2010 ARRL International DX Contest (CW)
02/23/2010 |
AB2ZY
My love of contests and logging new DX bands and modes with a modest station finally overcame my fear and loathing of CW. I have never mastered copying code beyond the 8 or 10 WPM I could do as a novice in the 1960's and my right fist, thumb and forefinger have all the dexterity of cheap smoked hams.
Using a computer program as a crutch, careful search and pounce, a DX spotting program and listening carefully before responding I managed something like 189 QSO's, 170 of which were multipliers. Got a couple completely new DXCC entities (R1ANB, Antarctica and 5W0OU, Samoa). Also got a couple of LoTW confirmations for entities, like Serbia, that I had been waiting a long time for QSL cards.
Random observations:
1. People need to listen before they spot. I saw multiple spots for Djibouti that were really for J38XX in Grenada.
2. Power reports were all over the map, style-wise. K and KW are easy. Took me a while to figure out that ATT is 100 watts. Some of the responses I just had to guess.
3. I'm in awe of the speed of many of the participants, but when you get up to 40 or 50 WPM, am I the only one who can't hear the difference between an 'H' and a '5'?
4. Quite a few rude operators who will send a string of their callsign 4 or 5 long and the last 2 are over the top of the station responding. On 20 and 15 meters I was using a crummy G5RV and 500 watts and had no problem getting responses with only sending my callsign once and exercising a little patience.
5. 15 meters was open. I love it when that happens in a contest. 10 meters was also open for a while, but not very long from my part of the world.
6. Favorite participants call sign - EE5E.
I had never participated in a CW contest before. I'll definitely do it again!
Al -- AB2ZY
Using a computer program as a crutch, careful search and pounce, a DX spotting program and listening carefully before responding I managed something like 189 QSO's, 170 of which were multipliers. Got a couple completely new DXCC entities (R1ANB, Antarctica and 5W0OU, Samoa). Also got a couple of LoTW confirmations for entities, like Serbia, that I had been waiting a long time for QSL cards.
Random observations:
1. People need to listen before they spot. I saw multiple spots for Djibouti that were really for J38XX in Grenada.
2. Power reports were all over the map, style-wise. K and KW are easy. Took me a while to figure out that ATT is 100 watts. Some of the responses I just had to guess.
3. I'm in awe of the speed of many of the participants, but when you get up to 40 or 50 WPM, am I the only one who can't hear the difference between an 'H' and a '5'?
4. Quite a few rude operators who will send a string of their callsign 4 or 5 long and the last 2 are over the top of the station responding. On 20 and 15 meters I was using a crummy G5RV and 500 watts and had no problem getting responses with only sending my callsign once and exercising a little patience.
5. 15 meters was open. I love it when that happens in a contest. 10 meters was also open for a while, but not very long from my part of the world.
6. Favorite participants call sign - EE5E.
I had never participated in a CW contest before. I'll definitely do it again!
Al -- AB2ZY
Back
