Learning a lot from this year's contest, thought of sharing it will readers here. Hope you will enjoy..
Last year by this time, I had just given license upgrade exams and was awaiting results. As VU3KPL, I had distinct advantage of the low power (50W) and my operating style which was mostly Search n Pounce (S&P) during the contest and intermediate runs on the higher bands. This skill was built over few years which gave me a lot of frustration and fun at the same time. Frustration when stations could not hear me well and fun when my 50W made a big impact all over for short propagation duration.
This time as VU2XE, a minimum 2 S unit difference was available with me, but....
1. Power to run is great , but do not forget about S&P for juicy multipliers:
Difference being, this time a perfectly working LDMOS amplifier which I could drive to VU legal limit upto 400W, but overall lower propagation conditions. This amp dragged me into running more, and less of S&P. Some moments during the run were so fierce that I could not pick calls as fast as I would have otherwise. This might have driven some high speed callers away and bringing my run lower than 120 Qs/Hr. Not bad in usual case, but during those narrow propagation windows we observed during the weekend, it proved bit frustrating. These runs got me into another mode of "wanting more" on run whatever it may be, forgetting the juicy multiplier search elsewhere.2. Turn off DX cluster window if you are not using it from the start:
Important aspect which I did not consider was finding some mults using cluster spots. Never used spot window effectively because of the rush during the contest. I have to be frank to admit that, I only used it while parking my run frequency. It is considered by me as using assistance, so logging as Assisted mode!. If you turn on cluster window, do some justice as mentioned in point #1 above
3. Propagation may swing rapidly and get the best out of it:
A pattern observed during this contest was about 20m band conditions. In recent months, 20m normally stayed open till 14:30 or 15:30 UTC to Europe and then only to NA and Caribbean for some more time. This time, it closed to all directions by around 2:30 UTC or so. In small windows towards NA, there were big stations calling me such as K3LR. But they were RST 559 or so. Some stations, i could hear trying to make Q with me but vanished under QSB :(.
On the other hand, 20m showed best of its colors to me during the day time. I think it must have been open since mornings, but my operations only started after 9 UTC on 20m.
4. Lower Band antennas are must:
We are entering into no excuse years. One who concurs 40 and below will be on the winning race for sure. I did not have great antennas there. With OCF dipole and lower power, I managed 140+ Qs on 40m. There is lot more improvement on lower bands at my station required for sure.
So, these are some takeaways from this contest which is ultimate test for contester's preparation, skill and station quality (only big variable being propagation!)
See you on air
Kiran VU2XE
