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Just waiting to be framed and hung on the "I love me" wall

 The Skeeter Hunt contest had it's first running this year its sponsored by the NJQRP club it was arranged and coordinated by Larry W2LJ. The theme was "My favorite place". This is a QRP contest and encourages (more contest points) home made or kit gear as well if you can come up with a home made key then your contest score will reflect this BIG TIME!!! As for VE3WDM I had kit gear (Elecraft K2) and I was operating from a park (more points for this). To make this post short and sweet I had a blast in this contest and plan on doing it next year as well.

About 6 months ago I wanted to make it a goal to increase my copy speed of call signs and numbers to help out with my contesting. The first thing I had to do was master the proper keyboarding for the numbers. The letters were no problem thanks to my mom who insisted I take keyboarding while in high school. So began my relearning which finger was used for what number. That surprisingly went very well and before I knew it I was off  looking for programs to increase my copy speed in combination with my keyboarding. I came across Morse Runner which by the way is a great program. I was able to start off slow and easy. As time went on I added QRM, QRN, QSB and fading. This program only seemed to send code at random speeds up to about 25 wpm. I began the search for a program that could increase my speed, I came across a website called LCWO (Learn CW online). You have to register and come up with a password but this site has been great in helping my speed move upward. Now my dilemma is this.......over the past week my speed has seemed to drop!! I am having brain to keyboard lockup, hitting two keys at the same time, having no idea where a certain letter or number is on the keyboard and to top it off hearing the call and having to go back over and over again to copy it!!! If I understand learning correctly this is all part of the process????? It sure is frustrating and at times when I start my code practice session I end up stopping and packing it in thinking it's just not a good day for code. I am going with the theory that learning at times is one step forward and two steps back at times?

All is going well.....for now

Last weekend  I participated in the CQ WW CW contest and in a post just before the contest I shared some things I included and avoided regarding contests.  One would think that because it's my list and I was "preaching" about it on my blog that I for sure would be one to follow it.........WRONG and boy did I pay for it!! The contest was going along just fine the propagation was great, 10m was wide open and my QRP signal seemed to be getting out just fine. Now this being a CW contest and a world wide one at that I found the CW was being sent as fast as a bullet.  To copy these fast calls was taking more time than I wanted to
spend,  but the stations were much needed multi's or possible DXCC's. In the past this is were my trusty Elecraft K3 has helped me out. The K3 has the ability to copy code and scroll it at the bottom of my Elecraft P3.......but it was not happening and no matter what I adjusted I could not get the rig to read the code.         

Firmware download going well

It was at this time I started to wonder from my own advice........the downhill slide began with a question on the Elecraft reflector regarding my decoding troubles. The common answer that came back was that the latest firmware for some reason did not allow the decode to work. I was advised to download and install the latest BETA firmware (note....Beta firmware downloads are not as simple as production firmware releases) and all would be well. The slow downhill slide was gathering speed when I downloaded the Beta firmware to my PC's desktop. It sat there for some time as the dark side started to take a more firm grip on me!! I then unzipped it and say it ain't so but I began to download it into the Elecraft K3.

The action on 15m this morning

I am now in day two of the contest seeing I did not turn the radio on Friday night due to spending time with Julie and the first evening I find things to be a zoo and hard to make a contact as QRP. Saturday was just great with lots of action on 10m, 15m and 20m. I was wanting to give 40m and 80m a go but I had to go into work for an all nighter. I did have high hopes of getting more DXCC's added to my ARRL diamond award......but you know what they say "dreams are free" up to this point I have rounded up about 2 new DXCC's. There could have been more but the pileups were out of this world. I did try but was not able to break the pileups. Some highlights up to this point are C5A in Gambia, KH6, T40C Cuba to mention a few. I have heard some very rare DX and some popular DXpeditions but the pileups as I said have been HUGE!!! It's Sunday afternoon here and with working all night I am starting to drift off at times...........but I am going to see how far I can go!!!
Contest on......well easier said than done...

Never update your contesting software the day of the contest....... "Software surprise" is not needed during a contest.

Never assume your contest station is running great just because it was last time.  ..........Give the station a workout a few days before the contest.

Never update the rigs firmware just before a contest.......firmware glitches will throw your contesting off.

Never forget about the family during a contest weekend.......an hour away here or there can be a refreshing break.

Never get upset and frustrated......it's a contest have fun, know from the outset there is going to be poor op's out there.

Never think you are NOT going to get board at times.....there will be slow times have other things planned.

Never forget about non-contesters and respect mode allocations on the bands.......it's not intentional most times we just get carried away. 



Always make sure the YL's "honey do" list has no outstanding promised items for that weekend.

Always understand that things never go as planned.

Always have some exercise, break times and eating times planned, a crock pot menu is a great way to have good dinners with very little work.

Always use headphones (especially CW contests) it may sound like sweet music to you but to the rest of the family (pets included) it's NOISE!!

Always have some goals for the contest.....and understand they can change.

Always make sure you are comfortable....cool in summer, warm in the winter, good chair and operating position just to mention a few things.

Always investigate if other major contests are going on the same weekend.......it can get frustrating when two stations from separate contests are giving exchanges neither can understand. 

Always read and understand contest rules before the contest..........self explanatory.

Contest on!!!
P.S.....please leave your comments with more includes or avoids

In my in-box the other day I received an email from QST regarding an app they were pushing. It's for ARRL members and for those who have an Ipad, Iphone and Ipod device. A short time ago QST announced the release of their digital QST. This gave you access to much more than just the paper monthly issue and you will notice in the paper issue there is online content that is mentioned in different write ups in the magazine. Now QST has an app were the digital QST can be accessed from your Apple device via an app. At this point I am able to go back 6 months and view other QST periodicals and all the digital goodies that go with it. 

Last Friday we had a "situation" at work that had me working until about 3 a.m. and when I got home I was still all pumped from work and was not ready to jump into bed. The thought came to me about getting on the radio and seeing what DX pileups were out there. I had heard of folks getting on in the wee hours of the morning and catching some rare DX. With great expectations  I turned the radio on....10m dead, 15m dead, 17 and 30 same thing!! Alas on 40m my Elecraft P3 showed some faint signals, I spun the dial to the frequency only to find it was some very weak State side stations. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it's kinda a let down when one is anticipating WILD DX!!!

I did not check the propagation that morning so there could had been a storm brewing or maybe everyone but me was in bed sleeping. As I have blogged about in the past I am trying to get my ARRL Diamond Challenge award (and doing it QRP) at this point I am at 81 DXCC contacts. You only have one year to accomplish this goal and it's now almost December!!!  Having said that I am "really" at 95 DXCC's for 2012 according to Club log. The catch is the ARRL for the Diamond award is not counting ALL DXCC on the list. It is a long story but it's just how the ARRL perculates. I was hoping to bring my K2 or my newly acquired KX3 to work as I was wanting to get some operating time in before work. I am usually in around 5:30 in the morning and I have until 7 to make some contacts. With my Saturday mornings performance I am not to sure if bringing  the rig would be a waste of time.....any ideas out there???