The ZL6QH team (left to right): ZL2BSJ, ZL1BYZ, ZL2IFB/G4IFB, ZL1TM (working the 15m pileup), ZL2AGY and ZL1AZE.

Class: M/M HP
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Band QSOs Zones Countries
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160: 6 5 6
80: 427 23 64
40: 1861 33 110
20: 1247 37 126
15: 2440 34 105
10: 491 23 37
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Total: 6472 155 448 Total Score = 11,432,880

Our claimed score of 11.4 million is well short of the 12.7 million that we achieved in 2004, mainly due to patchy conditions on 10m. We only made 491 10m QSOs this year, compared to 1671 QSOs in 2004. Most of the 10m QSOs were with North America and Asia, but we did manage to work a few East European stations during a brief opening on Sunday evening.

The low bands were plagued with local rain static and strong atmospheric QRN (over S9 during darkness) which meant that only the stronger signals made it into the log. The QRN along with weak signals meant that we did not end up spending much time on the 160m band, however we still managed to work KH6ZM, K7GK, JA1ELY, UA9YAB, UW2M, and RO4M. We also heard (but did not work) HC8N, RU1A and UU7J on 160m.

Most of the action was on 15m. One of the highlights was working some weak European stations (including IR2NR) via a path over North America during the middle of the day. We would normally only expect to work such stations via the short path in our evening.

The operators have already identified their wish list for the 2006 contest - including "more sunspots" and "new radios" with special buttons that make tea/coffee and automatically find new QSOs and multipliers!

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs, the Wellington Amateur Radio Club for the ZL6QH facilities, ZL2GI and members of the contest team for the loan of equipment, and the contest organisers for one of the best contests on the calendar.

Posted by ZL1AZE on December 04, 2005