12/11/2006 | K1WHS I have had my ham license for a long time, but have never been on any HF bands to speak of. (My DXCC on 40 meters is stuck at 18 countries) All of my experience is with VHF and UHF DX. So I decided to try the 10 Meter Contest, and actually spent about 9 1/2 hours searching and pouncing on both phone and CW. Wow! Do I have a lot to learn! My knowledge of 10 meter propagation will fit in a thimble, so I was literally a babe in the woods when it came to knowing what to do at any given moment.
It did not help that I went to a Christmas party on Friday night where the laced egg nog was flowing freely. When I got home at 0520 UT, I tuned around the band and heard California sneaking through on CW. It must have been the egg nog at work I figured, but when he asked to go up the band to SSB and actually showed up, I knew that it was a real contact! SO how do you even begin to know who is on at any given time? I was so frustrated tuning around, trying to find all the good DX. With a humongous band literally all filled up with SSB and CW signals, and me sifting through it, I could have easily missed hearing JY1 or K7UGA, not to mention Marlon and Arthur Godfrey!! On VHF, I am used to maybe 5 or 6 signals on the band at any time. Having 500 to 1000 to choose from was quite a change. I was not ready for all the activity. I used computer logging, but could not find any cable to plug in the rig, so I had to change from CW to SSB manually in the contest software. I guess, if I had been serious about it, I would be upset, but at my pace, the manual changes fit right in.
I ignored a few signals down at the bottom of the band. They were sending so fast, that there was no way I would decipher the serial number at all. It sounded like that Chicago garage on St. Valentine's day. If I had been thinking, I should have called them first when their number was low, like 2 or 3, so I could figure it out at 50 wpm! This all brings up another point that I quickly found out. My call has to be almost the worst for CW. It has so many dits, that I was constantly correcting other stations as they added or subtracted dits as they saw fit. I need to trade my call in for something easier on CW like W1T or K1O.
I sure had fun though! Maybe next time I can spend more than the nine plus hours, and even connect the radio to the computer, and rig up a boom microphone instead of the desk mike I ended up using!! Let's see, Left hand holds the microphone, left foot keys the homebrew amp, right hand attempts to punch call in to keyboard, right foot keeps the dog from licking the HV supply, Head is cocked 180 degrees from keyboard to check power meter! An efficiency expert would have laughed while watching me, and just leave after a few minutes of watching apparent self inflicted torture.
Some highlights include working ZS (very loud!) on CW, many SA stations, and New Zealand Sunday afternoon and evening. I worked ZL6 well after sunset. It was dark outside. Who says there is no DX at this point in the sunspot cycle? -- K1WHS