2005 ARRL 160 Meter Contest
12/05/2005 |
K3MQ
My first ARRL 160m contest in my first month of contesting in my first year as a ham.
Since my code copy is no where's near 30 wpm, I had to listen to a cq'ing station several times before I could get his call sign. Forget about my calling cq - I would drive everyone nuts with ??? sent a dozen times. I found that having the last letter of my call be "Q" is not good, and having my section "DE" is worse. There is a super contest station - W3PP - about five miles away. Everytime he keyed, my rig would vibrate. I'm too new to all this to understand everything about band conditions - I really thought I had a problem with my setup Saturday night - even walked outside to see if my antenna had blown down.
However, using low power and a makeshift inverted "L", I was able to work just over 400 stations, including 45 states, so I was happy.
This whole test was just too much fun! I had a blast, and I'm already marking my calendar for the upcoming CW events. Catch you on 10m this weekend! -- K3MQ
Since my code copy is no where's near 30 wpm, I had to listen to a cq'ing station several times before I could get his call sign. Forget about my calling cq - I would drive everyone nuts with ??? sent a dozen times. I found that having the last letter of my call be "Q" is not good, and having my section "DE" is worse. There is a super contest station - W3PP - about five miles away. Everytime he keyed, my rig would vibrate. I'm too new to all this to understand everything about band conditions - I really thought I had a problem with my setup Saturday night - even walked outside to see if my antenna had blown down.
However, using low power and a makeshift inverted "L", I was able to work just over 400 stations, including 45 states, so I was happy.
This whole test was just too much fun! I had a blast, and I'm already marking my calendar for the upcoming CW events. Catch you on 10m this weekend! -- K3MQ
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