2009 ARRL International EME Competition
01/08/2010 |
IK1UWL
My first 2m EME qsos were in the 2002 ARRL EME Contest, multi-op because I needed help with cw. In that same year JT44 was born, and I quickly switched to digital EME, with its much greater capabilities. Non contest operation was based on the use of the N0UK logger, not only for its usefulness but also for some human contact.
I always participated to the ARRL in mixed mode for adding also the cw-only ops, multi-op for sharing the workload, and with assistance (self-spotting) for efficiency, up to 2008.
I made the whole contests calling CQ 90% of the time, with the support of self-spotting. The most exciting contest ever was in 2007, 224 qsos with 77 multi. What I like more in a contest is maximizing the number of qsos, and with self spotting I achieved 11 qsos per hour for three consecutive hours, thrilling!
Following the technical evolution, this year I equipped my station with the new wideband capabilities, SDR+Linrad+MAP65IQ, so I could participate in the 2009 edition in which, a little prematurely, self-spotting was forbidden. Instead of calling CQ, I started answering to all the stations that appeared on the Message screen. When activity started dropping, I tried calling CQ; only one answer in two hours. So evidently I had already worked all the very few stations equipped for random, and all the other qsos must have been with stations who operated in the usual way on the logger announcing their CQ. And surely I lost all those small stations who do not call CQ but look on the logger for CQs from stronger stations. A pity for me and for them.
On 2m I achieved 169 qsos with 67 multi, about 75% of my 2007 score. Satisfactor; a different way of operation, for a smaller group of operators. The restriction to only random operation is rather premature until wideband capabilities are not widespread.
If ARRL wants to continue on this line, I suggest that pure random be restricted to only the first weekend of the two assigned to 50-1296, with the other free for self-spotting. -- IK1UWL
I always participated to the ARRL in mixed mode for adding also the cw-only ops, multi-op for sharing the workload, and with assistance (self-spotting) for efficiency, up to 2008.
I made the whole contests calling CQ 90% of the time, with the support of self-spotting. The most exciting contest ever was in 2007, 224 qsos with 77 multi. What I like more in a contest is maximizing the number of qsos, and with self spotting I achieved 11 qsos per hour for three consecutive hours, thrilling!
Following the technical evolution, this year I equipped my station with the new wideband capabilities, SDR+Linrad+MAP65IQ, so I could participate in the 2009 edition in which, a little prematurely, self-spotting was forbidden. Instead of calling CQ, I started answering to all the stations that appeared on the Message screen. When activity started dropping, I tried calling CQ; only one answer in two hours. So evidently I had already worked all the very few stations equipped for random, and all the other qsos must have been with stations who operated in the usual way on the logger announcing their CQ. And surely I lost all those small stations who do not call CQ but look on the logger for CQs from stronger stations. A pity for me and for them.
On 2m I achieved 169 qsos with 67 multi, about 75% of my 2007 score. Satisfactor; a different way of operation, for a smaller group of operators. The restriction to only random operation is rather premature until wideband capabilities are not widespread.
If ARRL wants to continue on this line, I suggest that pure random be restricted to only the first weekend of the two assigned to 50-1296, with the other free for self-spotting. -- IK1UWL
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