JT9 Activity day results are...?

Well, with an official 526,132km total, I managed tenth place out of 185 participants in the August 24-25 JT acitivty days of the RDRC.  This was my first ever involvement with any contest, with which I am quite pleased, given I was operating a non-directional delta loop and fairly low power (15W in most cases) for almost all the QSOs.

There is also a curious, roughly 10,000km discrepancy between my log total and the RDRC's computation, but there we are.  Perhaps it is best not to be too tempted by contests, lest it change my attitude towards radio.

A good place to revise the RDRC's contests would be to abandon the 48 hour format, which is way too long, and replace it with the now more common, 12UT - 12UT, 24 hour format.

Russian Dominoes result

Well, I managed to get some kind of ranking in the recent Russian Digital Radio Club's Domino mode contest!

Hardly a big competitor, I had the idea that it was best to try to get a handful of QSOs in as many bands as possible.  But it seems I should have continued gathering calls on the easier bands to move up the table.

A 'Double 4' was gathered according to the rule: '4 x 4 = 16 QSO - the subgroup of participants who worked at least 4 QSO in DOMINO on each of any 4 bands.'

Not that I really care.  The interest was in doing something different, and I did enjoy the departure from the mindless FT8.

Apparently, there were 112 entrants, but I heard only a handful, and many contacts on different bands were with the same operators.  Propagation also was not very good at all.

Still, a nice new certificate for the collection.  Respect certainly due to the RDRC for their incredible efficiency in administering the whole event.

Let's play Domino!

It's Russia Day tomorrow (12/6).  I was therefore quite amused, in a pleasant sort of way, to see the Russia DC Club has arranged the Domino Contest - where real Dominoes meet the digital mode!

I do like the humour of the Russians.  Never taking themselves too seriously, and providing more than just a dumb contest.  I firmly plan to fire up FLDIGI and go to Domino mode for the first time in a long while!