12/06/2005 | KD2MX My very first 160-meter contact was just a few weeks ago so this was my first contest on the band. I've recently gotten back on the air after many years of inactivity so I'm still getting my cw into shape. My first attempt at cw contesting was last month's Sweepstakes and I was blown away by the average speed. I've been practicing and was able to hang on a bit better during this event.

I was really surprised by the level of activity. Friday night was a ton of fun. 160 propagation is really interesting, it reminded me of vhf as I'd sometimes hear bursts from the mid-west.

Due to some just discovered telephone and microwave interference problems, I mostly kept my power below 30 watts. The xyl got a bit upset seeing the kitchen microwave go bonkers when I turned the power up in order to try and grab a Colorado station nor did she appreciate keyclicks on her phone so I had to keep power below 10 watts during her phone time. That turned out ok as I managed quite a few 5 watt qrp contacts.

Even though I was running low power, all my reports were 599! I saw a suggestion in another soapbox comment that the exchange be changed to include or substitute power level. This is an excellent idea. The signal report is meaningless.

I made all my contacts using 30 watts or less. My antenna is a longwire up only about 40 feet. I did crank up to a full 100 watts late at night to try and get the NP4 station along with a few others but no success. For the most part I was able to work everything I heard although I was able to work Kansas and Alabama but not Texas or Missouri.

Despite all the above, I managed about 150 contacts in 26 states while operating about 12 hours, adding 21 new states to my 160 totals!
Success is relative...best of all I had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing more on 160. -- KD2MX