Stu VK8NSB recently participated in a DX contest.

Here’s Stu’s report. Thanks Stu!

After almost 30 years of being an amateur radio operator I still don’t really get into contesting that much, but one of the biggest contests in the World is CQ World Wide SSB is held on the last weekend of October with the CW contest in November.

In the past I have entered this contest, both SSB & CW and worked all bands single operator low power (100w) section, which I hold the single operator all band low power (SOAB LP) SSB Zone 29 record from 2009. This year; however, I decided to challenge myself and thought I would stick to 10m only and try and beat Len’s (VK8DK) Zone 29 record of just over 100k points (444 QSO’s), which he has held since 2000.

The contest started on the morning of Saturday 30 October at 0000z (09:30 am local) and ran until 09:30 am Monday morning. I was awake early to make sure I had the fridge stacked with drinks and snacks and of course to make sure all the gear worked.

The equipment this way is Yaesu FTDX101D (100w), 6 element Dual bander Werner Wulf Yagi (3 elements on 10m) up about 15m and it thumps out. Having the dual VFO’s in a contest is a must; the main VFO is set as your CQ contest frequency using the auto CQ from the rig (I have a FH-2 remote control) and the other VFO is for cruising the bands and searching for rare ones. Yes, there are DX clusters for searching, but the problem I have found with the CQ WW contest is the DX loads so fast that you really don’t get time to see it. So I found the old school way of dialling the VFO and searching for the rare DX was the better option and did not bother with the DX clusters. Of course once you get spotted as a VK8 in Zone 29, well, the pileup can last up to over two hours, like mine did into Europe on Sunday night. It was brutal, but great fun.

I hit the bands right on start time and worked up to about 1:00 pm when I decided to take a couple of hours nap, as Saturday night was date night with my wife and I heading out to dinner and then to the Crowed House concert.

Getting home at about 11:30pm I thought I would have a listen and see what was happening on 10m with the band still open to EU. I worked a few more QSO’s, including FY5KE long path, before I packed it in at just after 2:00am when I could not stop yawning. The band was still open, but I just could not stay awake any longer.

I was up at 7:00am (Sunday) I jumped straight back into pileup mode into NA and the Carribean, even working some South African stations. Of course JAs were abundant all day/night I was on air, but I found that working 10-15 JAs then asking for stations outside JA worked. Stopping for a quick lunch break I was back into it for the afternoon session, the NA’s started fading out about 2pm, then EU and AF started to come in, then of course EU for the night pileups. I went QRT and packed up, submitted my log at about 11pm, I could have continued but had achieved what I set out to do. So, the numbers for my contest weekend, with a date night included were, 897 QSO’s, 30 Zones, 88 DXCC and a score of 275,176 points, for a new Zone 29 record (to be confirmed – log submitted), Sorry Len.

I really enjoyed myself and the FTDX 101D was a beast in this contest, the Dual VFO’s (one in each headphone), the filters for splatter were amazing, and of course the shandies and snacks over the weekend made it a great CQWW SSB contest. I have decided to give 15m a go next year with the record standing at 373,932 points (1,183 QSOs), which is held by AX8HZ (VK2CZ).

I hope you enjoyed my story, although I am not much into contests they can be fun and you don’t need to cancel your life and sit at the radio for 24 or 48 hours over a weekend; you just do what you can. Most importantly, have fun.