I went into the 2012 CQ WW CW weekend without my usual high energy level. While I’d had the entire Thanksgiving week off from work, I spent much of it on major tree and shrub trimming around my home. I didn’t even have the energy left to put up the temporary mast with 15 meter Moxon. None the less, I did get on the air and handed out 212 QSO’s and picked up two new countries in the process.
It was all search and pounce and most nearly all of it on 10 and 15 meters, with only 32 Q’s on 20 meters. I tried 40 and 80 meters but just couldn’t be bothered with the QRN. This approach allowed me to sleep during the night and work some Q’s during the day, with healthy breaks from time to time. You can see the full score nearby.
This was the first CQ WW that I worked as an “assisted” entry. I found this approach very helpful with the Oceania contest earlier this year and fun in the Sweepstakes effort. With both those contests I used Skookum Logger as my software. With this one I used RUMped by Tom, DL2RUM. I’ve taken a snapshot of the full screen view with the bandmap and spot table. You can also see the logging window and the gray zone map. I really like the keyboard interface for this software with the “enter-sends-message” feature.
I did work 77 countries and 27 CQ Zones. The two new countries were ZC4LI in British Cyprus and Z60WW in Kosovo. The latter does not have DXCC approval but does have approval for the CQ DX Awards program and in the contest as a multiplier.
The keyboard tray for the ham shack table worked well. I do need to add a wrist pad to help with the ergonomics. Also considering adding a shelf to either hold the computer monitor or the rig and panadapter. Something to get all the equipment right in front of the keyboard. Bit by bit I’m getting the station into shape. Now I just need to enter a contest fired up to stay in the chair for nearly the entire event. We’ll see what happens next in my Ham Radio Adventures!
