CQ WPX CW

I did a bit of operating over the weekend in the CQ WPX CW contest. I enjoy this contest because everyone is fair game and since my station is far more suited to CW, I have more fun. I was especially pleased with the conditions, 20 meters was exceptionally good late into the evening and even both afternoons, I thought. Since Friday was my wife's birthday, I only managed about 50 QSO's in between dinner, cake, and all the hoopla. Between Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon I set a goal of 500 QSO's and barely made it. I was thinking that I'd operated in this contest last year but apparently not. They tend to run together.

The hex did outstanding on 20, I was quite pleased with the low noise level both days and I even managed some contacts on 15 and a handful on 10. 40 was also pretty good Saturday night but a bit noisier than I'd hoped. I didn't stay on too late Saturday, though, so it might've improved some after I signed off?

For the first time since early in the year I was able to work some JA's and even nabbed a station in Mongolia that I've heard many times and never managed to work before. Didn't hear anything else from Asia though. Worked a few ZL's. Most of the DX I worked on 20 and 40 was from Europe and Africa, and South America to a lesser extent.

Lot's of fun.

I went to the Durham hamfest a couple of weekends ago, DurHAMfest. Spoke to some nice people but the turnout and the offerings on Saturday morning were kind of sparse. It's really tough to be critical of ANY hamfest, I realize the effort to coordinate and organize is monumental and people are mostly volunteering their time to help out. But there was only a couple of regional vendors were set up inside, ones that you see at every area hamfest, and about 7 or 8 other tables with folks selling stuff. The outdoor offerings were not very large either, I wonder if the Memorial Day weekend cut into attendance? Or perhaps most of the area hams prefer to go to the Raleigh hamfest? I bought a book and some odds and ends.

But, like I said, being able to go to any hamfest is better than not being able to go to one at all :)