That accurate description of the ARRL DX Contest was penned by Dale WC7S in a posting to the QRP-L email reflector. While my results are not even in the same zip code as Dale's, I have to agree with his assessment. The ARRL DX Contest was fun.
Not a contester by any stretch of the imagination, I set a goal for myself of making at least 100 contest contacts. In a little over 4 hours of operating time, I did just that, and a few more for good measure. 10 and 15 Meters were alive, hot and fantastic. I tuned up and down the bands, and I was able to work just about anyone that I tried to.
More than 90% of my QSOs were accomplished with QRP power. There were instances where I turned up the power to 75 Watts in order to complete the exchange. I didn't tally how many different countries I worked, but it had to be more than 50. So, if I was new to QRP DX hunting, and had decided to begin trying for QRP DXCC, I would have been more than halfway there in one weekend.
I jumped to 20 Meters late in the game. The band seemed to be just as active as 10 and 15. There were a few stations there that I had heard on the other two bands.
Lessons learned:
1) All the station equipment is working well, especially the new KXPA100.
2) Both my antennas are still working well.
3) QRP DXing is a hoot, even when you work countries that you have worked before.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Good morning Larry, great to hear you were active for some of the ARRL contest. It sure was hopping and yes these are the times to crank the power down and go for some QRP awards. I am doing the same (DXCC QRP) I am very close but it is just some of the hard to get countries that are well…..very hard to get…:)
ReplyDeleteHave a good week.
Mike