CQ WPX RTTY Contest

CQ WPX RTTY Contest 2010

Well, this is my best contest score so far. And I worked only 19 hours and 28 minutes out to the 30 hours allowed. I did not loose sleep and had quite a few other things do do over the weekend, So I really can be happy with the results.

My Cushcraft MA5B rotator, a simple Radio Shack one, probably got water in its cogs as it will not rotate when temperatures are below freezing, and that antenna while functional only in the north easterly direction is not producing  heat (not a cloud warmer) so the ice does not melt in the rotator. At least it was pointing towards Europe. There is plenty of snow on the roof, no time to fool with antennas now.

I made some new DX contacts and have now Wales and Norway confirmed via LoTW. I also hope to get a confirmation from New Zealand. I made contacts on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. Only two on ten meters but that's better than none.

The contest happened just on a the weekend when I got my Ten-Tec 715 Speech Processor. It did not do me any good on an RTTY contest but I hope that it will help me break a few pile-ups easier in the future. I installed it today and it seems to be working hopefully making my voice more intelligible and stronger in lands far away. While I know that an amplifier will help, I prefer working on my antennas and signal first before inserting raw power.