March is one of my favorite contest months of the year. The ARRL International DX Contest and the CQ WW WPX SSB Contest bookend the month and I’ve done mini-DXpeditions to compete in both contests.
Remember that each month you get a chance to put several states in your log. Even during the doldrums of the solar cycle you can capture the 50 states for that Worked All States award. This month includes four state QSO parties plus a four hour “sprint” that give you a chance at all of them.
ARRL International DX Contest [0000Z, March 2 to 2400Z March 3] In this contest the US stations try to contact as many other countries as possible, and other countries call only the US and Canada. Do not call US or Canadian stations! Exchange: US stations send a signal report and their state; DX stations send a signal report and power. Note that power might be something like “K” (for kilawatt~1000W). Even stations running less than 1000 Watts will send “K” because it is so short, and everything over 150 Watts is considered high-power. As with all contests, just log what you hear and everything works out.
Oklahoma QSO Party [1500Z March 9 to 0200Z March 10 + 1400Z to 2100Z March 10] Don’t miss this opportunity to get this state into your log! Exchange: OK stations send signal report and county. You send your signal report and state. There are 77 counties and you should log the county abbreviation, so it might be handy to print out a cheat-sheet of county names. You can find one here.
Idaho QSO Party [1900 March 9 to 1900Z March 10] This is another rare state so don’t miss it. Exchange: ID send “Idaho” and the county (three character abbreviation); you send signal report and state. There are 44 counties in Idaho. Log the abbreviation for the county using this cheat-sheet.
Wisconsin QSO Party [1800Z March 10 to 0100Z March 11] Exchange: WI stations send county; you send your state. Here is a county map for Wisconsin, and here’s the list of abbreviations used in the contest.
Virginia QSO Party [1400Z March 16 to 0400Z March 17 + 1200Z to 2400Z March 17] This one has a slightly more complicated exchange than most QSO parties. You need to send a “serial number” along with your state. Exchange: VA sends serial number plus county; you send serial number and state. The list of counties and cities for VA can be found here.
North American SSB Sprint [0000Z to 0400Z March 24] If you’re not familiar with sprint-type contests, now would be a good time to do a refresher on the subject using my article CONTESTING JARGON EXPLAINED. Exchange: [other station’s call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name] + [your state/province/country]. This is a good test of your listening and logging skills!
CQ WW WPX SSB Contest [0000Z March 30 to 2359Z March 31] I confess this is one of my favorite contests. Everybody can work everybody. Multipliers are prefixes. A change in propagation just means you have new people to talk to. Exchange: RS plus serial number. The picture of the antenna above is from my effort in 2010 on the island of St. Thomas that set the North American record for 15m QRP. (All-Buddipole construction!)
Read the rules before the contest. Set up your radio and computer and test everything before the contest. Know how to log the exchanges so you can submit your score. Try all this early. That way, if you do run into trouble, you can reach out to your fellow club members for a helping-hand.
The contesting season is wrapping up but there is still time to get in on the fun. I hope to hear you on the air!