Monday, February 17, 2020

ARRL DX CW contest.

It was nice to see the bands very active with DX for me it was from 15m to 40m. The Endfed I have at the moment will not get me onto 80m BUT the new Endfed I purchased (going up in warmer weather) will give me 80m and maybe more. This year I spent a bit more time in the chair operating than I usually do. I was operating as a single operator, all band and low power (100 watts)
Score breakdown:
I was not able to snag any rare DX and in fact, I really only heard manly Europe, nothing from the middle east or Asia this year. During the late afternoon on 15m, I had Central and South America open up and I was able to get some contacts from there in the log. I only made 126 QSO's I was in and out of the chair and I really have to get to the point in my CW career to feel comfortable calling CW contest and stop the search and pounce only routine. The only Murphy moment I had was when my Bluetooth keyboard's rechargeable battery when dead. I had to hunt down my USB keyboard before continuing in the contest. The lesson learned here is to set the Bluetooth aside and use the USB keyboard for contesting.  The next contests in my schedule are the North and South Carolina QSO party contests the first weekend in March.

2 comments:

John AE5X said...

Hello Mike, I was hoping to have worked you in the contest but ended up having to work my job both days instead ;-) Sounds like you had fun, and not a bad country count on 40m!
73 - John

VE9KK said...

Good evening John, yes it was a nice way to spend a few hours on Saturday and then Sunday. With the Endfed antenna it's nice to have 40m as a contest band. When the new Endfed goes up it will bring 80m into play as well.
Have a great week John oh and yes I do remember all to well about having to work on weekends and being on standby almost every weekend as well.
73,
Mike
VE9KK