The CQ World Wide 160-Meter Contest is the largest annual amateur radio event which exclusively focuses on the 160-meter band. Participants aim to contact as many other stations as possible across different countries and zones, using CW (during the CW part at the end of January) or SSB (during the phone part at the end of February).
The contest occurs over 48 hours in the winter for the northern hemisphere, leveraging the band’s optimal conditions for long-distance communication. The contest starts and ends earlier than other CQ contests, at 22:00Z rather than 00:00Z to maximize night-time operating hours and conditions. Single-operator stations may only operate 30 out of the 48 hours, while Multi-Operator stations may operate a maximum of 40 hours. Due to the particularly tough conditions prevailing on 160 meters, the contest challenges operators to enhance their skills, antennas and station setups for effective low-band transmissions, promoting global interaction and learning within the amateur radio community.
Team SZ1A took part in the Top-Band CQ Word Wide 160M CW Contest this year, competing in the Multi-Single High Power category.
Unfortunately, on the first night, we encountered antenna problems, resulting in no QSOs due to a broken dipole. However, the team demonstrated resilience by promptly repairing the antenna early Saturday morning. Despite operating without RX antennas and missing the first night, we managed to achieve an impressive 812 QSOs and 56 DXCC countries.
Team SZ1A expresses its gratitude to all participants for their patience in making successful QSOs with us. Operators were the “Delta Force” SV1DAY, SV1DKD, SV1DPI and SV1DPJ, supported by SV1CQK, SV1CIB, and SV1CQG, alongside numerous visitors (SV1SN SV1TBW SY1DOB SV1RLC SV1CQM and more…)
It was a whole lot of fun and Team SZ1A looks forward to future Top-Band 160-meter contests. We also look forward to significantly improving our antennas and performance for the “Gentleman’s Band“…
