I keep an eye on the SKCC website so I know when to plan some time for the monthly Week End Sprint. WES is a CW (Morse Code Radiotelegraphy) contest using only hand keys or semi-automatic keys "bugs" for short.
February's conditions were excellent at my QTH. Quietest band conditions I've heard on 80, 40 and 20 meters in a while. Cold winter nights with no thunderstorms on the upper 48 and plenty of solar radiation from the sun primes the ionosphere to bounce radio signals back to Earth. The contest theme was QRP which means 5 watts or less. Contacts with these QRP ops gets extra bonus points. I had to keep looking at my signal meter because many of them sounded very loud on my speaker. I operated in the usual 50-100 watt range and used my NT9K Pro Pump SKCC key for every contact. (The key in the picture at top) The SKCC club key has displaced every straight key I've tried and I'm starting to wonder if I can find a better one.
WES - 12 Feb 2012
7.118 NE5DL/qrp Texas
3.547 W9DLN Wisconsin
3.549 K4ZGB Alabama
7.116 F6HKA France
14.052 WA5KMA Texas
14.059 WI0S/qrp Minnesota
7.051 WB0UCP Iowa
7.055 K8JD Michigan
14.050 K4ZGB Alabama*
7.115 W4CUX/qrp Georgia
7.112 WD4SCZ Kentucky
7.112 NW2K/qrp New York
7.111 WA0BGV Missouri
7.107 W9DLN Wisconsin*
*Contact made on second band.
Speaking of Weekend Sprintathons I received an email from the SKCC club back in January. A fine certificate was attached. Thanks to all the fine ops I've had the good fortune to run into on the air and those behind the scenes that make the club and it's events a success. Time sure flies when your having fun.
Ha! That's cool man. Such a unique hobby you have there. Still would like to get into it one day, but I think I have too many other hobbies keeping me away from it! Nice job putting the time in on those weekend sprints.
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