Contests and certificates

Once again I obtained some first places in contests and the accompagnied certificates. Not that I am a fanatic contester but with the lack of real competition it's easy. Not even using the best equipment, just 100W from a Icom 706, a all band vertical and a inverted-V till now. I'm shure a station with a big beam on a large tower can do better. I might be a experienced operator, although location helps a bit of course. I'm living at a reasonable quiet location with free sight to to south. At the north it is only 3km to the open sea.

1990 plate for 3rd place...

I was much more active in all kind of contestswhen I just arrived on HF in 2006. But since I got a family it's not possible to do a contest every weekend. Besides that I've much more interests in this radio hobby instead of contesting only. My first contest ever was the "White Rhino Contest" in 1990 which was organized by some amateurs from the RSA to get more attention for the fast dying white rhinos in the wild. Of course that was before I was licensed radio amateur and it was on 11m/CB.

What I like in a contest is the amount of DX that can be worked with little effort. Another thing I like is mastering a pile-up. I think I do pretty well but things can be better and I'm always trying to do better. Listening in the first place because many faults are made when you don't listen carefully. I think the best contesters are the best listeners. When you do a 48 hours contest like the CQWW or the CQ WPX you learn what frequency to choose, you learn how operators behave and you learn to listen well. Not that I know everything, I'm still learning. Some radioamateurs hate contests but it is something that is part of our hobby, you can't stop it and you can learn a lot from it. There are also things I don't like in a contest like the QRM, stations that don't listen or don't ask if a frequency is clear and take that frequency like no one else is there. I don't like it when people deliberate make QRM although I know it is difficult when you're in the heat of a contest and frequency is over crowded.

At the moment personally the large contests like the CQWW and CQ WPX are the best ways to work new DXCC since I normally don't have time to be on the radio at daylight. In a contest I have a excuse, and it is only a few times a year. The big contests are something to look forward to for me. And even when you have a modest station you can have great results if you practise what you learned in previous contests...