TBDXC Ultra marathon January

 Wrote about this marathon last year. And decided to take part in the SSB low power section. I certainly made some nice SSB QSOs, one of them was a long chat with fellow blogger M0YKS Simon who had it live on YouTube. So far I made 57 SSB QSOs this month. The stations came from 32 different DXCC. Didn't do any contests yet and after all that is not really the meaning of this marathon. I obtained 6th place till now.....not that it is really important.

The marathon now has 284 registered stations though only 99 of them are submitting scores. The organisation wonders why? The marathon is created to increase levels of activity on SSB/CW on the bands. But you can't expect it to work in only one month! I did call a lot on SSB, endless CQs without anyone replying. Bad propagation? Well, I can hear others talking and if I call someone that calls CQ they most time answer. But indeed propagation is not the best this time of the year. Besides the lack of stations calling/answering I think there are other possible causes that station do not submit scores (yet). 

One of them is the way the scoreserver is made, I had problems to submit my score and others will have that problem as well. But luckely the organisation is busy to change the site so submitting a ADIF log will be possible in the future. 

The second one is the single mode sections only, no mixed mode. I hope they will change their mind next year. A mixed CW/SSB section will attract more stations.

So far the CW low power section is most populair. 

Interested?

1. It is NEVER too late to register for the Ultra-Marathon. Even if you start in February, March, or later you can have TONS of fun, compare your results with others and help supporting SSB and CW activity. The Marathon website is: https://tbdxc.hamserver.de/marathon/ 

2. If you are already registered PLEASE MAKE QSOs, even just a few, every day if you can, and ENTER YOUR RESULTS. If you don't have much time, just focus on working as many different DXCC countries and WAZ zones as you can on the six HF bands. That in itself can be great fun and give new sense and purpose to your activity. And, don't forget to CALL CQ! If you call, they will listen.

 This is not about winning but participating. However you are free to see it as a contest of course. You don't have to be a "True Blue DX club" member. And you don't have to agree with their views on how we should make contacts. It's just about having fun!