CQWPX SSB 2015

I'm participating in CQWPX SSB 2015 and I'll share my experience here. right now i'm in preparation mode trying to ensure all equipments are in place and ready for contest, below is my checklist for preparation.

1) Place - I've decided to operate from my friends home/farm in village megal situated near palanpur Gujarat, contesting is very overwhelming activity and i need calm ham friendly environment and peace of mind to operate in contest. I've not yet visited this place but hope it will match my expectation.

2) Power Supply - Get my 70 Ah battery fully charged its my primary power supply  it weights 28 Kg and tests my muscle power, today I'm giving it to my battery dealer to get it fully charged, overnight charging required to get it fully charged. i also have 30A SMPS as backup i try to avoid using it due to noise from power line and i usually operate from fields where AC power is not always available.

3) Antenna - I've lots of copper wire which i will be using to make dipole and long-wire antennas using diamond bu50 balun, I'm planning to operate in 10 mtr and possibly 20 & 15 mtr bands in contest. i also have LDG YT100 antenna tuner just in case. apart from this I'll also carry yaesu ATAS-120A autotune antenna along with Chinese make JPC 7 vertical antenna.setting-up antennas can be very time consuming and i don't want to spend too much of my time on setting up of antennas.  I'm gonna use all of these, lets see which one performs better with yaesu FT-857D.

Lets see how all this works out,

PS:    Updated on 1 September 2015

           Dear readers I’ve operated in CQWPX 2015 contest from my friends village home in Gujrat but using simple wire antenna with LDG tuner. i couldnt use JPC because i operated from terrace and didnt found proper place to mount vertical, still i operated in 15 Mtr low power. my thin copper wire antenna was not in proper length it was makeshift arrangement just to be on air still I'm surprised with results here is my certificate. lesson learned use whatever you have to participate in contest you will surly make some contacts 

   

 

Why participate in Contest ?

              

           Dear SWL's and hams, now its just 2 days and 16 Hrs left for CQ WPX SSB 2015 Contest , I like HAM contests, they are fun and learn,  whether you want to Test & calibrate your Hardware (Radio, antennas etc), learn operating skills, make DX contacts, do various experiments, contests gives you excellent opportunity to do all of above,
   Especially CQ WPX contest is very helpful to learn about HF propagation 1st hand, all sort of operators and hams operate in contest, be it state of art expensive commercial transceiver with all whistle and bells or home-brew QRP single band transceiver, similarly 50 year Senior HAM operator with large antenna farm or rookie HAM who got license on contest day, they all operate on air communicate with each others share messages and be merry. for this same reason I urge all SWL's & HAM to participate in CQWPX contest and enjoy event to fullest,  CQ WPX SSB contest is scheduled on weekend's so maximum hams can participate in fun.

             I'm gonna participate in  CQ WPX SSB this year and share my experience on another post. stay tuned and enjoy the show. here are some snaps from my 2014 contest (location is near Panchgani, MH, IN  owned by OM Rahul VU2FXF) showing 20 copper wire dipole  antenna and excellent 10 mtr antenna made by GT communications, thane for OM Sai (VU2SGW).