This past weekend was the CQ World Wide WPX SSB contest. I haven’t worked a lot of contests from my home station, but I have some free time on my hands with this COVID-19 pandemic going on, so I decided I’d give it a shot.
I have been very lucky and probably a little spoiled to have been able to use AB1OC/AB1QB’s station, which is an amazing station, for past contests. So, let me start by telling you a little about my home station. I’m running an Icom IC-7300 with an Elecraft KPA500 500 watt amplifier. I’m using the Buckmaster 4-band OCF Dipole for an antenna on a push-up mast from Max-Gain Systems at about 35 feet high. Definitely not a bad set up, but it’s not a big-gun station either.
My main goal for jumping into the contest was to have fun and try to finish off my DXCC. I have over a hundred countries and do have my DXCC through QRZ, but I’ve been stuck at 97 confirmed for quite a while on LOTW. I figured this would be a good contest to knock off a few more countries and hopefully get them confirmed.
The CQ WW WPX is a 48-hour contest in which amateur radio operators worldwide try to contact as many other operators as possible in that time. The exchange is a simple signal report and a progressive serial number. What is really fun about this contest is that each different prefix is a multiplier. As you make more contacts with unique prefixes your score really shoots up! It is fun to watch your score after each new contact.
My station seemed to be getting out pretty well as I searched the bands. I never called CQ and only searched and pounced, but looking back may have been able to try running on 40 meters – especially as the contest moved into Sunday. I didn’t operate the whole time but spent a fair amount of time on and off throughout the weekend.
In the end, I wound up with 222 contacts. 163 of those contacts were unique prefixes for a total claimed score of 72,698 points. I contacted 32 different countries and of those only two were countries that I did not already have.
By the end of the weekend, I accomplished my first goal. I had a blast! Even if I did fall short on getting three more confirmed countries for my DXCC this past weekend has shown me that you don’t have to have a super-station to join in on the fun of contesting.
Jamey, AC1DC
Howard Bernstein, WB2UZE, pointed out that learning Morse code is “a fun and educational activity for children of all ages that can fill part of the gap left by the current unfortunate situation that has closed so many schools across the country.”