Sunday, February 17, 2013

ARRL DX contest

There is still a few hours of the ARRL DX CW contest to go but I have worked all that I want to work this weekend. I only took part for fun, so no targets to beat. I did hope to work some of the rarer west coast states but conditions didn't allow it. I only worked W/VE stations - in fact I only worked US stations, the VEs were conspicuous by their absence. I did hear one VE but I never managed to work him. So in comparison to other contests my haul of contacts was worse than normal.

I operated for a couple of hours late Saturday morning, and the same again after lunch. On Sunday morning I did another couple of hours but I almost gave up as I seemed to be hearing all the same stations I worked on Saturday. Then the jinx left and I managed to log another batch of new stations. But by Sunday afternoon I'd had enough, and it was a fine late winter day so I went for a walk by the river with Olga.

I think conditions this weekend were below average. Ten metres was all but dead; 15m was quite productive but the money band as usual was 20m. I didn't try the lower bands as I think my attic antennas are too much of a compromise on those bands to work DX with them.

My total of 55 stations worked is nothing to write home about, but remember I was only working US stations - I ignored all the Europeans and Russians whom I would have worked in a normal contest. I worked 20 different states: CT, FL, GA, IL, MA, MD, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT and WI. So my 100W was barely making it past the east coast. If anyone is interested in my full log the contest starts on this page.

Working in a contest is always fun. It's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts!

5 comments:

Roger G3XBM said...

Do you use keyboard generated CW Julian? I find it hard going in these contests with my straight key.

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon Julian, the contest on this side of the pond was not to bad. I had many EU stations on all bands. Maybe in time when I get the nerve up I will stop searching and pouncing and start calling CQ TEST and you will maybe here another VE.
Mike

Anonymous said...

Hi Julian,

I had a little dabble in the contest using qrp on 10m and 20m with attic doublet. Total of 10 stations :-)
Good fun though.

73 Ian

Unknown said...

Hi Roger.

I would find it hard going too with any kind of manual key. I can't send at 24wpm which is the speed I use.

I use a memory keyer (actually it's my logging software but my K3 and KX3 have built-in memories I could use.)

One memory sends my call and the other holds the exchange. I have a couple of others for times like when they come back with my callsign wrong, but basically I can go the whole contest without touching a morse key.

Julian, G4ILO

Bert, PA1B said...

Hello Julian, thank you for this Blog post. I had great fun with 3 Watts in this contest. I use the Morse Machine and Bencher. On sunday I went to 28 MHz on the exact right moment and stayed there for a long time. So my score is fabulous. hi. 73, Bert