Opening thoughts about ARRL CW contest

18 February 2012 | by Mike VE9KK  |  Share |   |  Leave a Comment (2)
Before you knew it 00:00 came and the ARRL international CW contest was a go. During my first 1/2 hour 20m was open but only to non DX to me. So it was off to 40m's and it was alive and hopping! Here at VE3WDM the contest power is 5 watts or less. The band was crowed and the pileups long I did give a few DX stations a call but the KW powered stations going back to the DX really gave me no chance. I did hang in for the whole 1/2 hour but it was just not happening to night. I shut the rig down for the evening just to crazy out there, once the contest adrenaline cools I will get back on. I am looking at Saturday to give 10m, 15m and 20m a go for some DX soup.
Until then....contest on!!
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

2 Responses to “Opening thoughts about ARRL CW contest”

  • Don N4KC:
    18 February 2012 at 22:12 UTC

    Mike, 15 was great from about 1330Z on this morning, and especially to Africa and Europe. I also just got 6O3A on 20 amidst the bedlam. I just do the contests to fill in band slots that I need and I got quite a few on 40 last night and this morning and then almost got DXCC on 15 in just a few hours today. That’s with 400 watts, a G5RV and a hexbeam.

    Fun! Good luck…and 73,

    Don Keith N4KC
    http://www.n4kc.com
    http://www.donkeith.com
    http://n4kc.blogspot.com

  • Mike VE3WDM:
    19 February 2012 at 01:31 UTC

    Good evening Don, thanks for taking the time to comment and stopping by the blog. Well Saturday was great here and the bands were hopping. I did not get on the radio early enough for 10m’s but 15 was great. I made a lot of contacts there with only 500mW’s and all my other contacts on 15, 20 and 40 were made with a max of 5 watts. I made 50 contacts toward my diamond DXCC so far in this contest. I am not sure I will be able to make another 50 on Sunday but I am going to give it my best. I am running an attic dipole (alpha delta DX-EE) with 5 watts max. Have a great contest and do post on your blog how you did….good luck!!!

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