HAM radio
Contests are fun and learn. Its great way to improve one’s technical operating skills.
Newly licensed HAM who doesn’t have hands on experience on wireless can
actively participate in contests and improve radio skills. After receiving my
license I was eagerly waiting to actively participate in CQWPX SSB contest
which is held on last weekend of March every year. Due to antenna restriction
operating from home QTH was out of question. Fortunately my friend Rahul
(VU2FXF) invited me to operate in contest from his farm house near pachgani. I left
home in morning with my radio, battery & antennas. While on my way I also
checked in morning Sahyadri net thru matheran repeater it was nice warm-up
before operating on contest. I reached farmhouse @ 12.00 pm and immediately started
to raise antenna to operate on 10 Mtr band.
While participating
in contest it’s better to plan out things to be done in right sequence. Especially
CQWPX contest is wide open on various ham bands & different power levels unless
you have good antenna setup it will be very difficult to make high score. Before
operating one should consider space & components available for setting up
antenna. In my case I decided from start that I’ll only operate on 10 Mtr band
because it’s usually open full day and even at worst it always open for short
distance communication in night time. I’d
plan to operate full Saturday till late night and resume Sunday morning.
Although farmhouse was in Panchgani
a hill station, it was moderately hot day and when you don’t have practice of
digging in the farm it’s become exhausting exercise. Still it was worth we were
able to dig deep enough to erect long bamboo stick which will hold my copper
wire based vertical antenna. vertical antenna
is comparatively easy to build and it can be setup in short time with some
efforts While setting up this simple copper wire based
antenna couple of tiring iterations were done (cutting copper wire of antenna
& radials) to match SWR to 1.3 it was good exercise for lazy ham like me J it’s difficult to explain
that feeling of achievement when you see low SWR number on antenna analyzer
after putting so much efforts.
Snap of my 10 Mtr vertical bamboo antenna
After
successful antenna setup it was only matter of connecting radio to battery and
antenna. Before jumping into contest I configured my laptop with N1MM logging
software for CQWPX contest and immediately I was on air listening to populous
10 Mtr band. I started responding to
those CQ contest call and exchanging contest number with call-sign and signal
report. This continued till late night. Excitement
was peaked after 8 pm when I started to communicate with HAMS from American continent.
These long distance contacts from different continents are especially important
as they are worth 3 points. After 12 AM band was almost silenced and I went to
sleep. When I started in morning
stations from Far East were reachable it was very exciting to communicate with Chinese
& Japanese HAM’s. This continued till evening. Finally my battery drained
at night and I was forced to shut my radio. At end it was fantastic experience
and good score for rookie (HAM with less than 2yr old license) participant with home-brew antenna.
Here is my certificate
Here is my certificate
I hope
next year I’ll do better and hope my experience encourage other HAM’s to participate
in contests.
