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 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
