.

Antennas 2x 5 Element USA 1x 5 Element JA and OB-16 for South. No rotators.

I think i missed about 3-5 hours due to poor pause planing and a small teamviewer outage in the morning. The call LX20I was the winner on the dupe-fest! I dont know how it can be so difficoult but I had more than 100 dupes!!!!!!!!

At the end I had 1700+ QSOs in the log and it could have been 2000 maybe with all the breaks and glitches. This still does not give you any chance against the multi amplifier stations that fire some kilowatts in multible directions at the same time. 4-5 amps help you to keep your frequncy clear and not loose it.

Online it is top 5 but maybe a top 10 in Europe at the end.

Hope WPX 2021 will be under better circumstances.

73

Helmut