[HCRA] ARRL DX SSB contest over, but CQ WW WPX right around the corner...

Mon Mar 8 20:33:45 EST 2010

Just to tag along a bit on KX1X's email...

On Sunday, I used the ARRL DX SSB contest as my first solo attempt
with my new sub-par station at home.  I'm a little embarrassed to say
that I listened to a guy call DX for about 10 minutes before I got the
nerve back to call back.  Finally I did it and he couldn't hear me.
Tried another station, still nothing.  Now a little frustrated and
thinking my 100w station with a multiband dipole crammed in the attic
might not be up to the task, I tried one last station.  YES!!!
Switzerland baby!  OK OK calm Matt.  Yes the radio really works.
Search and pounce time.  Pileups were difficult, but I found that
timing my call just right and some patience helped.  I'm sure waiting
till Sunday when a lot of the big guns had been collected already
helped as well.  But I made some stations work for my point and they
seemed happy to get it and the challenge seemed to boost them a little
bit and made me ecstatic.

I only ended up with 23 contacts and a score of 391.  For my first
solo contest and starting late in the day, I'll take it.  Most
importantly, I had a blast.  Oh and now have one more reason to
upgrade to Extra: Lot of people calling CQ down in those
Extra/Advanced only bands!

Thanks KX1X for the WTX contest info.  I looked at the rules and they
have a wire antenna category and a rookie category for those who have
been licensed for a 3 years or less.

Cheers,

-Matt/W1MSW

On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 8:09 AM, kx1x at arrl.net <kx1x at comcast.net> wrote:
> ______________________________________________
> -------Hampden County Radio Association-------
> -----------e-mail list (reflector)-------------
> ______________________________________________
> It felt good to be back on-the-air after a considerable absence which coincidentally matched the solar minimum.
> 15m was open to almost everywhere during most of the daytime both days, 20m was also wall-to-wall contacts during the day, and 40/80m had no shortage of EU, SA and Caribbean contacts to keep the evening hours busy.
>
> Due to commitments that took me out of the chair after 10:00 AM on Sunday, I wasn't able to reach my goal of 600 Q's. This would have been easily attained with just a couple more hours work as 15m was strong enough that I could hear and work even the 100w DX stations easily. All 400+ contacts that I made over the weekend were using Search and Pounce techniques (answering CQ's rather than calling CQ).
>
> There is another large contest at the end of the month, the CQ WW WPX SSB contest. This contest is a work-everyone (domestic and DX alike) contest with an easy exchange. There are always plenty of contacts and huge scores in the WPX contest. See http://www.cqwpx.com/ for contest rules and other details.
>
> For the WPX contest, I will be at K1TTT's contest station in Peru, MA, with Venture Crew DX using our club callsign NE1C. Coincidentally, Friday March 26th at 6:00 PM there will be a VE session at the Holyoke Hospital. Maybe now is the time to upgrade to General to gain more HF privileges, then jump right in when there are plenty of contacts to be made.
>
>
> '73 de Kx1x
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim - KK1W" <kk1w at charter.net>
> To: "HCRA" <hcra at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Sunday, March 7, 2010 4:36:47 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [HCRA] Will CW triumph once again???
>
> ______________________________________________
> -------Hampden County Radio Association-------
> -----------e-mail list (reflector)-------------
> ______________________________________________
> Well folks,
>
>
>
> The little ‘wager’ between myself and Kx1x (aka LATEboy) is almost over.
> Once again it looks like CW may have the edge once again.
>
>
>
> Just to refresh your memory the challenge was for John to exceed my score in
> the CW part of the ARRL DX contest by 150%. Most contests give CW a two to
> one advantage so I look at the 150% goal as a gift! Still, it didn’t appear
> to be enough to keep it close, you be the judge.
>
>
>
> There are approximately 2 ½ hours left in the contest and the score at
> getscores.org for John is 277,290. My score for the CW portion was 236, 412
> so the number to exceed is 354, 618. There was also some talk of exceeding
> 600 Q’s and he’s sitting at 476. Time is getting short – anyone want to
> guess on who will end up as the winner?
>
>
>
> All kidding aside 476 Q’s and 277K points is a nice accomplishment and 1x
> should be congratulated for his efforts. Like most of us a lot of contest
> time is spent with family responsibilities. Finding 12 hours or so out of
> the 48 is a difficult task.
>
>
>
> I hope many of our members had a chance to work some DX this weekend. The
> bands were pretty good and all the DX was looking for US and Canadian
> contacts. If not you still have a few hours to get on the air and have fun!
>
>
>
> ’73…
>
>
>
> Jim, KK1W
>
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