The IARU contest....DONE!

 

 

Good afternoon all.....The IARU contest has come and gone. This one is a CW and SSB contest but as for me, it was 100% CW. The WRTC (World Radio Team Championship) happens alongside this contest. These folks are the best of the best and competing both in CW and SSB to be the best! This year's WRTC was held in Italy and all the WRTC stations are designed so no one station has an advantage over the other. The power is maxed out at 100 watts as well. For more info click on WRTC. 

Ok well, I am not even close to qualifying for a WRTC team member but I did take part in the IARU contest this weekend. I took part for about 11 hours of the 24-hour contest (social engagements cut into contest time) and for the time I was on the air it was great. Propagation was good and some highlight contacts were KH6, JA, ZL and UP2L in Kazakhstan to name a few. I found my average running (calling CQ contest) speed was around 32 wpm. My contest code practice is paying off as I have no issues when someone comes back to me at 36-38 wpm. I don't call CQ contest at that speed as I feel it limits my score. I have an Icom 7610 at 100 watts with a Huslter 4BTV not a KW of power and huge beams. My best one hour run was 60 QS0's in the log BUT at 2100 things were HOT and I had to pull the plug after 30 minutes and my count was at 50 QSO's. I have to keep my dear wife loving my hobby which means radio does not trump our social things.
I had no technical issues at all....finally and had a great time. 

 Now the above score is not earth shattering at all but last year my total was 84 QSO's.