Update 09/06/2015: Well, the results are finally out. I did not do too badly considering all the issues I had and the limited time I could spend on the air. I managed first in Africa and 7'th in the world in my class, Unassisted QRP CW only. You can see the full results below.

CONTINENTAL LEADERS
Africa

Single Operator, Low Power, Mixed Mode EF8O 566,784
Single Operator, High Power, Mixed Mode ZS6RJ 451,962
Single Operator, Low Power, Phone Only EA8AH 847,700
Single Operator, High Power, Phone Only CT3FQ 677,504
Single Operator QRP, CW Only  ZS6DX 124,000
Single Operator, Low Power, CW Only  EA8CN 502,500
Single Operator, High Power, CW Only ZS1EL 189,504
Multioperator, High Power EF8U 2,505,188
Single Operator Unlimited, QRP, Mixed Mode  A8/PD1DX 104,832
Single Operator Unlimited, Low Power, Mixed Mode ZR9C (ZS6WN, op) 523,440
Single Operator Unlimited, High Power, Mixed Mode EA8DBM 3,030,698
Single Operator Unlimited, High Power, Phone Only EA8BVX 64,592
Single Operator Unlimited, Low Power, CW Only CN8KD 906,660
Single Operator Unlimited, High Power, CW Only EA8/IK1PMR 1,110,780

World
Single Operator, QRP, CW Only


1  LT7H 406,992
2  JA1YNE (JR1NKN, op) 189,312
3  G3SXW 166,656
4  HSØZIA 157,248
5  HA3HX 133,500
6  JQ1NGT 127,920
7  ZS6DX 124,000
8  GM3WUX 87,696
9  YL2CV 85,200
10 IV3DRP 76,112

Well, I am hoping I will have less drama this year (2015) and that I can compete in this contest again, see you on the air!!

Contest report:

What is the saying about the best plans of mice and men? Well, I was hoping to at least spend most of today in the ARRL 10m contest, unfortunately my operating time got severely reduced. My mom had a small stroke last night, I only found out later in the day. She is ok but I needed to spend a lot of time with her, I will also be spending extra time with her over the next few days/weeks so I am afraid both my contest plans and holiday plans are going to suffer. At least it looks like she won't have permanent damage she is just very weak at the moment.

I did operate for a few hours, in the morning the band was not great but by 10am local it started to open to the east and Europe. Soon the band was filled from edge to edge. I was doing my normal search and pounce looking mostly for interesting contacts and trying to add to my QRP totals. The best capture was Vietnam and Greenland, both new QRP entities for me.

Packed band!

The evening produced a huge opening to the USA that went on till late. By 10pm local time the band was still open but we had a thunderstorm so I unplugged the antennas and went to bed. Most of the evening was spent chasing USA states, in the end I had 5 left to work, maybe if I get time tomorrow? Total contacts for the day was just over 300 with 100 entities/states,

All my equipment is working perfectly and I had many reports of my "big signal" mostly from the USA! Not bad for 4W (IC-756Pro3 at minimum power) into my very low A4S antenna! The one thing that I did find disconcerting was how hot the radio was running, even at 4W and 80% RX time the heat sink at the back so hot it was not fun to touch. My IR temp sensor reported 49C and above! The tiny internal fan in the radio does run but it produces very little air movement. Really Icom, what were you thinking!! In comparison all my Yaesu's run really cold to the touch!

I will rig a small fan or two to increase the air circulation over the heat sink.|

Update 14/12/2014: Ok, today was a wash-out as far as the ARRL contest was concerned. I managed to work a few stations from the east in the morning but then I had many interruptions due to my mom being sick, she is now home but rather demanding! At least that is a sign that she is getting better!

I kind of lost interest in the contest, because of the interruptions but also because of the selections of stations that you can work, mostly Russian and a few other common European stations and lots of US stations, it soon becomes boring..... I don't think I will bother with any of the ARRL contests again, not only are they boring but the scoring system puts me at a huge disadvantage here in Africa. At least the CQ contests try to equal the field. I mostly compete in contests for two reasons, firstly to find some good DX, or to do well in the contest, the ARRL contests do not lend themselves to either....

After spending around 5 hours on air I managed to make 372 contacts with 108 multipliers, this included 49 USA states as I could not find anyone on Alaska.