learned a great deal about propagation, efficent use of my radio, and
contesting in general during this past weekend's ARRL VHF Sweepstakes. my
first true foray into contesting, i set a personal goal of 100 QSO's. i worked
the first 12 hours non-stop and made 81 contacts in 10 grids on 6 and 2 meters
- the majority being on 2.
i worked the final 3 hours of the contest for a total of 106 contacts. those
last hours were extremely un-nerving due in part to not hearing any unworked
calls. i thought i'd never make my goal. i never gave up and after nearly
20-30 minutes of calling CQ with no contact, i heard a weak FN21 come in and
worked him followed by an FN32. that made the time spent worth it for the
additional 2 multipliers.
i've already started to assemble in my mind an improved 6 meter station with
plans for a beam instead of the attic dipole as well as adding a rotor and
hopefully another 11 element for 2 meters. working the 2 meter weak signal was
a challenge and my wife even came down after i let out a cry of joy when
logging a very weak FM08 to make sure i was ok. after showing her the map of
worked grids, she seemed vaguely interested that i was able to make contact
into FN32 from FM19 with the antenna i put up while she held the ladder.
i'm going to feverishly work to upgrade to Extra so i can reduce the length of
my callsign; KB3KAQ is an obvious liability for weak signal contesting. i also
am going to make a few changes to the layout of the shack and add some
operating aids to further help the contesting cause.
the contesting bug bit me for the November Sweepstakes when i participated in a
club effort, and after working my first contest as an SO from my shack, the bug
has infected me completely. i need to increase my code speed and build an
interface for spending CW from CT. i also need a comfortable chair, the
current one is ok for a few hours at a clip, but for a 12-18 hour stretch, it
simply will not do.
the strangest part of the contest was 10 minutes after it ended, the 2 meter
band was silent. rather sad in a way that contesting make sthe band come to
life in the CW and SSB modes.
-steve hanlon
KB3KAQ
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