I spent some time this last weekend working the QRP ARCI contest, as always, from my driveway. I heard absolutely nothing on 15 or 40, so all my activity was on 20 meters. I managed to work eight stations for seven states/provinces and a total score of 1960 points. (Last year's high scores were well over 1,000,000 points.)
I basically worked everybody I could hear, except one guy in South Dakota and one guy in New York. My routine became: tune, tune, tune for a CQ, call, exchange info, tune some more, worked everybody? Go inside for a while and wait for the propagation to change. Repeat as necessary.
I figured I might work a few more on 40 after sunset, but all I heard were stations calling for the Georgia QSO Party. I did hear some exotic DX while I was tuning around: 6W4RK in Senegal and CT3MD in the Madeiras, and later that night, UT8MM in Ukraine.
I don't really have the attention span to seriously contest, I need frequent (and lengthy) breaks and the high scorers are the ones with the catheters installed. My brain has to be rebooted after about 30 minutes of fast CW so I fear I'll never be in the top scorers.
Posted in Operating by WA5ICA at April 10, 2006 07:13 PM