ARRL DX Contest (CW)

This weekend was the ARRL DX contest in CW.

I also joined this contest with my computer for the CW.

The contest is a 48 hours contest and started at 0:00 UTC saturday morning.I wanted to be there from the start so stayed up till then as well.

Propagation was looking ok at the start.Alot of stations where strong here at my side and i was able to work most stations that i did receive as well.For me as a Novice,only 25 watts is allowed.

So sometimes it was very difficult to get a state that had a pileup.

But i worked what i could hear.I was up till 2:33 UTC and got 74 stations in my log then.

At 9:33 i was back at the radio and did work one station on 40M.Prop wasn't good enought to get more that time.So i had to wait till propagation getting open on 20M to NA.

This happend around 11:00 UTC.Last station worked that afternoon was at 18:32 UTC.

Propagation was still ok,but we had a birthday party at the neightbours...so qrt for me.

Worked 2 stations on sunday morning on 40M and then it was again waiting for the propagation on 20M to open up.Around 11:35 i worked the first station on 20M.Was sometimes difficult to find stations i did have in my log yet.I was very suprised to see that the 20M was open sunday evening till at least 22:16 UTC to NA.Normal it closes at 19:00 UTC.Maybe a good sign that the propagation is getting slowly better.
Last station worked was at 23:20 UTC on 40M.

I made a total of 229 QSO's and total multipliers are 62.

I was very happy to have worked W7RN from Nevada state.This means state number 50 worked for me and the day after also confirmed via LoTW.This in basic and 20M.

My total points where 42408.

Got more qso's and points then in 2009.So i am very happy with this result.

Some people say that it's very easy to do CW by computer.But let they try it before giving that opinion.The computer needs a good signal to decode.This is not always the fact and then it come's to my ears to listen if they got my call correct.I am very happy that the computer is in our HAM radio hobby.Also like the digimodes alot.The digimodes make it possible to make bigger distances for the 25W i am allowed to use.