Nothing like a new record! After almost a year's idleness, I fired up the station the day before the contest. Everything was checked out and the buffers written. The beginning of the test was a disappointment but this time everything changed after the Saturday start. And I reached out to 35 20M Q's in about four hours of effort. Not impressed? Then consider the fact that 18 of those Q's were DX. Worked all over S. America (P40, CE8, HP1, HC1, LU8, XQ8), Europe (On4, I2, TM3, EA3, DL5, F5, S58, RW2, 9A) and the Carib (FG5, VP5). But for the life of me I couldn't work a Canadian station, or even California for that matter, or even W3LPL. An E-W dipole does that, you know.
Some software problems emerged. Just as I was about to respond to WS7I's greeting from K5DJ, I discovered the the Alt-F7 chat switch didn't work in RTTY (never did get back to him). Same failure with AA7UN out in ID. Several other keyboard commands failed as well. This, even though all the function and special keys worked. Hmmmm! I'm not sure whether I checked that beforehand or not.
Remarkably, I worked DX stations whose signal came in at S5 or even less. If my peanut whistle could get their attention, and that often took a handful of calls on my part, I never needed to repeat, and the basic report contained only a single 599/05/NY! In two or three cases I repeated the state, that's it.
Though I could spend but a few hours at the rig, I had a wonderful time, a better time than I've had for quite a spell. And it set me to thinking about contesting as a part of this hobby. I've played at contesting for several years. I only made one serious effort, that in the first ARRL RTTY test. Sometimes, even with the great antenna in Florida, I make no more than a few dozen contacts, just enough to leave my calling card. Even that kind of activity declined along with propagation over the past few years. It's so easy to lose interest.
The CQWW bug started to work on me about a month ago, about the time the first detailed announcements started to show up on the Internet. Even though the radio experience in this New York location has been a big disappointment, I couldn't shake the feeling that I should try again. So, I began monitoring 20 meter phone during the evenings to see if there was any hope of decent propagation. The results were not great. But there were those breaks when the band opened to the world. And I worked stations with 50 watts of SSB that had no business hearing me. The CQWW tickle simmered.
So I took some time away from other activities, both work and play, and jumped in to see what might happen. The opening night was marginal. When there are big blank spaces between audible signals on 20 meters during this contest, you don't have to ask about propagation. I didn't stay for long. Back at the rig Saturday afternoon it was a different story. Signals everywhere, on top of each other, overlapping . . . just like it ought to be. And I ran about 20 contacts in under two hours. Hey, that's a real rate!
Sunday afternoon was a repeat and, even though activity was slowing a bit, I wasn't about to run out of potential contacts. Unfortunately, I had to shut down well before I could reach my goal of 50 contacts. Maybe next year!
I learned a lot about ham radio and contesting and my own interests in those few hours. I would like to share some of those thoughts with you, just to prove that even rank beginners like me can learn a lot in a big contest like CQWW. Let me count the ways.
I surprised myself by concluding that RTTY contesting may help save amateur radio, at least as far as the HF bands are concerned. Yes, I think contesting stands a better chance of drawing both old hams back and new hams into the HF swim than DXing or any other traditional activity available. Many observers, including this one, looked into the future and saw the virtual end of HF radio amateur activity. The computer, the Internet, the world of 500 TV channels combine to push ham radio further and further down the list of preferred pastimes. Many thousands have retired from the hobby as many more thousands have failed to replace them or show any interest in doing so. I, for one, thought the trend would continue.
Then I realized why the CQWW lured me back to the keyboard. Contesting can do it because it is in tune with our times. Think about it:
Contesting is the complete sport for our time, and it offers everything but good exercise and a healthy life style. Cold pizza for breakfast may not be the ideal choice, but it is nutritious! Seriously, I believe it is the kind of activity that attracts the active, bright, computer-literate, technically competent folk that belong in amateur radio. Let's make sure we issue the invitation, escort them into this wonderful world and then help them get the first signal on the air.
By the way, I also re-learned a few other lessons as well. We tend to forget. Hi! If you are going to play, clear some serious time for the event. Invest at least half the allowed time in order to get a real feel for the contest. Then, play on all bands. Even if the antennas are a little piece of wire a few feet off the ground, have the capacity to run 10-80 meters. (I have never really paid attention to that rule, but I will now). Finally, do some studying in advance. All the real contesters spend a lot of time in planning. Planning is good. Do some!
My 1999 New Year's resolution number one will lead me to higher scores!
I can't wait for the next one!
73 de Jim N2HOS
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