. . . I decided to have a bit of fun in the ARRL DX contest (CW) at the weekend. I had lots to do with the family but where I found time I logged some QSOs. I finished the weekend with 404 QSOs in the log. I had 119 Qs on 15 metres, 130 on 20 metres, 44 on 40 metres and 106 on 80 metres. I enjoyed 15m and 80m the most. I had 42 multipliers on 15, 38 on 20, 14 on 40 and 24 on 80, I worked 50 States (US and Canada) over the weekend with a final claimed score of 141,246. I will enter single op assisted high power. I had great fun. Not imagining I will win anything, but the participation brought me a lot of satisfaction.
On 15 metres, I was only short 9 states, KY, LA, ME, MO, OK, SC, SD, UT and WY. I was very happy to get DE, VT, TN, NV, KS, ID, IA, and CO among others.
On 80m the highlights included DE (Delaware) and five of the Canadian states.
10 metres was an utter disappointment. On Sunday afternoon the band sounded dead at my QTH.
I had hoped to make a QSO on top band with my 40m inverted V and 100 watts (pushing it, I know) but the band was in awful shape. 40 metres was a bit of a struggle, particularly on Saturday night but improved somewhat on Sunday night. 80 metres was very enjoyable, I even had a couple of pile-ups going after someone spotted me on the cluster.
Anyway, it just goes to show that contesting is not just for power lids!! It can be an enjoyable pursuit. ARRL DX is a good way to notch up your states. Look out for the phone portion of the contest on March 3rd and 4th. Polish off those microphones!!! See more details here: http://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx
Good evening Anthony, great job on the contest and as for power lids...for me the contest was done with max 5 watts and as little as 500mW's. I did just fine with yes some repeats but over all it was great.
ReplyDeleteI suppose 500 is a decent bit of power. I ran this contest two years ago with just 100 watts and won the low power all band single op section - quite unexpectedly!
Delete5 Watts sounds like an interesting challenge. What was the furthest contact you made?
Oh, I really understand this stuff! In this contest I played a little bit, but sometimes I take it seriously. ARRL DX is fun!
ReplyDelete