[Elecraft] K2 in WPX Contest

[Michael E Dobson]

I found the K2 MoJo was excellent for this WPX.  Overall I managed 279
QSOs with 200 multipliers for ~122K points 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. 
Best band was 20, worst was 80. Best catch was 3V8BB in Tunisia Sunday. 
Condiditons were much better Saturday than Sunday.  What really amazed me
was that for the first 100 contacts I was running 5W and didn't even know
it. I guess I should have resisted the urge to go QRO but there were just
too many stations that could not hear me at the lower power even when no
one else was calling them, especially during the 2nd 24 hrs. When several
S9+20 stations could not hear me calling, I looked and saw I had the
power turned down (was on the 20M QRP frequency the night before the
contest). Initially I thought it was their poor non-K2 receivers (hi hi).


This was not a real serious effort, I only operated for about 14 hours
out of the 48 and missed big chunks of prime contesting time. I also only
did Search & Pounce, I did not send a single CQ during the contest. The
K2 performed beautifully as compared to my sending.  I again used only a
straight key,  no computer sending, and was having trouble getting my
call and repoerts to come out correctly by the end.  I need to either
spend more time on CW, get a paddle, or build the keying interace to the
computer if I am going to keep operating in CW contest, hi!  There were
many stations I could copy that couldn't copy me, even at 100W.  This
receiver really is hot!  My goal was to beat both the QSO number and
multiplier numbers I ran up in the ARRL CW DX contest and I accomplished
both goals.  

Mike WA3KYY K2 #2221

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