The last full weekend of October (24-25.10 in 2020) is the time of the CQWW DX SSB Contest. Most of the SO4M members are CW or RTTY pasionates so we operate phone contests very seldom. Anyway the CQWW DX SSB weekend was perfect time for meeting and doing some preparations for the coming year.

A big station, big antennas require a lot of work all the year. Antennas and towers require inspection, checking and maintenance.

This time three of us (SP4MPG, SP5OXJ, SP5UAF) met to do some necessary work at SO4M. The building of the radio shack was renovated last weeks (new roof) and it was necessary to re-organize all feeders etc. But the most important job was the installation of a new, multiplier antenna GB37 (3 bander, 2el 20m, 3el 15m, 3el 10m) as well as the antenna rotator. The weather was perfect – beautiful, gold autumn.

So the antenna is on the tower. It still requires tuning. It will be used for listening to unprivileged directions as well as for working new multipliers from such directions.

The results of the CQ WW WPX CW Contest were published. I am very glad to see my result in the Top Ten in the World and in Europe.

The propagation conditions were not too good during the second night and the propagation to North America was poor. I could hear stations from Balkans working USA while I was not able to copy the signals of US stations. It’s typical situation when something is happening in the ionosphere.

Anyway the final result is not bad (9th in the World and 7th in Europe) and it is also the third results in the Polish All Time record in Single OP Assisted 20m HP. I am also very glad that the log accuracy is close to 96% according to the UBN report.