Emily Thiel
P.O.Box 614
Oranjestad
ARUBA
 p43e @ hotmail.com

YLRL member
10-X# 69821
FISTS# 5055
CC# 1649, silv# 415

HAM RADIO and CONTESTING

In February 1997, I passed my complete license A: HF/UHF/VHF, but the paperwork took until October 1997, for me to get the license in my hand.  Without it, I did not hay a callsign assigned.  This was received, just two days before CQWW SSB.  Not really knowing the magnitude of the CQWW, I decided I wanted to be on the air, and I entered the contest.  This happens to be quite an overwhelming, and challenging contest to start with, but I loved it.  I made over 1700 contacts, and almost completed DXCC in a weekend.  WOW!  What could be better, I was looking forward to the next contest.

MY ELMERS

Being from Aruba, means that we get a large number of famous contesters here.  As a brand new licensed operator, I got so much mentoring from AI6V (P40V/P49V) and CT1BOH (P40E).  Over the summer, I participated in the IARU contest part of the HQ team.  While my actual license was not out yet, I had proof that I passed the exam and I did not need my own callsign for the club competition. All of us (mostly newbies) were listening attently to P40V whom took the time to guide us what was expected.

For CQWW, CT1BOH was on the island, and he too was bombarded with questions which he answered elaborately.  

With their advice, I was able to quickly learn the basic ropes in contesting that helped me win the WPX Rookie Contest LP in 1998 and 1999, and later placing third in the Tribander Single Element (TSE) category in 2000.  Both in the SSB mode.  And little by little they convinced me to do more CW operation.  At first a very rusty and slow CW, but over time it has improved.  I have even done a few CW contests from time to time.

ADVICE RECEIVED OVER THE YEARS FROM TOP CONTESTERS

This is written especially for the new contester.  These were hints given to me and were the foundation of my operating skills.  As a brand new operator and contester in 1997, I was very impressed with CT1BOH for taking time to talk to a group of local hams and pointing us in the directions that allowed us to maximize our scores.  Talking to seasoned contesters, they will be glad to give you many tips and hints.  Never be afraid to ask how something is done, as you will get a more elaborate answer than you ever expected.  These are some of the suggestions that have stayed with me.

• Know who will be on the air (e.g. http://www.ng3k.com/Misc/adxo.html), but the many DX bulletins also will publish who will be on.
• Learn the propagation of your location, and print your azimuthal graphs if possible by the hour.  Add the feature of the grayline as well, and you can see that it is worthwhile pointing the antenna in those directions as well.
• With the above two information, make a note of the Sunrise (SR) and Sunset (SS) hours of the needed DX on your azimuthal pages.  This becomes a reminder hour by hour, whom you can expect to start hearing on the bands, and whether you should be turning the beam towards e.g. Africa to grab a few multipliers.
• Know the contest rules.  Is there a 15 minute rule or not, is the cluster allowed, etc etc.  The rules do change over the years. Normally, not every single year, but over time, they do.
• Do not scream when calling CQ, but speak clearly.  The microphone will do the job for you.  Screaming will actually make it harder for the other side to hear you when conditions are poor, as you do not tend to articulate.  If at the end of the contest you have a sore throat, chances are you were speaking to loudly if not screaming.
• Make sure you get familiar with your contesting software, as there are many helpful tools in the softwares e.g. score, rates, needed multiplier.  Nowadays many contesting softwares are even free of charge.  Remember, a contesting software is NOT a regular logging software.  After a contest, you can export your file in the format that your regular logging software requires.  The cabrillo format has become the standard for uploading your contest score to the organizers.
• Calling CQ:  CQ CQ contest de P43E. CQ contest de P43E.   CQ contest, CQ contest de P43E.  These are all valid CQ's.  But the bigger the pileup, it is no longer needed to have a long CQ.  QRZ P43E, or Thanks P43E or even P43E is enough.  Make sure you keep IDing though.  Keep contacts as short as possible, and when the pileup has a good rate, you can forget about the extra comments like: thank you for the multiplier, thank you for the contact, see you  on another band, thanks for 3 bands etc etc.  In a contest, the people waiting in line, are more likely to wait on you, if they know you will not have an entire conversation with the entire world, and that you are very quick with your exchange.  They will not think of you as rude, but consider it good operating procedure.
• Being the DX, you can get asked to move to another band.  Make the decision if it is the correct time for you.  And if you need a station on another band, ask when they will move to the band, or if they are willing to QSY on the spot.  Be prepared however, to have a clean frequency in mind if they accept.  You will be surprised that many people will accept the offer to QSY.
• It took me many years before I did CW contesting.  But again the advise was to just try it, at the speed you are comfortable receiving.  If people reply too fast for you, eventually they will QRS if they want to work you.  In my case P4, often is a needed multiplier, and they did.

While I am quite a lot on the air, especially on weekends, contesting is still my favorite part of the hobby as that usually means pile-ups.  With each contests my skills are honed, and it gives me great satisfaction to improve my own scores, and sometimes that of others as well.

Nowadays, I divide my operating time in half between SSB and CW.  Regularly you can find me in the following contests:

• WPX, CQWW,
• WAE, IOTA, IARU, ARRL DX, ARRL10 Meter 
• and numerous smaller contests

RESULTS

See you in the next contest.

last updated: 20-Feb-11