[SMCARA] ARRL 10 Meter Contest Next weekend

[Tom Shelton]

Next week is the ARRL 10 meter contest, and it would be a great opportunity to get involved.  There will be, quite literally, thousands of DX and North American hams who want to make a quick exchange with you.  You can work CW, Phone, or both and a basic radio and simple dipole will get you on the air.  I hope to hear you.  Contesting is a great part of the hobby and can really benefit you as an operator.  I can’t tell you what it will do for you, but I can speak for myself.  So, what has contesting done for me?



I’ve been a contester almost as long as I’ve been a Ham.  The old Novice Round-up happened shortly after I got my ticket.  I didn’t know I was in a contest when I fired up the old Collins radio (wish I had kept that rig) and heard a bunch of signals on the Novice portion of the 40 meter band.  I called up my elmer, who lived just around the corner from me, and asked him what was going on.  He ran over his copy of QST that had the rules in it (this was long before everyone had internet access).  



I started keeping a log and actually submitted around 50 contacts.  All on a funky, jury-rigged dipole and a chirpy, weak-tubed, rig.  The interesting thing that happened during that contest is that my CW speed increased from around 10 WPM to around 15 WPM and I was able to pass the General CW test shortly thereafter.  That experience set the hook for me and about 75% of my contacts are during some contest or another.  



I still like to sit back and have a good ragchew, but there is something exhilarating about watching my QSO rate climb.  I know that I can never win against the big guns, nor can I hope to put my vertical antenna against some of the folks with stacked arrays, so my goal is to always improve on my performance.  This makes me look for ways to improve my station, and more importantly improve myself as an operator.  Contesting gives me a way to quantitatively measure my improvements on a year to year basis.  For example: using the November Sweepstakes (phone) in 2008 I made 100 QSOs with 46 multipliers – for a total score of 8556.  In 2009 I made 206 QSOs and 62 multipliers – for a total score of 23800.  In 2010 I made153 QSOs and 59 multipliers – for a total score of 16992 (bad year).  Finally, this year, I made 326 QSOs and 72 multipliers – for a total score of 46,800.  For each of these results, I can point to an improvement in my shack or in myself (and I can identify problems for the bad years – I was out of work in 2010 and just not feeling up to contesting.)  It also helps me to set goals – next year I want to make 500 QSO’s and 80 multipliers (which will be a total of 80,000 points).



So – contesting gave me the opportunity to improve my code speed – which allowed me to upgrade to Extra in a fairly short time.  It has given me a reason to improve my station’s radios, software, antennas, grounding, etc…   It has given me a tool to measure those station improvements and my improvement as an operator.  It allows me to set goals.  It may surprise you that the most important thing that contesting has given me is many life-time friendships.  It is a real thrill to hear “Hi Tom” added to a contest exchange with someone who I have never met, but with whom I’ve competed against and developed a respect for over many years and many contests.



Contesting isn’t for everyone, but I’m sure glad that as a newly minted Novice, over 25 years ago, I stumbled across a contest and got hooked.  


Tom Shelton, AB3IC

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