03/10/2009 | AF6ME Contesting is a great way to sharpen my skills as an operator, test my skill at squeezing the last bit out of my equipment, and just plain enjoying the fun of jumping into a pile-up to hear a station coming back to your call. Limited to a trapped multi-band HF vertical and 600W PEP (200 on 80m due to the limits of my tuner and antenna), DX is often hard to come by. And this past weekend gave me all the fun and challenge of contesting while letting me do my favorite thing in ham radio -- work DX!

I'm not a competitve operator, but there is nothing like breaking a big pile-up, especially if your gear is limited like mine is. I spent a lot of effort improving my amp, making my antenna as efficient as possible, and tweaking my TX audio for maximum RMS signal and intelligibility to see what I could do with a limited 25 hours of operating during the weekend. And I was not disappointed.

I came awy from the weekend with almost 20k points, 55 DXCC entities worked (15 of them new ones for me!), and many pile-ups busted. High point of the weekend was working 6W1SJ in Senegal, breaking the pile-up after making just three calls! I more than doubled my number of European stations worked, no mean feat with a lossy omni antenna and just 600W PEP. And most importantly, I had a tremendously good time.

I love proving to myself what I have learned in ham radio by making contacts when the chips are "down", and this contest was for me the high point so far of my career as an Amateur (and I don't think that's an oxymoron!) I sure can't wait for next year, and am already looking forward to watching the cards trickle in from around the world... -- AF6ME