Saturday, February 19, 2011

ARRL DX CW contest + increase SFI = great conditions

20 meters is jumping with action
I am taking a very leisurely approach to the ARRL CW DX contest, just having fun giving out some points. I will say the increased SFI has served me well. I have no problem being heard all over Europe with 3 watts with my dipole in the attic. I  can only hear reports of how 10 and 15 are doing (and they are very good) as I don't at this time have any antennas setup for those bands. One thing I find happens is the big gun super stations are flying with the CW and in some cases I don't even send my exchange and they are already thanking me and moving on.....happen 4 times so far...........Oh well contest on!!!!!!!!

8 comments:

Bert, PA1B said...

Hello Mike,

I also love the ARRL DX contest. Over the years I made QSO's in this contest with my FT-817 and Inverted Vee with 500 mW to 5W.
I heard stations being completely puzzled by my exchange 599 001, when working with just 1 watt.
I just made a few QSO's with 3 and 5 watt.
Please notice that a QSO with 3 watt to Europe can be more a than 1000 Miles per Watt QSO.
Not bad for your antenna on the attic.
If you are interested in 1000 miles per watt, please visit my site on QRPp and 1000 MPW.
http://a29.veron.nl/pa1b.htm
Good luck in the contest.
Bert PA1B

VE9KK said...

Good evening Bert welcome to the blog...I am going to calculate my best distance with the huge 3 watts I am running and look into this award. Love more paper for the wall....considering this would be my first QRP wall paper.

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Mike, only 3W and the attic dipole. That's amazing. If so, it would be possible to receive your WSPR signal as well. How do stations know what you power was if they did not wait for the exchange? Seems they are clear-sighted. Anyway, you did a great job. 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon Bas, yes 3 watts is pretty cool as for the other station not waiting for my report in this contest it is province or state for DX it is power. So their loggers will do an auto fill once VE3 entered but it would be nice for them to hear my reply that way I know for sure the complete contact is made.

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hello Mike, well done, with 3 watts from the attic. We will have a great time when the solar maximum reach it's highest point in 2012. 73 Paul

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon Paul....I have even dropped the power a lot lower and not doing to bad. Well be blogging the results on Monday. Can't wait for 2012 and more FLUX!!!!

Bert, PA1B said...

Hello Mike,

In the ARRL-DX contest 2011 the 20 m band just closed to Europe. In total I made 12 QSO's to the US and Canada with 5 W, 19 with 2.5 W and 1 with only 1 W, on 20 m with the FT-817 and an Inverted Vee. I worked 16 states.
I nearly always use the lowest possible power in a contest QSO. This year a had to use more power than the previous years.
Sunspots or not, I still have great fun with QRP.
About 1000 MPW - Don't tell anyone - I have sent over 1000 special 1000 MPW QSL cards for every "more than 1000 Miles per Watt" QSO, but I still did not apply for the Award. hi Maybe later.
How did your ARRL DX contest go?

73, Bert PA1B

VE9KK said...

Good morning Bert, the contest went very well I am not a serous contester it is more of a nice leisure time for me. Most of my contacts were made with 5 watts, when down to 3 watts but when I saw how great the conditions were it was 1 watt and then I went for broke and turned it down to 500 milli watts. I made 7 contacts with 500 mw's it was great.