#cqww cw 2016 contest

Event: CQWW CW contest 2016
Section: Single Operator Assisted Low 160M
Logger: N1MM+ 
Station: Icom IC-706MK2G at 100W
Antenna: multiband vertical @9m agl

After a few hours of contesting Saturday evening, Sunday morning and Sunday evening when it was dark I ended with 121 QSOs in the log. Much more as expected, wow. I even heard some DX Sundaymorning as PJ2T was decoded but unfortunately I was unable to make a contact. Best DX was probabely RM9A from Asiatic Russia. However, I was surprised by the number of contacts and actually almost every station I could hear responded to my call. I even dared to run CQ for a while although it was not really a success I was spotted several times on the RBN. Unlike last year I participated low power and not QRP. This has to do with a another possible Dutch record which I will hold hopefully like my effort in 2014 on 80m QRP. The nice thing of my Icom-706 is the 350Hz CW filter and additionally I use the JPS NIR-10 audio DSP filter. Very important on the ic-706 is to switch off the NB (Noise Blanker), this will reduce any splatter to almost zero. As I decode CW with a computer (FLdigi) it needs a crystal clear signal to decode well and I managed to get that with the narrow filtering.

Look at the difference between only the 350Hz filter above and below included the bandpass filtering from the JPS NIR-10. The red signal you see is from EI0R which had a surprise for me. Fellow blogger EI2KC Anthony was on the keys and recognized my call to say hello. Thanks for the contact Anthony FB SIG. I didn't know what to answer him as I never been in this situation and all I do is sending a macro with a click on a key.

Later I discovered I can type as well in the FLdigi TX field and send it manually. Next time I give him a proper answer ;-). Oh, yes for the CW purists participating in a CW contest like this is not done of course. But so far at least I can participate and learn a small bit of morse code as well. I already recognize my own call and the words TEST, CQ, TU, ?, K, 5NN. Enough to make QSOs in a contest like this as it is not neccessary to read the CQ zones since this is filled in automatically in the log.
I had great fun on 160m even with a few hours of participation. Hopefully it will bring me a new Dutch record.

I was prepared to sell my JPS NIR-10 filter as I don't use it too much. But it does very well in CW contests so I'm not shure till I have better equipment. Still looking at a shiny new IC-7300 which will do much better as my antique IC-706 I guess. I noticed the price of the IC-7300 fluctuates and is currently around 1300 euro. I guess it will get lower when the new IC-7610 will be out whenever that is. In the mean time I'll save some money.