This BWQP was a lot of fun, had some nice chats with some friends, met 5 members I’d not worked before. Seemingly surprised a couple of guys with band conditions.
As usual 100W into a G3TPW Cobwebb (20-10m), 40m Inverted-V dipole, 80m Inverted-L. I was using DXlog to log, seemed to perform well though the built in database in the BWQP definition file is incomplete and out of date. Not a problem though, the grey blob between my ears and my fingers can fill in the details. 😉
I was putting the new Icom IC-7300 through its paces. I went down to the emporium on Friday to collect it. I was keying by hand using the built in keyer in the rig, so no button pushing from me. I found that quite refreshing actually.
My first impressions of the IC-7300 are very good, granted it’s no K3/P3 but for the price bracket it appears to be a very competant CW rig, very good DSP filtering, the Noise Reduction is the best I have heard. Still learning how to drive it as the touch screen changes the user experience somewhat, but all in all I am very happy with it.
HF conditions were not great, but then I worked a few Mid to West coast USA which was a surprise. KH6LC was strong on 20m but I didn’t work him this time around. 20m and 40m were the main bands, but I didn’t put as many hours in this time. 122/116 was my claimed score.