Tuesday, October 30, 2007

2007 CQ WW DX SSB Contest

Well, I worked my very first CQ WW DX SSB Contest over the past weekend. I set
a goal for 500 contacts for myself. The goal was set before I realized that
the stations were going to be all from other countries, nothing stateside. The
stateside contacts didn't count for any points, just other countries and other
zones. I had a good time overall with 20:18:33 total operating time. That
includes tuning around and trying to work stations. I was originaly going to
pick a frequency on each band and call CQ Contest but that didn't work out to
well because there were not many stateside contacts as I mentioned. The
Contest was for 160M, 80M, 40M, 20M, 15M, and 10M. I have no 160 or 80 antenna
here so I was limited to only 4 bands. Station was a 746Pro Icom running 100
Watts. Antenna was a G5RV-JR, 52 foot long 40-10 Dipole up at 15 feet high.
Stats are as followed:

40 Meter = 48 Contacts, 22 Countries, and 14 Zones.
20 Meter = 65 Contacts, 31 Countries, and 15 Zones.
15 Meter = 27 Contacts, 19 Countries, and 9 Zones.
10 Meter = 13 Contacts, 10 Countries, and 7 Zones.

153 Total Contacts, 310 QSO Points, 127 Multipliers for a total score of 39370.

Not too bad for my modest setup. It was awesome to see 10 meters open into
south america and the caribbean. I was hoping to work Barbados on 10 but no
joy. I did however work Barbados on 40 and 20. 8P5A on 40 and 20 and 8P6SH on
40. I had a good time. Not as many contacts as field day but quality DX
contacts.

I won money! (for real this time)

I am slow to upate this, sorry. About 3 weeks ago I was at work when I got a call from Ray. He said that one of our clients sons ran into our office and said that I won money on 94.7 WCSX www.wcsx.com I was skeptical at first. Anyway, I called and was added to the workforce. You get added to the workforce and every hour they call a name, you make 100 dollars right off the bat and if the next person they call doesn't call back then you keep winning 100 dollars an hour. I wound up winning 400 dollars! I was pretty pumped! Me and Piper and Andrew went down to the studio to pick up the cash a few days later.. It was awesome! We got to go back into the studio and they recorded a promo with Andrew saying "My dad won 400 dollars on 94.7 WCSX". It really helped out with the bills. :)