wythall radio club

AFTER TWO RECENT HECTIC CONTEST WEEKENDS (CQWW CW and ARRL 10 m contests)  MEMBERS ARE DRAWING BREATH, RESTING, AND PREPARING FOR THE FAMOUS WYTHALL RADIO CLUB XMAS CONTEST WHICH RUNS FROM THE 26TH-31ST DECEMBER.

DETAILS AND RULES TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON.

In the meantime keen contesters might like to reflect on  advice and warning given by Darren GW7HOC on the perils for the obsessive contester!!

A Contest station in full flow in the 2021 CQ WW SSB Weekend

How Contesting took over my Life

CQWW SSB took Over my life, so be warning to anyone having a play.

If you pick your section carefully you stand a good chance of doing well.

I picked 40m Single Op  band,  Low power and I ended up becoming the leading GW operator….

This planted the seed, and I became obsessed!!

The following year I had a better radio… The Heil microphones started to appear… then re -working of the antenna….Then another radio.   

I started making headsets with Heil elements in them…. I would enter contests leading up to CQWW just to practice logging at speed. At one point the QSO rate went to 200 per hour, that’s  over 3 a minute!!!!!!!…. I started to stress. I operated longer and longer. All through the night…. I really was obsessed by it. I had to keep the record. I had to beat my previous record…..

The Road back to Sanity

One day, I said “Nope, not doing it” . One of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Someone else now owns the record for GW in Single Operator SSB Low power category.

I don’t stress about it…. It was good fun. I learned a lot. I became a much better operator and  I built a great station on a limited budget.

These days I might have a dabble, give a few points away, enough to ensure that I’m not UIL (Unique in Log), as these often don’t count.
I recently bought a CB style 10/12M radio from Lynchy.

It’s still in its box. I might dig it out and have a play on 10m , just to see how it performs….

Be careful folks…. When someone  says ‘give contesting  it a go’…. It could take over your life…. This is what happened to me.

IT’S WORTH MENTIONING THAT THE FORTHCOMING XMAS CONTEST IS A VERY MUCH MORE RELAXED AFFAIR .. TAKES PLACE OVER 7 DAYS AND IS INTENDED TO STIMULATE FRIENDLY RADIO ACTIVITY IN ALL MODES AMONGST THE MEMBERS!!