Here's a new guys perspective. It was my first real solo heavy duty contest.
Worked some of the smaller contests (phone and RTTY) but this is the biggest
one for me. I was really looking forward to it. I have been licensed for
just over a year and on HF since about May of 2008. I have a Kenwood TS-2000
100 watts into a G5RV dipole up about 30 feet. Nothing spectacular but it
works. I used N1MM and MMTTY witha SignaLink USB. Everything worked fine
throughout the contest.
My stats from N1MM and SH5 (a free sort of stats program that reads N1MMs
database):
519 QSOs
250,740 points
Those numbers far exceeded my expectations before I started. I'm still blown
away I can get that many contacts on 100 watts and a wire strung across my
yard. Before the contest, since I've started on HF, I've had less then 1200
total contacts, including those I've had in other smaller contests. So in 1
weekend I did near the equivalent of 1/2 of all my previous QSOs combined.
QSO breakdown by band:
80m | 144 QSOs | 70 multipliers
40m | 98 QSOs | 72 multipliers
20m | 277 QSOs | 110 multipliers
I got Alaska (AL1G in Anchorage) for the first time during the contest. When
I finished, I ended up with QSOs for 47 of the 50 states (almost WAS in 1
weekend), missing only Vermont, Montana & Wyoming. I saw VT during the
contest but never calling CQ or coming back to me when I called CQ.
I got QSOs in 21 CQ zones 1-11, 13-17, 20-21, 31-33 and 38. SH5 shows a
total DXCC count of 68 for the weekend. I got New Zealand again (ZL2BR) and
South Africa for the first time (ZS2EZ) who is about as South East as you
can get in Africa.
I can't wait for the next contest!!! My accomplishments during the contest
might be small in comparison to many of you, but think back to your first
year as a HF operator and imagine doing the above. Seems many of you have
been doing things for a while and have a tremendous amount of experience.
It's great to learn from your posts. Here's my experiences in operating it
as a new guy:
I didn't always copy a good confirmation from the station. In most cases I
did not add them to my log. I would quickly try to get a confirmation in 1
additional attempt, but the operator had moved on.
>From reading the posts here before and after the contest, I'd probably
adjust my macros a bit. I did a bit of tweaking based on what I saw others
do, but maybe it's a bit different for a HP vs LP station. I actually like
to see (and therefore send) some info 3 times. It sort of provides a
checksum. So if I send NJ NJ NJ vs NJ NJ for my state, does that tick you
guys off? I'm just wondering if it is better to get NJ NJ NJ once vs NJ NY
and have to request STATE? STATE?
My call is K2DSL, and it was great to work many of the folks I see posting
here. There were a bunch of times where I would get back K2DS 599 3 3 K2DS
and would need to correct the call. I'd typically do it by sending K2DSL
K2DSL and on the next line <his call> TU 599 …. K2DSL. Is that the preferred
way? Also, I'd say in the cases where it happened to be my call but shorter,
they would come back with K2DSL on the QSL, but sometimes it was still K2DS
and I'm guessing we'll miss each other in the logs.
I also received a couple emails even during the contest from folks that I
made contact with and others that answered a 3830 question on the CQ Contest
reflector. Everyone was tremendously helpful.
And as a final, non-contest note, it's funny to read how folks are talking
about shaving x% off the transmission yet they reply to posts leaving pages
of previous posts in the thread. Trim the reply please.
Thanks again to all those operators far and wide that came back to me during
the contest. You are all responsible for creating a RTTY contest-aholic.
73 - K2DSL - David
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