[SCCC] K6GEP - Brief Contesting and DX Year in Review

[Coker, Timothy J]

ZL8X was a lot of fun, probably because it's our backyard. I must admit the evening opening to E4X on 20m SSB was cool... worked him with a TH7DX at 30' and a full gallon. I know, not as admirable as a wire and a 100w, but I feel like a wire when I am reading K1TTT's Ebook he just made free for download.

Contesting? I'm getting what Doug, N6MJ, described to me as rate addiction. I've been working my tail off with the new towers this year in order to satisfy that quench... only to realize that I just want more!  :)

The biggest improvement for me this year would be CW. I went from only S&P in March to running 'em at 13wpm in August. Now I am running at 25wpm... but I do need a ton of more work to stop asking for the fills so often. I really do enjoy CW contesting now, whereas before it was reluctantly done to improve my CQP score.

Tim, N6WIN.

-----Original Message-----
From: sccc-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:sccc-bounces at contesting.com]On
Behalf Of Michael Tope
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 12:40 PM
To: sccc at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [SCCC] K6GEP - Brief Contesting and DX Year in Review


Tim,

For me, I think the ones that are the most exciting are the rare ones 
that get away. Those are the disappointments that motivate me to improve 
my station. It is as if the propagation gods are hinting at what is 
possible if I have the right hardware.  The most memorable miss this 
year was UA9KAA on 160 meters.

Contesting for me was lackluster in terms of tangible achievements, but 
it was fun making a few QSOs. I think my biggest accomplishment was 
getting a ~5 year backlog of QSLs answered. I hate being a QSL deadbeat, 
but sometimes work gets in the way. I also got almost all of my west 
coast QSOs loaded into LOTW

Glad you had a good time playing radio in 2010. Hopefully 2011 will 
deliver us another healthy dose of DX and contesting fun.

73, Mike W4EF/6

On 12/30/2010 1:24 PM, Tim Goeppinger wrote:
> I missed the SCDXC deadline, so I am posting this here.
>
> > From my "little pistol" perspective, 2010 was a good year for DX and contesting.
>
> The most memorable contest of the year was ARRL DX CW with its spectacular openings
> to Europe
>   on 15 and 40.   Of the CQ WW contests in the fall, the RTTY contest had
>   the best propagation, and allowed me to make a personal best record.
>
> The memorable DXpeditions of the year for me were YI9PSE, the N7OU expedtions to ZK3 and 5W, 5R8X, and the mega ZL8X DXpedition.
>
> The
>   opening of 4 new PJ entities at 0400z on 10/10/10 was an event that
> will be remembered for many years.   Hearing all the pileups at once was
>   incredible.
>
> My
>   personal "band of the year" was 17 meters.  It often provided the
> "sweet spot" opening to Europe in the mornings when 20 and 15 were
> closed.
>
> Lets all hope for lots of sunspots in 2011!
>
> Tim K6GEP 		 	   		
> _______________________________________________
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>
>


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