While writing this the contest is still going on. But for us here in Europe the 10m is closed right now.
It was a great experience this weekend with interesting contacts. There was very good propagation which was noticeable from the atmosphere on the noise especially in the morning. The strange thing is that the propagation was between us and uninhabited parts of the world. Those moments I heard stations from Brazil over the longpath but unfortunatly they didn't hear me.
Last year I did more CW compared to SSB, it was all about propagation. This year I did more SSB because it was fun and there were a lot of SSB stations active. However I did chase some DX on CW as well. At first I chased fellow blogger VE9KK, I could just hear him between a lot of CW signals and to me it was difficult to make the QSO. But it seems Mike had a better receive as me. We did make the contact though. I also worked fellow blogger N4KGL on CW which was the first time I think. Previous blogger OQ5Q Franki was worked on SSB backscatter and my neighbour PA0O who also has a blog has been worked as well of course.
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I have to confess that I didn't have enough self-confidence at the start of the contest to not use the computer decoding CW. The speed of most CW transmissions was overwhelming and so I used CW skimmer at the start. At Sunday I finally had the confidence that I could do without the computer decoder since most of a QSO I did without it. I even did run a couple of times on 20wpm. And most stations came back at the same speed which is controllable for me. It is still difficult to decode a call the first time but most of the time the second or third time did the trick. I had the idea most stations understood and had the patience to complete the QSO. It was a lot of fun.
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I probably made some mistakes because of course I didn't work Spratly Island. Will have to check the log before uploading. However I did work some nice DX. I missed a lot of DX as well. Most of the contacts, like always, are with the USA.
I had one very strange encounter with a station from India with the SES call AT2025. I had to listen for it a few times and decided to make the contact. I was asked if I could tell something about the difference between summer and winter conditions. From QRZ I read that this station is studying winter propagation and monitor solar cycle activity. So if you ever hear him give him a shout and tell him what you think about it.
I would have liked to spend more time on this great contest. But time is always limited because I have other things to do as well. As a HAM you always have to balance your time between the hobby and other things. That's life. Overall it seems I was contesting for about 15 hours this weekend. Best DX was with VK4DX not surprisingly it was on CW.
I certainly look out for the next 10m contest in 2025. It is one of my favorits. I hope to do even more CW next year.
4 comments:
Hi Bas. Interesting to see you have the same propagation into the US as I did givven you're HP and I'm LP. Most traffic was east-coast with just 2 AZ and 2 CA stations. The days are just too short for good propagation further west. Wish the ARRL would have the contest a bit earlier in the year.
Good to hear you had the courage to Run and the stations were kind enough to slow down for you. I ran at 25WPM a few times and for me they didn't. But fortunately I could copy their calls whizzing along at 30++WPM so there is improvement in my copying skills, hi. I think I also did better on the 7's and 8's as these numbers keep being a weak point for me.
Next CW-contest you will run more, right?
73, Martin, PE1EEC/PE6X
Good morning Bas very nice to read the run down of the contest at your end. Mixing it up with SSB is a nice break and allows you also to see how the propagation treats both modes. Good on you to step up and run in the contest. We all have had to start running and no matter who contacts you ALL started out at one point and then progressed. Great that ops slowed down and it is silly not to as it makes the contact last longer as to getting the info and move on. I was running fron 30 to 34wpm and even at that I had ops come to me racing at over 40wpm. I can decode it no problem thanks to taking part in the CWops weekly mini tests. I have had times when I have been out S&P and a station is calling 40 plus. I come back to them at the same speed but then forget to turn the speed down. Then on the next S&P contact I hit send and it's 40 plus wpm....I hit escape and turn down the speed. It was nice again to contact you and you were at the noise floor. I gave a few letters of your call with a "?" because as you know there is another call out there that is very close to yours. I wanted to make sure it was you. Also when I run into fellow bloggers or CWops or others I may know I tend to send their name and 73...those in the pileup sometimes get upset about that and leave...oh well they can catch me later.
Great to read your speed at running now is 20wpm that is great and yes it does take repeats but sometimes that is due to fading, fist and plan old nerves. At times I have found myself unsure and thinking to hard when the tricky letters and numbers come at me. (H,S 8,9 B,6 KB or K6) and I second guess it and get it wrong when in fact my instinct was correct in the first place. It's a hobby so enjoy it, don't worry about those who take it too seriously. I will get off my soap box now....
73
Mike
VE9KK
Hello Martin, tnx for your comment. It is indeed at an inconvinient time for us but for those at the southern part of the world it's the other way around. I don't think the ARRL will change dates also from a historical point of view. By the way I don't know what you count for LP or HP. But I only used max. 100W which is the LP section. I hope in time I can run 25-30wpm as well. For now 20wpm is max. and not bad after a year of studying CW. To me the difference between H and 5 is still difficult. No problem between numbers though. So an exchange can be copied easily. However this time it was state abbreviations, sometimes it took me some effort to hear the difference between M and N or between NC and NY. But overall I hope I did not make too many errors.
Next time it will be probably the PACC QRP mixed section. I will run for shure...
73, Bas
Hello Mike, yes it was particulairy interesting to experience that when SSB was totally gone there was still CW to be heard for more as a half hour later. And I made good use of it. I did find you with RBN as usual but your signal was weak and in between other signals. Actually I did hear you sending something but not shure waht so I guessed that you did need the number again and transmitted it 2 times. I had the impression you could hear me far better as the other way around. Hopefully signals will be good next time to send a proper 73 and a name which I always appreciate. Yes, the CWops seem to be very populair, PE2V wrote about it as well. I might dive in it next year. Till next contest Mike, 73, Bas
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