Most of us who are ham radio operators think our hobby is the greatest
hobby in the world. Its strength is in its diversity. There seems to be
something for everyone (e.g., DX, ragchewing, HF, VHF, UHF, SSB, CW, RTTY,
FM, slow-scan, fast scan, satellite, contests, traffic nets, moon bounce,
QSLing, even stamp collecting as a sideline). You name it, ham radio's
got it!
Through the years I've had my hand in a lot of that, but there's even
more I've yet to conquer. Circumstances have a lot to do with our emphasis
at any given time. For example, I was never on 160 meters until a few years
ago. It wasn't because I wasn't interested in it. I just had never had
a rig with 160 in it until then.
Likewise, until I moved to Central America, I never had been a serious
contester because I never had a competitive station or QTH. But that all
changed once I got to Honduras. My station wasn't especially competitive,
but my QTH, particularly in the right contests, more than made up for that.
I'll never forget the first time I contested from Honduras. It was in
the November 1975 CQ World-Wide DX CW Contest. I'd only had my HR1DH callsign
since August and hadn't really thought too much yet about contesting. I
was just enjoying operating again. But there had been a few unique problems
involved in getting that license and I sort of owed a favor to the jefe
who issue it to me. In October I was visiting with him and he said this
was the only contest he operated in every year. He was extremely proud
of the many pieces of wallpaper hanging in his shack indicating 1st place
from Honduras in this contest. He said this year he was going to work a
single-band effort and wanted me to represent Honduras in an all-band effort.
What could I say?
I quickly learned several things about contesting, particularly as DX.
One of my earliest discoveries was that I was a very popular multiplier.
It's not that CQ zone 7 is especially rare. It's just that so few from
that zone work CW. In Honduras, for example, CW isn't a requirement for
a license, so there are few CW operators. Most of the CW contesting is
done by those of us operating reciprocally.
Having learned of my popularity, I had to quickly learn the most efficient
way of working hundreds of stations calling me for hours at a time. By
the way, I also learned how not to work certain stations who caused problems,
or how to work them and make sure they didn't get a QSL card from my manager.
For some strange reason, they never made it in the QSL log. Hmmm! With
each contest I learned a little more. And I always had fun. Hey, it's always
fun when everyone wants to work you!
I remember the 1983 CQ World-Wide DX Contest. Due to other responsibilities,
I didn't have much time to operate. However, I was able to squeeze in about
three hours in the two days. I wasn't there to be competitive (You need
a minimum of twelve hours to enter that one anyway.), just to have a little
fun and to pass out a new multiplier to the needy. In the first 45 minutes
I worked 154 stations, which comes out to a 3.35 QSO rate per minute. As
I later learned, that wasn't all that unusual. Of the several contests
I entered, I was always first place from Honduras. I'll let you in on a
little secret, however. I was usually the only entrant from Honduras. Fortunately,
that information isn't put on the wallpaper. As Paul Harvey would say,
now you know the rest of the story!
Now, lest you laugh me out of our great commonwealth, let me hasten
to add that I was pretty competitive world-wide. For example, I'm quite
proud of my 1st place, North America, mixed mode (CW & SSB) for the
1983 ARRL International DX 10-Meter Contest. That was good for 6th place
world-wide. But, undoubtedly, my finest contesting achievement came in
the 1984 ARRL International DX Contest for an 80-meter single band effort
on CW. I had entered this contest in 1983 but had given it only a casual
effort. I finished in 5th place in the world. I was so surprised that I
decided to give it an all-out effort in 1984. Well, it paid off as I finished
1st place in the worldmy best effort ever. Needless to say, I'm extremely
proud of the colorful plaque from the ARRL that graces the wall of my shack.
In every contest there are the "big guns" you expect to hear and work.
It seems like I always worked those guys fairly early in the contest. But
once, in the 1st place world-wide effort, I laughed when I worked one of
them late in the contest. It was hours into the contest and I still hadn't
worked the West Virginia multiplier. At one point I said out loud, "Where's
N8II?" It wasn't but a few seconds later when, you guessed it, N8II called
me out of the pileup. I couldn't help but chuckle as I put him in the log.
My contesting memories from Honduras are all fond ones. I learned a
lot and had lots of fun. For me, that's what ham radio is all about. Whether
it's public service, contesting, or whatever, this hobby is just plain
fun! If we ever get another assignment to Honduras, you can bet you'll
be hearing NJ8X/HR contesting--and having lots of fun doing it.
