ARRL DX Contest

Allow me to preface this by saying that I am not a contester. I view contests such as this weekend's ARRL DX Contest simply as an opportunity to put stations and countries in my logbook. I've worked 71 QSOs, although the total number of stations is lower due to the fact that I've worked a good many stations on multiple bands.

This contest, I enjoyed working 40 Meters and 80 Meters early in the morning (0400-0630 local) after coming home from work. It was a pleasant experience; the airwaves didn't seem to be quite as busy as during the day and it was easier to work the stations and easier on the ears without all of the daytime QRM.

After sleeping during the day, I woke up in the afternoon and worked a bit of 20 Meters and 15 Meters even though the prime time for Europe was long gone. I did work some Caribbean and South America with a spattering of Europe.

Tonight, I've worked some more 80 Meters, but mostly 40 Meters to Europe. Being more experienced (though nearly not enough) at contesting than I was during the CQ WW Contest last year, I played around with the split operations on the bottom end of 40 Meters. This helped me pick up 15 stations that I otherwise wouldn't have worked. I'm not a fan of split operation, but it was good experience and now I'm familiar with how to easily work split on my radio.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net