WPX Contest--schedule

I've been contesting for a long time and WPX is one of my favorites because you can work anybody and everybody. Using my club call, KS7AR, makes working me a desirable multiplier. And as a long time contest operator I KNOW that major contests are scheduled to be on the same weekend every year...such as last full weekend in November, or in the case of WPX the last full weekend of March. I get it. But.....

This year WPX falls on Easter weekend. And I realize that not everyone celebrates Easter in the same way. Some don't celebrate it at all. Some just have a family dinner on Sunday. However there are literally hundreds of Christian religious denominations for whom the entire weekend is a major holy day with religious services on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday itself. Maybe it is asking too much but there are generally exceptions to every rule. In view of the magnitude and meaning of Easter for billions of people around the world---and that has to include a lot of hams-- perhaps the contest should be re-scheduled when, and it is relatively rare, Easter falls on that particular contest weekend.

Oh I'll "play" a little in WPX but the religious significance of the weekend, including Church attendance on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday will take precedence. It will be a limited effort contest for me and I would guess a number of others.

 

Well, that's an interesting point, but I was surprised to hear that Easter was going to be celebrated in March this year. Here's a quick reference chart for the last 99 years. Looks like the date wanders around a lot. Sometimes with weeks of variance. Why is that? Maybe it has something to do with the spring equinox moving around?
At any rate, it's not often that a ham radio contest will clash with this particular holiday, so why ask for the contest to be rescheduled?

 

Ditto, good point.

 

Asking only because it does have an adverse impact on the ability of a large number of contest operators to fully participate.

 

Thank you, Jerry. It makes sense to be flexible with the contest dates. I guess that I will be missing most of this contest. Since I have far more important obligations on my calendar than playing radio. Happy Easter.

 

At least this year CQ WW CW isn't during Thanksgiving weekend.

 

Finally! Been waiting for that to happen since last time (when the sunspot cycle was not so great). No interference from the holiday weekend BS and I will be off on Monday morning after the contest!

 

A contest is almost here so.... 6 M Class Solar Flares and one X 1.1 today. All right on schedule to stir up the geomagnetic field!

 

Could be some divine intervention!

 

during this contest there are again a lot of stations not respecting rules.. e.g. working SSB in CW sections... not respecting band limits.... nobody cares.-

 

Not true. Some folks might not care, but the majority probably do care. I've listened to the bands yesterday, worked a few of the fellows and have not heard anyone operating out of band.

Yet.

That does not mean that it didn't happen somewhere, but really, I hope and believe that for the most part, we stick to our country's rules and regulations.

 

It moves around because Easter is always the Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. This year, the full moon was March 25th. We had a blue moon last August, which is 2 full moons in a month (8/1 and 8/30) that pushed all of the next full moons much later in the month than they were, which is why the full moon was on March 25th.

As for the contest itself, I'm trying. I'm more of a CW op and did a bit of RTTY this Winter, and I've forgotten how much work an SSB contest is with 100 watts and a wire. I guess it's fun if you like being buried in pileups. Oh well, it's good to do one of these every now and then to be reminded why I don't do many.

 

I played some Saturday. But honestly, I was mostly hunting new DX stations that I don't have. I couldn't help, though, hunting a few stations that I have gotten to talk to before to help them get points. Being single and family plans changed this year, I will try to play some on Easter. So far, I scored five new countries out of only fourteen contacts made. But I have to admit, this contest gave me a headache. Maybe it is just the spring allergy but my head was throbbing by the time I turned the radio off.

 

I don't contest or do awards, so I use contests to put more countries in my log. So far I'm up to 50 contacts, what a competitor!
I did find it odd that this one is on Easter weekend. It doesn't seem to be slowing anybody down. 15m doesn't show much for clear frequencies.
One thing that puzzles me is so many ops using .5khz instead of even khz. When someone explains that, I'm sure the reason will be obvious. Maybe they're trying to get more than 3kz from other stations?

 

As a kid, I loved contesting. After 40+ years away from "the game of contesting", I've played around in a couple of recent contests - ARRL at the beginning of March, and CQ WW WPX.

I have to admit that while WPX was fun, IMHO it's really much more for the serious contester than someone just wanting to make a few contacts.

Today I made 33 contacts in the WPX - really to see if my new antenna was doing what it was intended to do - get me heard.

And while it was a bit of a thrill to catch a few DX stations, but I found myself wondering whether it was really worth the time (I wound up with about 45 rapid-fire contacts) instead of spending the time outdoors, where it was 80 degrees and sunny.

I wound up doing both (DX-ing and being outdoors), and did enjoy the thrill of the DX hunt, but my wife asked me "what's the point of a 10-second contact?"

My answer was that this was a contest to see how many contacts you could make in a short time, not to get to know someone.

I don't think that made her think it was a timeworthy activity.