Category: Contesting

Review of 2022

QSOs made: 2,022DXCC entities worked: 141New DXCC entities worked: 4Total DXCC worked and confirmed: 286 Solar cycle 25 is really starting to ramp up now and this is demonstrated clearly by the fact that for the first time in many years, the country I’ve worked the most is the USA with 436 QSOs. Unsurprisingly, 15m is […]

Amateur radio picture of the week

FT8 key down

Over the weekend I was operating in the World Wide Digi DX contest and I wondered if I could get a screen capture of my TS-890 just as I started transmission. I reached over and as the radio went into transmit, I hit the screen capture button and this is the result. As you can […]

Entering the Batavia FT8 contest

Map of stations worked during the Batavia FT8 contest 2021

Oh this is going to bring the haters to the fore! Not only is it an 48 hour contest but it’s a 48 hour contest using FT8. Mind you, as it’s FT8, it only takes up a few kHz of the spectrum in an area that’s not used for SSB or CW so it shouldn’t […]

Hexbeam is fixed, DXCC 2021 and general updates

Yaesu FTM-300DE monitoring the QSO365 YSFReflector

I posted back in January to say that the 17m element on my Hexbeam had snapped in the storms and was causing problems. It took over three months before everything came together to allow me to get the mast down and repair it but I managed it last weekend, just in time for the CQ […]

CQ WW SSB 2020

CQ WW SSB 2020 final score for G9D

Last weekend was the biggest SSB radio contest of the year, CQ WW and I decided to put in an entry. I expected things to be slow going because we’re pretty much still at the bottom of the solar cycle. I was pleasantly surprised. Both 20m and 15m were full from bottom to top and […]

A new cable for my MFJ-434B Voice Keyer

MFJ-434B Voice Keyer and Kenwood TS-590SG

A while ago I moved some equipment around in the shack and I managed to damage the cable that goes between my MFJ-434B Voice Keyer and my TS-590SG. I could have patched it back together but it would have been very messy. I struggled to locate a UK supplier of the cable and I couldn’t […]

A new year, a new callsign

In 2013 I applied for M7P as a Special Contest Callsign, and have used it successfully in a large number of contests throughout the years. One of the reasons I chose that particular callsign was for the rarity value when working the WPX contests, my logic being that people are always chasing new multipliers and […]

An unexpected new DXCC

This weekend was the ARRL RTTY Roundup contest and for the first time, FT8 was allowed. I spent a couple of hours operating just to give away a few points and get some experience using the new version of WSJT-X in contest mode. I’d been working mainly European stations and all of a sudden, I […]

Stew Perry (Big Stew) Topband Distance Challenge

QSOs made during the 2018 Stew Perry (Big Stew) contest

I go through phases of not sleeping very well and I’m in the middle of one of those right now.  Yesterday evening after a very bad night previously, I went to bed relatively early in the hope that because I was so exhausted, I might actually drop off quickly.  No such luck, two hours later […]

CQ World Wide DX CW 2018

This last weekend was the CQ World Wide DX CW Contest and I decided at short notice that I’d spend some time operating.  I was planning on being out for most of the day on Saturday but had nothing arranged for Sunday which would give me a few hours. I actually managed half an hour […]