From: secc-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:secc-bounces at contesting.com] On
Behalf Of Christopher KJ4HYG
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 9:03 PM
To: secc at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [SECC] US qso's
My experience during the contest was that the contest ended up being mostly
geared toward the DX stations and the HP stations. Not a whole lot of DX
stations were calling CQ, they were just working the US CQ's. Even if there
were any incredibly weak DX signals it didn't take long before a US HP
station appeared withing 40 kHz and totally messed up any chances of pulling
the weak signal out of the noise and signals. Then basically the only option
was to call CQ in the hopes that THEY would hear you. However, it's nearly
impossible for a station like me (running 50 watts) to hold their ground
calling CQ. Plus it's hard to even find an open space to even call CQ. I
don't know if this is even relevant to the question, but that was my
experience, and it ended up being very frustrating.
chris / kj4hyg
Hi Chris,
Congrats for giving the contest a try! But I hope you are not too
discouraged or disgusted at what you learned. The CQWW CW contest is
probably the premiere of the contest available. And of course the emphasis
in this contest is to both work as many stations as you can and work as many
zones as you can, on all bands. So yes, your observation is correct that in
this contest, contacts are geared toward working DX stations in as many
different zones as possible. Observing some of the scores posted on this
reflector, you will see the 'big guns' made well over 500 QSO's during the
48 hours of the contest and obviously they are going to try and work the
loudest signals first; but toward the end of the contest, they will be
searching for ANY signal they can copy.
I assume you meant "4 kHz" rather than "40 kHz" in your comments? If the
narrowest bandwidth on your receiver is in fact 40 kHz, then that may be one
of the first upgrades you should make to your station, getting down to a
receiver bandwidth of 1 kHz or less. The next improvement you might consider
is to double your own signal by going from 50 w to 100 watts. What it takes
to be somewhat competitive is to continue to improve your own station.
BUT not all contest are like the CQWW CW contest. I hope you will think
about entering the Georgia QSO Party which is held in April of each year.
The GQP kinda turns the tables on the CQWW CW contest in that YOU become the
'hunted station'. And in that case, your 50w will work quite well. In the
GQP, every other station outside of the state of Georgia, will be looking
for YOU and the contest should be that much more fun.
Just don't lose sight of the fact that ham radio is a hobby and that
contesting is just another part of that hobby AND the real reason you have a
hobby is to have fun and enjoy it! I very seldom, any more, get even close
to being one of the 'top ten' score submissions, but contesting is done just
because it tickles the competitive spirit to some degree AND (to me) it is
fun. If you can manage it, just relax and enjoy the chase, set some goals
such as making more QSO's in the next one, or increasing your score by 1000
points in the next one, something to make it more fun and enjoyable for you.
Good luck Chris and by all means, don't let the CQWW discourage you from
contesting !
73,
Tom - W4BQF
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/secc/attachments/20091201/3c514827/attachment.html
|