CQ WW WPX CW contest 2017

Last year I used the cylinder dipole with two Monster cans for 21 MHz.
I am very pleased with the excellent write up on the PA1B cylinder dipole
in the results of the 2016 CQWW WPX CQ contest of last year.
See My Blog post on the article.

This year I used an end fed antenna for 14 MHz, that is sloping down to the east.
In total I made 91 QSO's. I did not use a fixed power.
When the signals go up, I reduce my power.
The power that I used, varied from 3.6 watts down to 3.6 milliwatt.
All QSO's were made with the lowest possible power with search and pounce. S&P.

I started on Saturday on 14 MHz and when I stopped there were 40 QSO's in the Log.
On Sunday  morning I first made 11 QSO's on 7 MHz.
Then I went to 14 MHz to make about 40 more QSO's.

CQ WW WPX CW 2017 - Number of QSO's per power category - PA1B

QRPp   < 1 W
As a milliwatt enthusiast the emphasis of my activities lays on the use of QRPp. On 14 MHz I made 39 QSO's with a power of 360 mW and 22 QSO's with 800 mW. When the signals go up, I reduce further below 100 mW. The table shows 18 QSO's with less than 100 mW, with 2 QSO's with a power of 3.6 milliwatt.

Very low power QSO's on 14 MHz
On Saturday I started after 16:00 UTC. In the first QSO I probably was too eager to use low power, that I am not sure whether the QSO is valid. After 18:00 UTC till 20:00 UTC the signals peaked, with  6 QSO's with 36 mW and two QSO's with 3.6 milliwatt.

S-Meter reading
An important indicator for the power that I can use, is the S-meter. The signals in the  two QSO's with 3.6 milliwatt were ear splitting. To get an indication of the signal strength,  I switched in the attenuator of 20 dB. The S-meter still gave a value of S⁺. This means that the signal strength is  S⁺ plus 20 dB. Hi.