A Little Snow and a Little Contesting

More Snow at Our Farm

More Snow at Our Farm

We caught a bit of a break this weekend with the weather.  Instead getting the 5 to 8 inches of snow the National Weather Service predicted, we only received about 2 inches.    Never-the-less the ground is now white again and the temperatures are dropping toward single digits!

I used the snow as an excuse to spend a few hours working DX during the ARRL SSB DX contest.  The propagation was very good on 10m and 15m with both bands staying open late into the night. The contest was a good opportunity to become more proficient operating the KX3 and KXPA100. I got a lot of practice selecting the correct DSP settings for the crowded band conditions.

The KX3’s receiver continues to amaze me in how it is able to pull week stations out from between much stronger stations.  The DSP and flexible passband settings can literally pop stations out of the garble.

Here is a summary of my part time effort.

Band QSOs Points Countries
20m 28 144 27
15m 114 342 45
10m 157 471 53
Total 319 957 125
Score 119,625