REF CW 2014

In the end of January I participated in the REF CW contest.
In recent years I made many QSO's in this contest with 50 mW.

The top of my inverted vee was broken last year in a storm and I made a temporaly repair. One of the wire lays on the roof.
So I had to experience how the antenna would work.

On Saturday I made 2 QSO's on 20 m with 50 mW and 100 mW.
On Sunday I made 14 QSO's on 40 m.
In these QSO's I had to use the full 5 watts of the FT-817 due to the antenna.

Further I made a number of QSO's on 20 m with a power of 50 mW to 500 mW.
The inverted vee with one wire on the roof works for 20 m.
But on 40 m it takes more power to make QSO's.

When the propagation is good, it's not that difficult the make QSO's with very low power.
On Sunday the signal of F6KNB was S9 + 10 dB. So I decided to try a power of 50 mW.
I gave my call just once and got an immediate respons. FB.

REF CW contest 2013

This year I only participated for a total of 45 minutes on Sunday.

In a relaxed way, I used search and pounce with the use of the lowest possible power in each QSO.

The conditions were good for the use of low power on 14 MHz.
On 14 MHz all QSO are good for 1000 Miles per Watt.

Despite the short distance to France, 5 out of 6 QSO's are made with QRPpp*.

On 7 MHz I had to use the maximum power of 2.7 watts in most QSO's.

The changes in propagation can be very large.

In the afternoon, I met a station from Corsica, that I had worked earlier with 360 mW.

I tried to make an second QSO with 36 mW. His signal was S9 + 10 dB. He recognized my call and gave QSO B4. I gave a new report. But then we ended up, transmitting at the same time. So.....this QSO will probably not make it into the log. hi

I enjoyed the opportunity to work with very low power in the REF CW contest.

QRPpp* is the (not official) term that I use for a power of less than 100 mW. Bert PA1B QRPpp