CQ WPX SSB Contest 2013

Most of the QSO's that I make are contest QSO's, all in CW with the lowest possible power. Last year I made 29 QSO's in the CQ WW DX SSB contest with phone With the CQ WW WPX SSB contest comming up, I decided to participate in this phone contest.
I was inspired to use phone by fellow bloggers. Bas, PE4BAS who works from his car with 5 watts in SSB and Bill N2CQR, who was is working with a double side band rig,
with 3 watts. Listen to SolderSmoke #150.

Since I always use CW, phone is very unusual to me.
I had to figure out how to adjust the FT-817 for SSB.
I even had to look up the microphone. After that I placed a small power meter behind the set, to monitor my power while speaking. My maximum power is 2.7 watts, since a serious mismatch more than a year ago.
The antenna is an Inverted Vee.

I started on 15 m. After 6 QSO's most over more than 1000 kilometers with UR, UA TA and 4L, I knew that all was working fine and my wife and I went shopping. After a rest I made a few more QSO's later in the evening on 20m with VE3EJ over the largest distance and good for more than 1000 Miles per Watt. hi

On Sunday I worked European stations in the morning.
The signals had to be at least S9, for my signal to be heard. But I noticed that when the signals were S⁺ or S⁺⁺ that my signal was not always heard. Probably because the signal were not stronger by a better propagation, but by an extra amplifier. hi

For me it's still a strange experience to hear the operators voice in a QSO. In CW no one ever told me that my signal was very weak. hi
The speed of the QSO's is higher than in CW. 
I could easily adopt to the style of the calling operator. Nervous or relaxed. I was surprised how easy it is to remember the received number in phone even with four digits.

Sunday after 14:00 utc I could also make a few QSO's with Canada and the USA. With more than 2700 Miles these QSO's
are all good for more than 1000 Miles per Watt. Click to see the interesting overview.

Later that evening I heard stations from South America. I never believed that I could make a QSO with 2.7 watts and the Inverted Vee in phone, but I did. With every band sweep I tried. First came the QSO with PY2OE and in the 5th band sweep I made a QSO with PQ5B. So my patience and perseverance payed off. hi
I will give an overview for the 11 more than 1000 Miles per Watt QSO's in a later article.

Thanks to the CQ WW committee for the great activity in the CQ WW WPX contest.
I had a lot of fun with low power.