My 10,000 Hour RadioSport Challenge | 9,450 - 10 = 9,440 To Go

2012 North American QSO Party CW Summer Results

The 2012 North American Summer CW QSO Party is history and the event was a race against time. I really felt the pressure of the clock winding down while thinking about 2 hours of time away from the game. This event was a first for me when time influenced the outcome of my score. After all, I'm striving to improve my RadioSport skill set and scheduling off time is one variable for thoughtful consideration.

Potentially, and, most likely I miscalculated an afternoon break at 1500 hours that is 3 o'clock pacific standard time, possibly missing a valuable rate hour on 20m to the East coast. I thought about our 3 hour difference that most are eating around 6 o'clock in the evening. Likewise, I scheduled my remaining hour at the end of the event as well.

RadioSport is a race against the clock.

In contrast, several personal best records were set during the WRTC 2014 qualifier as I maintained my first 100 plus hour on 15m when N1MM Contest Logger signaled starting time, in addition, averaged one Q per minute for 10 hours of operating time, and chiseled a personal best NAQP CW score for the blog.

Also, coming off of the 2012 IARU HF World Championship, I realized that rate is not enough when the N1MM race clock is ticking down the final minutes. One master of the game suggested learning how-to search and log as fast as possible starting at the upper edge of the band. I'm making a challenge note to earnestly practice, practice, practice this tactic going into the next event.

Speed searching and logging is an important tactic to master without utilizing one's band map.

I was impressed that Cycle 24 delivered stellar numbers this weekend however 10m RadioSport activity is almost non-existent even when conditions are primed to fire up this space. We enjoyed near perfect conditions on 20 and 15m while 10m goes almost forgotten. The clock is ticking when this spectrum space goes into deep hibernation.

Overall, the 2012 North American Summer CW QSO Party was maximum rate per hour while racing against the RadioSport clock. Lesson learned include but not limited to better planning time off tactics, improving the speed of searching and logging, in addition, learning how-to move multipliers from one space to the next.

Contest on!