[Elecraft] Off topic question (On Topic Answer)

[vze3v8dt at verizon.net]

CQ World Wide 160m Contest was this past weekend from 0000Z on Saturday until 1259Z on Sunday.  

There are contests EVERY weekend of some sort or another.  Some are very specific to a particular mode or band or even geographical region.  The one listed above was ONLY on 160m and ONLY CW.  While there were a few stations to be heard in the middle of the day the majority of the signals on 160m propagate best during the night due to less D-layer attenuation.  I noticed many signals from about 5 PM local time all through the whole night and tapering off around 7:30 AM local time after local sunrise.  I worked about 9-1/2 hours of the contest myself, using K2 S/N 4786 at 5W and a Carolina Windom 160.  My QTH is in Allentown, PA and I was able to work stations as far west as Hawaii and as far east as Portugal & The Azores. I did hear quite a few Europeans, especially on Sunday late-afternoon and early-evening, however I didn't have the patience to work them, although I had in the past worked some and will try again.  I always thought that 100W was "QRP" on 160m, but after trying out my K2 about 1 year ago I'm hooked on 160m QRP! I'm also amazed how well such a simple station manages to make so many Q's!  I'm anxious to try an inverted-L for next season and maybe a K9AY Array for Rx (to get best use of my K2 options).

Typically "CQ callsign TEST" is not that there are lots of stations testing their equipment, but "test" is short for "contest" and they leave it up to the person on the Rx end to figure out which contest it is.  Ken Newman, N2CQ, puts out a weekly email on this reflector and others with the list of contests for the upcoming several weeks.  This list includes weblinks for rules and has a note about whether the contest has a QRP category or not.  Nice job, Ken!

There, got this thread back on topic.
73,

Mark, NK8Q

>A friend asked me yesterday if I knew why hams would be sending the
>following 
>
>"Cq cq callsign callsign test test"
>
>In cw over and over and over again I told him I did not, I could not
>find anything on the internet about it so I thought I would ask the most
>august body of hams for information. The signals where heard around
>12:00 am midnight on 160m anyone know what was going on? Or why?
>