Contests, Awards, and Big Catches

I gave the Worldwide Digi DX Contest a shot last weekend. Conditions did not seem great. Regular checks of PSK Reporter showed that my signal was barely getting out of the US. I heard plenty of JA’s and VK’s, but could not reach them. Late Saturday evening I had a nice European run, but the DX part of the contest was largely missing for me.

I ended up with 115 QSOs, a couple nice FT4 runs boosting those numbers. Like June’s ARRL International Digital Contest, the contest sections of each band were not exactly hopping with stations. The same handful of callsigns appeared band-to-band, hour-to-hour. Checks of the regular FT4 and 8 bands showed plenty of activity there. I suppose it is nice that unlike phone or CW contests, which take over entire bands, in digital contests there are clear areas to operate that leave plenty of room for those not interested.

In my last post I mentioned how conditions seemed better on the bands and I had actually had some phone momentum for the first time in months. Well, the noise has been back most days so that run was limited (Until today, more on that in a moment…).

However, I was able to check off a huge milestone last Wednesday afternoon. Two Colorado operators were activating a park in Wyoming, their signal slowly getting stronger the longer I listened. Other operators from 9-land were getting through but I seemed to be stuck in the pileup. Finally, just as my high schooler was pulling into the driveway and I was about to turn the radio off, they picked me up. Even better, one of the ops confirmed our contact on LOTW that evening.

That Wyoming confirmation was the last one I needed to complete my phone WAS award. I’m on the verge of several other awards, so I’m holding off a bit longer to send in my application.

A quick check of my DXCC spreadsheet shows I have confirmed 117 of the 144 entities I’ve made contact with. Digital is significantly ahead of phone, naturally. I have several ATNOs over the past couple weeks so I’m hoping a few more roll in before my Ham-niversary later this month.1

Finally, while I was able to get RI1FJL on FT8 last week, I hadn’t made an effort to reach them on phone. Late one (local) night I heard them calling on 15 meters, but given the hour it did not seem realistic that my signal would reach them so I just sat and listened for a bit.

This morning I was hearing them well on 17 meters. I checked the cluster sites for guidance on where they were listening and was about to make a call when they disappeared. A few minutes later they reappeared slightly lower on the band, but much weaker. I parked on their signal and monitored, hoping they would come back up in strength. Eventually they were loud enough for me to feel comfortable calling. I tried unsuccessfully for about 30 minutes before breaking for lunch.

After eating I changed strategies and rather than searching for a clear spot in the pileup, tried to find who they were working and call there as soon as they closed that QSO. Two calls later I finally got my callback. Things did get a little tricky as first someone was calling over me and RI1FJL had to tell them to give me room, then they stumbled over my call. I nearly panicked, as they were fading down, but after a couple exchanges they had my call correct and the contact went into the logbook. My best phone DX since March! My FT8 QSO appears on the ClubLog page; fingers crossed this one hits as well.

  1. Ham-niversary? Seriously? ↩︎