A contest weekend and other assorted trivia
CQ WW DX SSB contest I've never been much of a contester. Before I retired, there just wasn't enough time to fully engage in one of the exciting phases of amateur radio. There was always something that restricted my time at the old Swan 100-MX. Now that I've removed myself from the daily routine of getting up at 0230 hrs local time for my news shift at Pacific Radio Group, time has been more generous. With the CQ WW SSB contest in full swing, I tried my hand at a few pile ups...not too successful, but I did manage a few contacts with my modest station. Running around 10 watts SSB into an inverted "v" and a homebrew 20-meter vertical dipole surely made for some frustrating moments, but I enjoyed every minute of my limited exposure to the contest. The October 2011 edition of "CQ" had a nice article on contesting by Geroge Tranos (N2GA), who showed how emergency responders and contesters share many of the same attributes. This is an article worth...