I have been a ham for 46 years and except for field day which I was not
very good at avoided contests. I always found 30 meters to be better
than normal during contests because many wonderful hams came down there
when the bands were busy. About 10 years ago I did my first contest
using my IC-746 PRO and RTTY. My results were modest but I did find it
rather fun and started to make sense of the exchanges. The IC-746 had
problems with close strong stations and that was often a problem on CW
QSOs as well. I made many portable CW QSOs with my K2-100 while camping
and still do but at home in a contest the problems were different and I
still could not enjoy contests. I have now had my K3 for 4 years and my
P3 for going on two and this year have enjoyed contests I never would
have even tried before. I made more CW LOW power contacts during FIELD
DAY for our club than the 2 SSB station combined. I made 63 LOW power
contacts in the ARRL Sweep Stakes contest, 46 contacts with LOW power in
the ARRL RTTY contest and this week end 52 contacts and 37 countries
using QRP 5 watt power in the ARRL DX CW contest. The K3 and P3 do all
the wonderful things for me that they do for a top notch contest station
such as rejecting close in QRM and finding stations to work. The
problems I noticed with my IC-746 PRO just are not there with the K3. I
get 599 reports like everyone else but I also notice that I do not get
an answer when I call a station if there is any other station in a
pileup with me. That still makes me pleased though when I work a Europe,
Africa, or South America station from my modest city lot and 5 watts of
power and 7 meter high antenna in Fargo ND.
73. I may work you in another contest or I may join you for a rag chew
on 30 meters but either way I will be enjoying my K2 or K3 plus other
family activities on the same week ends.
W0CZ Ken Christiansen Fargo ND
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