After a few years without contesting, my friend Roeland PA3MET convinced me to participate in CQ WW SSB last weekend. Quite busy at work with radio, so at home radio has become a little less important. It was a really busy weekend, but I managed to find some hours here and there to participate in the contest. Limited to QRP since there is quite some RFI in the shack. Monitor and mouse go out when I make more then 20 watts or so. The last time I decided to participate in a contest (last minute), I really bummed out because I couldn’t get things working. Always struggle with N1MM

, especially when wanting to set things up quickly. Don’t use it enough I think. But the user-friendliness of N1MM also leaves much to be desired. But then again, when in the contest, it really works fine.

Hardware

Contesting with my ICOM IC-7610 is really a blast. Really only did S&P. Not having a headset stopped me from running, I’m not great at hand mike and typing at the same time. Never the less I was manage to score 200 q’s. Although SSB is quite fun, I’m more of a CW-contest guy.

Antenna

Really need to update my antenna situation with a good ground cable. After the last storm changed my antenna situation a little. Removed the fiberglass poles from the chimneys and drilled mast support directly into the chimney. HF-wire (still feed by the ICOM AH-4) hangs a bit lower then before, but it works okay. Counterpoise for the AH-4 is a simple wire thrown over the roof. That really isn’t working okay. Did already put in a ground rod, but not yet find the time to connect the rod to my antenna/shack… Maybe this week I can get that job done.

It does start to itch again, so I started practicing Morse again. Making some q’s in the CQ WW CW next weekend!

Statistics

Some statistics on my log from CQ WW SSB (thanks to Roeland!):