WAE DX CW August 2010.
This past weekend saw the annual Worked All Europe (WAE) DX CW contest take to the bands. I was hopeful of snagging a new one or two in the course of giving away a few points over the two days on the contest.
My operating was very much on an ad hoc basis and amounted to around 4 hours spent tuning around 40, 20 and 15m in search and pounce mode.
Conditions weren’t great and no new ones were worked. The closest I came to a new one was when finding a Chinese station under a mini pile-up on 20m on Saturday morning. He was weak and I was only running 25 watts but I spent a while trying for a contact with no success. Mindful of limited time on the bands I soon tuned away to see what else was about.
Highlights of the contest for me were 5K1R (Colombia) on 15m and 20m and A65BD (United Arab Emirates) on 20m. I already have both of these countries worked but I need QSL cards for both. As both stations have European QSL managers I’m optimistic of getting cards for both this time. Interestingly A65BD is already confirmed on LoTW as I type, only 7 hours after the competition closed!