Two years ago I did 15m QRP in my first real attempt in a CW contest. Last year I had planned on improving my score in the same category, but a cycling accident meant I couldn't do much with the paddle. This year, I decided to see if I could do what I wasn't able to do last year.
This weekend was busy with other things and it wasn't until late saturday evening that I sat down at the rig. I haven't made any CW contacts in a long time, although I do do a bit of practice on morse runner from time to time. So when it came to the real thing, I was pretty slow in picking up calls. I was able to work a couple of brazilians, and very surprisingly, DR1A with a weak backscatter signal, managed to pull me out of the noise, before I headed off to bed.
Sunday morning I got on for an hour and a half and more of the same, it took me ages to decipher calls but got there in the end and managed around 40 qsos. Sunday afternoon I got on again and stayed until the band closed, with 120 QSOs, 18 zones, and 43 countries. So, I didn't beat my 2011 score, but I had fun and worked some nice DX, including the guys at EL2A in Liberia, our Czech friends at C5A in the Gambia, and the lads at D4C in Cape Verde, all in zone 35. I also managed a few nice central and south america QSOs.
So, an uneventful CQWW CW, but at least I'm keeping my hand in with the CW.....
Next contest, ARRL 10m in two weeks time. Watch this space!
(Sorry no photos of this test)
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