Subj : Radiosport
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Sat May 28 2016 08:22 pm

One of the exciting aspects of ham radio is radiosport -- contesting and DXing.
There is a contest somewhere every weekend, and many hams work toward getting
awards like Worked All States (WAS), Worked All Continents (WAC), and DX
Century Club (DXCC). There is a section in QST, the monthly publication of the
American Radio Relay League (ARRL) each month, on contesting, as well as a
section on their website at http://www.arrl.org

There is also a "Contesters Rate Sheet" E-Letter, with information on
contesting, that one can have emailed to their personal mailbox (I think you
have to be an ARRL member to get that), but there are likely links to that on
the ARRL website as well.

You can get "big guns" (stations running 1500 watts), all the way down to
"little pistols" (QRP, 5 watts or less).

There are also Special Event Stations during the year. Many places will set up
these special stations at events, such as big hamfests, or other events, for
stations to "work". There is a section on this in each issue of QST as well.

You can go as heavy or as light into contesting as you desire. Some will try to
work the entire contest, or others just for a few hours.

Personally, contesting never did appeal to me, but I have worked with some
Special Events Stations.

Daryl, WX1DER

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