Nothing like a good instructor

It was a cold January Saturday morning in Victoria, BC. Any morning below zero Celsius is cold. But what better time to learn how to use N1MM+ radio contesting software during a CW contest?

David James was my instructor. The contest was the NA QSO Party. My mission was to survive CW operators sending 30 wpm. My weapon? My instructor’s ears. He’s darn good when it comes to CW contests.

We quickly fell into a rhythm where he would pick out the dits and the dahs (I tried to help… yah, right) and give me the call sign. My fingers would flash over the keyboard. We’d sneak a peak at QRZ to confirm the operator’s name (part of the exchange) and the state/province (also part of the exchange), and David would yell “hit it!” whereupon I would quickly depress the Enter key on the keyboard. Now “log it!” he would yell even louder.

It was all great fun. I even made a contact with Amanda KB0JSH in Indianapolis. After confirming the contact she sent me a TU and 88’s – love and kisses. My heart melted.

Below is the N1MM+ log showing our efforts using the IslandHF club call sign VA7IHF. Thank you, David.

What a great hobby. Now I must get back to my code practice.