[HCRA] ARRL DX Contest this weekend! Get a jumpstart on your DXCC the easy way!

[Jim - KK1W]

Who's up for some fun on the ham bands this weekend? Starting Friday evening
at 7:00 PM and running until Sunday evening at 7:00 PM is the ARRL DX SSB
contest. This is a super contest to work DX. The only way they can get
points is to work US and Canadian stations so they will be looking for you!

 

The bands have been pretty good lately with at least a sunspot or two
everyday. During the CW contest at the end of February I worked almost 50
countries each on 80, 40, 20 and 15 meters and even 7 on 10 meters. If you
have HF capabilities and the license to go along with it this weekend will
be a good chance to fill your log book with DX contacts and get you well on
your way to DXCC.

 

All the detailed rules are at:
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2010/intldx.html and you can read some
thoughts about the contest at:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/02/24/11356/?nc=1 along with a nice
picture N1FJ took at K1TTT's.

 

Here's a little something from this week's Contest Newsletter:

NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO 

If you "Turn On, Tune In, and Tune Up" this weekend, you'll encounter bands
full of DX in the annual ARRL DX Phone contest. The exchange from US and VE
stations is signal report and state or province. In return you'll get a
report and the station's power. It's okay to enter "K" or "KW" for kilowatt,
by the way - the log checking software understands that just fine.

________________________________________________________

And just to add a little spice to the weekend I've thrown down the glove to
Kx1x this weekend. The challenge is he can't exceed my CW score in the ARRL
DX contest by 150%. He will have 48 hours this weekend to see if he can top
236,412, which means he will need 354,618 (if I can still multiply). I
managed that in 13 hours but we will let him use all 48 if he needs to!
Usually CW gets a 2X multiplier but in ARRL DX there is no bonus for CW. We
made a 'gentleman's agreement' at the 1.5 number, it will be interesting to
see how that works out. Those phone guys are so easy!

So help me out here. Your mission is to keep John at the meeting as long as
possible Friday night. The more time he spends at the meeting the less time
he can operate. Don't forget to call him up, email or text him a few hundred
times between then and Sunday at 7:00 PM too!

Just kidding, this is all in good fun with the idea that maybe, just maybe,
a few others will get on the air and enjoy our wonderful hobby. It sure
beats the heck out of watching American Idol!

'73 and see you all Friday evening!

Jim, KK1W