The All Asia CW contest.

Yesterday (Saturday) I was doing my little chores and the radio was running in the background.  Nothing there since early morning, but suddenly I looked up and the panadaptor screen was full of signals..  Hey there must be a contest on.

Quick look at: DL2NBY Contest calendar I have learned that the annual CW All Asia contest is on.  Not having plans to do contesting and lots of chores to do, all I've done was to set up the N1MM and assumed I may give a few numbers to the "boys".

The weekend list of chores was long.  I had to wash and vacuum the car, tidy my home, go for Thai dinner with Heidi (by the way ... that was one of the best Thai meals we had in living memory).  Next day I had to pack my suitcase and go for a pick-nick ... ie very busy two days...

Last year I was in the AA contest and from memory I did "kinda" OK.  This year I could do only few hours.  Still it was a good fun and the "boys" got some numbers and I got some training.

As you all know the contest exchange is 599 + age.  When I emailed the log (only 153 contacts) I thought ... the exchange may tell us the average age of the participants...  Imported the log into a spreadsheet and calculated that the average age of the contesters was/is 55 years.  Gosh... that is scary state of affairs.  Considering that most QSOs were with JA stations and three contesters gave me 00 (for lady operator) it is sorry state of the amateur radio community.  We are all getting very old.

cheers es 73
Patrick
My exchange is BTW 599 69

Operating portable while caravaning.

We just returned back home from about 10 days trip in our little caravan.  I was using my KX3 with the KXPA100 amplifier and was having fun.

I was using my G5RV antenna between two trees and was surprised about the fact that I could work most stations I called.  It was nice to play radio while out of Sydney.

73
p