ARRL International DX

Another contest weekend in the books. I had to dodge thunderstorms Saturday morning, basketball Saturday afternoon, and some yard work Sunday. When I was in front of the rig, I rarely spent more than an hour at a time there, and I primarily chased the loudest signals. A hardcore contester I am not.

Conditions seemed goodish Saturday? The best the bands have sounded in a few weeks to my ears. Maybe it was just that so many stations were on that made them seem that way.

Sunday became a bit tedious as I heard the same handful of powerful stations over and over, and more domestic stations began calling CQ.

My final tally was 119 QSOs from 46 DX entities, each continent represented, good for 32,120 points.

My goals in each contest are pretty modest. Try not to finish last in Indiana, where I placed in the first contest I competed in last fall. I use the World Radio League logging software, which still has a fairly small user base. I’d like to be in the top 20-25 there. Unless something changes, it looks like I will finish 21st. Ideally I’d like to add a new DXCC entry or two along the way. No dice there this weekend, Uruguay being the country I heard often but could never get to hear me.

And, of course, have some fun, get better at playing radio, be a good HF citizen.

I have a few projects in the works; more on them in the days ahead.

Now to try to land Bouvet…