FIRST CONTEST EXPERIENCE WITH THE SKY-SDR  QRP TRANSCEIVER

I used to be a very active contester and still hold one ALL TIME HIGH SCORE RECORD on the CQ WW DX Contest list of all time high scores.  

In the meantime I have gotten older and do not stay awake long enough to achieve a high score in a 48 hour contest.

In November of 2016 I entered the QRP class for CQ WW DX CW contest, CW.  I used the special call sign, "DM5P".

CW pileups are much more demanding on a receiver than the pileups in the SSB contest.  As Rob Sherwood, NC0B points out, a good CW transceiver requires about 10 dB higher blocking dynamic range 3 (BDR3) than a good SSB transceiver.

Although my gut feeling in using the SKY-SDR was that its narrow filters and BDR3 were as good as my Ten-Tec Eagle, I was curious to find out how it would perform in a very demanding CW contest.

Unfortunately the contest this year fell on the same weekend as the first Advent Sunday.  My XYL had all sorts of plans for us, but none included working the contest.  She kept me very booked out during the weekend of the contest.

THE CONTEST:

I only have one single antenna available here at the house.  It is an Aerial-51 80m OCFD Model 807.  It works 80/40/30/20/15/12/10m - all without an antenna tuner, except I need an ATU for 80m SSB.  For CW I was able to work all 5 contest bands WITHOUT an ATU.

Due to the events my XYL had planned, I was only able to work about 9 hours in this 48 hour contest.  I made QSO on 80/40/20/15m but not on 10m.

Most of my time was spent on the low bands (80/40m).

Here are my RESULTS:

 BAND       QSO      CQ       DXC      DUP     POINTS      AVG

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

  160            0         0          0          0              0         0.00

    80        129         6         40          1          138         1.07

    40          51         8         29          0            79         1.55

    20          29         8         15         0            55         1.90

    15           4          2          3           0           12         3.00

    10           0          0          0           0             0         0.00

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL      213         24        87          1          284        1.33

===================================================

         TOTAL SCORE :   31 524

NOTE:  "DXC" = Countries  and  "CQ" = Zones

In just 9 hours on the air, I worked:

• 40  Countries on 80m in 6 different Zones
• 29  Countries on 40m in 8 different Zones
• 15  Countries on 20m in 8 different Zones
•   3  Countries on 15m in 2 different Zones

...running just 5 Watts and a Dipole Antenna.

During the last two hours of the contest, my run rate was 25 QSOs per hour. Big contesters may laugh at that, but when you are only running 5 watts and a dipole antenna, that is a pretty good run rate!

I did not have a second radio running for comparing with the SKY-SDR so my opinion of the radio's performance is only my subjective opinion.

I have used a lot of radios in the past, some with poor receivers, some with great receivers (like my Ten-Tec Eagle).   

The filters in the SKY-SDR were excellent and the front end never crunched, no matter how strong the received signals were... not even when listening to LZ9W! (hi)

Without a doubt, this is truly a "Contest Grade" QRP radio.

73

Rick, DM5P (DJ0IP)

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