To Craig and other potential contest operators,
Yes it is possible to do well with QRP in a mostly QRO contest such as the CW SS. Here are my results in yesterday's SS contest. I operated on 14 MHZ only with a "frozen" rotator and my 40 meter antenna was broken. I used my KX1 with an output power of 3 watts. My QTH is Palmer, Alaska and my closest contacts were 1500 miles away. I made 102 QSO's in 34 sections for 6936 points. I operated 11 hours.
I believe a modestly equipped QRPstation in the "lower 48" states could make WELL OVER 300 QSO's in a QRO contest such as the CW SS. Even from Alaska with with its strange propagation, I could sometimes make QSO's at a rate of over 15 per hour.
This contest was lots of fun for me and was my first significant contest effort in 38 years. My CW contest skills were rusty and I lacked computer logging software. Next year I will check my antennas before the contest and make sure to clear my schedule of personal commitments during the contest !
I was very disappointed that I neither heard nor worked any QRP SS stations. You mentioned the large (EXCESS) number of stations calling CQ. I am convinced that this is a very positive thing for QRP operators. When propagation was reasonable, and I answered moderately or very strong CQ's I had an estimated success rate of over 50%. One reason for this is that I believe that I was the ONLY station answering most of these CQ's. Calling CQ almost always failed for me....posibly a QRP station near a large population center might have SOME success calling CQ. Another big surprise (considering all the QRM) was that I was only rarely asked for repeats and only had a few incomplete QSO's.
I hope to hear many of you Elecrafters and other QRP types in the next "TEST"
Rick, KL7CW
Palmer, Alaska
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