2012 Sweepstakes
1st Place Indiana
Single OP, High Power, Unlimited

I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago when I received an envelope from the ARRL which contained a certificate showing that I had won 1st Place in the Indiana Section in the “Single Operator, High Power, Unlimited” category of the 2012 SSB Sweepstakes. The certificate also has a sticker confirming that I made a clean sleep which was my primary objective during the contest. Please don’t burst my bubble by telling me I was the only entrant in this category!

Regardless, I don’t participate in contests for the awards, and it’s a good thing because this is the only contest award I have ever received.  I participate in contests because I enjoy making contacts with hundreds of other Hams in a single weekend.  I find it really exciting to “work all states” or a hundred or more countries in a single weekend.  My goal in most contests is to score higher than the previous year.  I enter some contests just to try something new; like I did earlier this month when I operated RTTY for the first time during the CQ WW WPX RTTY contest.  It was a lot of fun setting up the station to work RTTY.  It was even more fun when I put my RTTY setup on the air to make a few contacts during the contest.

If your getting tired of doing the same old things with your ham station all the time, consider trying contesting.  Jump right in and give out a few contacts the next time you hear the band full of other hams calling “CQ Contest”.  You might find you actually enjoy the action. If you want to know what contests are occurring each weekend, be sure to check out WA7BNM’s Contest Calendar at:

http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/weeklycont.php. 

Bruce does an excellent job providing nearly everything you need to know about up-coming contests.

73,

Fred, KC9QQ