03/08/2010 | AB3IC On the Monday before the test, I received my new TS-2000 - I'd been experimenting with it all week, reading the manual, and getting comfortable with the buttons and adjustments - but it really takes a good contest to figure out a new radio. This was that contest.

143 contacts - 93 multipliers - low power, hunt and pounce, using 80, 40, 20, 15, and (YAY!!!) 10 meters... Thought I had a problem with the rig on 80 and was ready to throw in the towel, when i realized my problem was with my antenna (Hustler 6-BTV) and that the rig was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. My old rig never indicated a problem. After fixing my antenna, it seemed like I was getting out better on all the bands (go figure).

In order to check out the computer-aided-tuning features of my contest logger, I did run this contest assisted, but really didn't need to. Although it was handy just being able to click on a DX spot and have the rig do the rest of the work, I noticed my best QSO rates were when I was ignoring the DX Cluster and just scanning for stations to work.

All in all, a great contest, a really good new rig, a repaired antenna, and a nice way to figure out all the new bells and whistles. -- AB3IC