This coming weekend is the annual ARRL CW DX international contest. This contest covers the whole weekend and is very well attended by some very nice DX and rare DX as well. Last year during this contest I was using my EndFed antenna and this year I will be using my Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna.
If you are a CW contester this is a must-contest for you. If you are not a contester but into CW this also can net you some nice DXCC contacts. The exchange is simple, your 599 report and your State or Province and that's it. The DX station will send their 599 and the power they are using.
Let's say your CW is a bit rusty and contest CW speed is beyond your comfort zone. Well, do what I used to do years ago use a spotting network to find the rare stations. This way you get their call and tune them in, now use a CW decode program such as MRP40 which was the one I used to use. It sets up via your sound card and decodes up to 60wpm. I found it very accurate and there is a full feature trial version available. Now you can read the machine gun code like a pro!
As for contest software N1MM+ is free and many setup videos are online for most rigs. So there you go with a little effort you can stack up some nice DX over the weekend.
Who knows maybe you will rekindle the love for CW and start a new adventure in ham radio.
4 comments:
Hello Mike, good luck with your efforts in the contest. Unfortenately I only have some time on Sunday. I will be looking out for you. Instead of MRP40 I use CW skimmer which I find much better in decoding. But the best decoder is your own ears of course. However you need to know the language in that case. Hope to work you. 73, Bas
Good morning Bas and very nice to hear from you, yes looking forward to putting you in the log again. CW Skimmer is great for contesting as it gives you a very large picture of what is going on. As for me I don't enter CW contests as assisted. I want to do all the decoding on my own as it helps me improve my CW skills.
Happy Friday,
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Thanks for the heads up on the DX contest. I don't usually run the DX contest, but I will be out doing a POTA activation. Even still, I like to work the European contesters as they are quite good at CW, trucking along at 30+ wpm. It keeps the CW skills up!
Good luck with your 4BTV too - what a great classic antenna.
73's -- Mike
Good morning Mike and thanks for stopping by the blog and leaving a comment, yes the Europeans are very accurate and fast with their CW skills. The 4BTV worked very well and the SFI numbers were great as well.
73 and have a good week,
Mike
VE9KK
Post a Comment