Amateur Radio

This past weekend I participated in the IARU HF World Championship contest. I chuckle at the phrase “world championship” because I’m a casual contester, a Sunday driver. I took this opportunity to practice my CW operating, as I have in other contests recently. My goal this year was to make 250 QSOs to qualify for the fancy certificate. This goal would require me to be a run station: sit on a frequency, call “CQ”, and copy other stations callsigns and exchanges (sent via Morse code) as efficiently as possible. I also thought 250 QSOs would be a good goal considering that I didn’t expect to be at the radio for the entire 24 hour contest period. ...

Today marked the beginning of a new CW contest geared towards the intermediate CW operator. I’ll put myself in that bucket. The Medium Speed Contest is geared for operators aiming to work at speeds of 20-25 words per minute. The exchange is your name and a serial number. My goal is to use this contest for practice. That means I’m sending by hand with my Bench BY-1 paddle and I’m not using spots. I’ve been participating regularly in the K1USN Slow Speed conTest (SST), and I’ll likely add this contest to the rotation. ...

The RARS Portable Operating Group met on April 23, 2022 at Umstead State Park near Big Lake for our second outing. Attendees included a dozen hams, some experienced and some new, who came to enjoy portable radio on a very pleasant spring day. The program was on public service events and was presented by the RARS Public Service Chair, Jeremy Lindsley K2HJX. Jeremy gave an overview of different types of public service events, explained how they normally operate, and demonstrated the portable VHF/UHF station that he regularly uses to run a public service net control station. His portable station consisting of two dual-band radios, vertical antenna with collapsible mast and tripod, combined with a versatile battery power source generated a lot of interest from participants. ...

This year’s North Carolina QSO Party was a blast. I like this contest a lot because I’m “the DX”, it’s only 10 hours, and I don’t feel pressured to use mind-numbing CW speeds (I ran at 23 WPM). My goal was to operate 100% CW and make more QSOs than last year. Both were achieved, despite taking a 45 minute lunch and a 3 hour family commitment during the 10 hour contest period. ...