2024 ARRL Phone DX Contest
It was that time of year again. After last years effort and actually submitting a log, it seemed like a good reason to do it all over again. Except I really wasn’t paying attention until about noon on Saturday, so I missed the first 17 hours of the contest. But I had no other plans, and it was raining so I turned on the rig. First I had to get out my Heil Pro 7 headset/mic and footswitch (RIP K9EID). This combo definitely helps. I suppose I could try VOX, but usually don’t like working with VOX. After so much FT8 operation the last few years, nice to spend several hours talking into a mic. I fired up N1MM+ and I made a few contacts on 15 meters, and the band sounded pretty good. Once you get going, it’s kind of hard to stop. As you get into the swing, you develop a process of knowing what stations to try and make a QSO, and which not to. It also forces you to use features in your radio you might not get to use that often. Throughout the afternoon, I worked up...