2002 ARRL 10 Meter Contest
12/20/2002 |
KE0UI
By Bob North, KE0UI, St Louis Park, Minnesota
With excellent propagation (nice flux in the high 100s and a quiet geomagnetic field, Ks of 1 and 2) the stage was set for some nice numbers. Competition up here in Minnesota is pretty fierce with a lot of CW only ops in my Low Power category, but I was determined to move up in the standings from last year. Running a tribander at 45 feet isn't much of a threat, but 693 QSOs in the log was an improvement over last year's 560. The main "mantra" I believe in now is "if you're not CQ-ing you're losing" so forced myself to hold a frequency and endure all those deathly silences after a call. It paid off in the long run with rates holding in the 45-60/hr range!
Did a little two-radio action this time around. Boy, what a challenge! Set up the Omni V on the beam and found a high frequency to call CQ on, then would tune the low end of the band for mults with the FT-890 while CQing. Feeding the audio from one radio into the left channel and the other into the right does give cause for occasional thoughts of "wonder what a relaxing hobby would be like?" See you next year!
Bob -- KE0UI
With excellent propagation (nice flux in the high 100s and a quiet geomagnetic field, Ks of 1 and 2) the stage was set for some nice numbers. Competition up here in Minnesota is pretty fierce with a lot of CW only ops in my Low Power category, but I was determined to move up in the standings from last year. Running a tribander at 45 feet isn't much of a threat, but 693 QSOs in the log was an improvement over last year's 560. The main "mantra" I believe in now is "if you're not CQ-ing you're losing" so forced myself to hold a frequency and endure all those deathly silences after a call. It paid off in the long run with rates holding in the 45-60/hr range!
Did a little two-radio action this time around. Boy, what a challenge! Set up the Omni V on the beam and found a high frequency to call CQ on, then would tune the low end of the band for mults with the FT-890 while CQing. Feeding the audio from one radio into the left channel and the other into the right does give cause for occasional thoughts of "wonder what a relaxing hobby would be like?" See you next year!
Bob -- KE0UI
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