This year for the North Carolina QSO Party I had the opportunity to operate the Morse code (CW) position at the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society’s (RARS) N4RAL bonus station. As one of the sponsors of the contest, RARS was asked to operate as a bonus station (more points for stations who contact us) and submit a check log for the contest. N4RAL log window from N1MM. RARS president Fin Gold NC4FG hosted the station at his QTH....
This year’s North Carolina QSO Party was very fun. I operated from my QTH for the duration of the contest, breaking for a 30 minute lunch and for the occasional stretch break. The propagation was better than last year, going by the numbers, Again this year, I used my Icom IC-7300 running 100W to an MFJ-986 tuner connected to ladder line and a center-fed Zepp dipole antenna. All performed well. Two days prior to contest, during good weather, I took down the dipole for inspection....
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....
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....
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....