Even though Field Day was a few weeks ago, I am still “exhausted” from it. There is really not much motivation for me to get on the air after. Usually my station is still in pieces but for some reason I wanted to particiate in the IARU HF contest. Ealier in the week I manged to get my station back together and chased stations on the cluster to make sure I was back where I was before Field Day.

I am currently trying to put an honest effort into learning CW which will be another article. I wanted to use the IARU contest to see how well I can contest with my limited CW knowledge. It’s a perfect contest for those who are trying to learn CW for the purpose of contesting. Other than the HQ stations, the exchanges are short and somewhat simple, the logging software (N1MM+) already gives you an idea of the exchange is going to be. All you have to do is listen.

I was looking forward to the contest all week but the weather in my area was very excellent. I couldn’t resist going outside and playing with the family so the contest became an afterthought. I would go on here and there when I got tired from doing work outside in the sun.

Getting on the Air

Even with the amp and beam, there is still no way I was going to “run” or call CQ and hold a frequency. The 20 meter band seemed really packed so it was the band of choice for me during the contest. Nice propagation to Europe so I took advantage of it. Since I was doing this very casual, I depended on the use of the cluster to find stations/mults. I didn’t really spin the dial. Even thought it puts me into a different category, I didn’t mind.

Where’s the cold?

Weather is warming up here in New England and it was predicted to be around 90F degrees today. I decided that having the central air would be a nice. However a few hours into the running the AC, I noticed the air coming out of the vents were warm. Uh ohhhhhh. Contest was now put on hold. After doing some troubleshooting, I narrowed it down to the AC condensor/compressor. Soon as I removed the panel, I saw this.

The capacitor that helps run the fan and compressor decided to go out in a blaze of glory.  Thankfully it was easy to spot… Oh well. Opened the windows and took out the fans. I consider AC to be a luxury, even though I love it, I can deal without.

Not much contesting

With the nice day and the AC kicking the bucket (for now), I didn’t get much air time. CW was slow for me because I listening to the operator make exchanges with other operators to make sure I have it correct before sending out my call. I hope to improve on that.

It appears I made a 127 contacts and got a score of 24.5K.  Nothing to be proud of but it’s better than nothing and I will most likely get a bunch of LoTW confirmations on CW which I badly need.

It was fun, can’t wait for CQWW now that I have some aluminum in the air.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff – NT1K