Confessions of a CQWW CW Newbie

Confessions of a CQWW CQ Newbie

By Mark VK4MFX

I thought I’d share my experiences and thoughts as a FIRST-time contester and also as a QRP’er for the CQWWDX contest.

WOW, what an eye opener. My first thoughts initially when the contest started was the SPEED. 25-30 wpm!. How the hell am I going to do this? There all on top of each other. Anyway, the first stations on air I heard were the JAs. So I just sat back and using an onion as an example, I slowly “peeled” back their callsigns layer by layer till in the end I had it. Sometimes this would take me around minute or two and others (especially around 30 wpm) would take me around 10 minutes. Talk about stretching the brain.

It was around 9am that I noticed the US stations coming on, so I managed to grab a few of them. It was around 3pm local (0500 UTC) … my brain was fried; I only had 12 QSOs at this stage and the thought of walking away entered my mind. I mean crikey… 5 hours for 12 QSOs! What a joke.

Also, working QRP meant you had to pick the moment to call (I did S&P throughout the whole comp) and when you did get through, sometimes you had to repeat your callsign numerous times and other info. I’m so glad the op on the other end persevered with me.

Anyway, I took a break, did some chores around the house and then I thought I’d give it another crack. So at 1000 UTC (8pm local) I jumped back on and managed 2 more QSOs with the USA and then I shut down. I had enough!!

The next day (Sunday) after doing my usual chores I decided to give it another go. First thing I did was check VOCAP for the day. It looked like 15 m was going to be the best till around 5-7pm, then switch to 20 m and then at 7pm switch back to 15 m for Europe.

What a day!!! Now that my brain had been stretched from the day before, things began to fall into place. I finally turned the radio off at 1030 local (1230 UTC). I was now up to 49 QSOs.

Monday early I was back on and only managed another 8 QSOs and the comp finished.

Time for the count

Initially I thought I had 57 QSOs in total, but going through each call and double checking, I ended up with only 53. I stuffed a few callsigns. Oh well.

So how did I go overall as a QRP’er and my FIRST contest?

53 QSOs

24 zones

32 countries

Power used – 5 watts

Antenna: Homebrew Commander for 10, 15, 20 & 40 metres.

Won’t win any awards with those results, but I had a ton of fun learning how it all works.

Now I’ll have to sit down and learn how to log it all with N1MM. Another program to learn. (Hope I don’t stuff it up).

As for any new members here who have never done any contests, give it a try. It’s addictive, especially when QRP.

Anyway … Here’s a map of how I did

Mark – VK4MFX

(Ed: great result Mark, and dare I say, a bit of an inspiration for the rest of us)