I did a part-time effort in the Canada Day contest on the weekend. I wanted to take it easy as I just had minor surgery and sitting in one spot for long periods hurts. The contest was from Sunday at 00:00 or 9 pm local time until 00:00 Monday. I was on and off during the day Monday and noticed the number of contesters was on the low side. I attribute this to Monday only being a holiday in Canada and most others were working. In the Canada Day contest you have the option of CW and SSB or a combination of both. As you may have guessed I was CW-only and unassisted.
The solar forecast was predicting a Kp index maxing at 4 but the good news was the maxed at Kp2. I still found deep QSB (fading) on all bands (for me 10m-40m). I did manage to beat last year's score and total contacts. As always I found this contest more relaxed CW speed-wise, I was calling CQ in around 30wpm but dropped it to 26-28wpm. I found at times I would be calling CQ RAC for 5 or minutes without an answer. Because of this I had some web pages up on my other monitor and was doing some reading. Funny when an answer to my CQ did come back to me it would startle me out of my reading trance.
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| This years score |
I found the new equipment placement helped me out. With the Icom 7610 closer so no leaning forward for VFO changes. Also having the Begali Simplex on the pull-out table beside me was great. I had no getting my hand around the radio to get at the paddle. I am now in the process of teaching myself finger placement for the F keys. What I mean by finger placement is to have certain fingers for certain F keys and it is preformed with out looking at the keyboard. I can already touch type without looking and in contests believe me if you can learn this it is a huge benefit.
My contacts during the contest
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