ARRL DX Contest: Part 2
Yesterday I talked about my experience operating as part of the team using N6BV during the recent ARRL DX Contest. Today, it’s my personal experience from my home QTH using my call sign. It is interesting to not the subtle pieces of information you learn at the start of each contest. Much like previous contests I have participated in, I had some high expectations based on the overall total QSOs I logged during other SSB contests. But I did not take into consideration one small, but important piece. This contest was a “biggie” by comparison to the Winter RAC or NAQP – SSB.
I rushed home from work, after running some errands for the XYL, which delayed the start of my contest entrance. But that would be of little consequence just under two hours into it, but I did not know that yet. Unlike other contests the DX contest’s objective is to work as much DX as possible. So contacts with Canada (VE) and USA (K) stations do not count in your overall score, if, like me you were operating from the USA.
Wouldn’t you know the first contact I make was a VE. Great start! Hmmm. Actually that is where the contest start and stopped for me on Friday. I tuned around 20M for the next 90 minutes or so and while I could hear many stations with booming signals, they unfortunately could not hear me. Why? It was a combination of a few factor.
The first and probably most important being the sunspot number and lack of good propagation, being we are still at the ass end of the solar cycle is really making operators work harder and wait for those momentary openings to log a QSO. Unfortunately, Friday activity did not allow me that chance. The second factor was the start of the contest, where all the operators running something over 100w were piling up on the DX stations. Makes sense, but this did not strike me until the next day. Third factor and maybe it’s not right, but my station equipment. Sure, I have more than some in a Yaesu FT-1000MP and Hustler 6-BTV, but not as much as others when it comes to what I run. I run without an amp, so output on SSB was about 65-70w. If the antenna were erected with optimal ground radials I would probably put out a better signal. But as a ham you must operate within your means, so my antenna radial system is not the best but with the dimensions of my backyard it is the best I can do.
As a friend told me on Sunday, “you can work the world on 100 watts!” And after thinking about it last night, he is right, but currently there are more factors working against us now than in previous years. I suspect I will be just fine when the solar cycle starts its upswing.
After my one lone contact I shutdown the ham shack and left it for Saturday. I already described Saturday evening, but before leaving for N6RO I operated for about 2 hours. While 20M was just jammed full of activity, there were not as many pileups on the DX I could hear. This gave me the opportunity to work 12 new DXCC entities and double total from 12 countries to 24 countries! Right there I consider my participation a success!
Many of the contacts I made were from the Caribbean, which is fine with me, as they all count towards the DXCC Award. Some of the entities I added were: Aruba, Netherlands Antillies, French Martinique, Antigua & Barbuda, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There were some others, but off the top of my head I cannot recall them. But the “crown jewel” so to speak was the QSO with a ‘6W’ Senegal on the west coast of Africa. This was my second QSO with Africa, the first from the continent. My other AF contact was Cape Verde a few month back.
So all in all I was thrilled with what little time I put into this contest. It was great fun and the FT-1000MP did a marvelous job, but I need to learn how to use all the tools it offers to clean up those weak signals. I was starting to do that near the end of my participation on Saturday. This is something I will work on as we look forward to the next contest. Who knows maybe next time I will have a linear amp in the shack!
