CQ WW DX CW contest 2015

On Thursday before the contest, a fellow HAM helped my to repair the inverted V. The whether was sunny with no wind, so it was nice to work on the roof. We replaced a part of the 300 ohm ribbon, where it was broken and we checked the connections in the top of the Inverted V.

I decided to repair the inverted V, in stead of using the 15 inch cylinder dipole. The dimensions of the Monster cylinder dipole and it's height 4 m above the ground, allow the antenna work on frequencies of 21 MHz and higher. But now I wanted to use not only 21 MHz, 14 MHz and 7 MHz.

It was great. On Saturday I could make a total of 24 QSO's, all with S&P. The inverted V was working very well. Most QSO's were with European stations on 40 m, 20 m and 15 m. Later I made 4 QSO's with North America. In all the QSO's on Saturday I needed the full power of the FT-817, which is 3,6 W on 20 m and 2,7 W on 40 m and 15 m. That I needed "full power", was only a matter of propagation.

On Sunday morning I immediately noticed that the propagation was better. The signals were stronger than on Saturday. After about 10 QSO's with 2.7 W, the signals became stronger. The S-meter went up, so I could make QSO's with 360 mW. In the first QSO with 36 mW the received signal was S9 + 10 dB. This QSO was a DUPE, but I took my change and really enjoyed that OM7M gave a report, so we made the QSO with QRPpp. I very much enjoy this friendly attitude. 

After this QSO, I came on a quiet part of the 20 m band and I made QSO's all over Europe and two QSO's with North America all with just 360 mW. Then I heard a station from Japan. Luckily it was very quiet on the band (20 m) and with the 3th call, the QSO was made with 3.6 W. I did not dare to go lower. 

The next 30 QSO were made all over Europe, with 360 mW, except when I needed 3,6 W. When the signals incidentally went up to S9 + 10 dB, it was possible to reduce to 36 mW.

It was great. I very much enjoyed to work with the lowest possible power from QSO to QSO on Sunday.