Mission:
Encourage W/VE stations to expand knowledge of DX propagation on the HF and MF bands, improve operating skills, and improve station capability by creating a competition in which DX stations may only contact W/VE stations.
Objectives:
W/VE amateurs work as many DX stations in as many DXCC entities as possible on the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands.
DX stations work as many W/VE stations in as many of the 48 contiguous states and provinces as possible.
Video: KA4UDX operating on 40 Meters (7 Mhz band) in ARRL DX Contest. Notice the level of QRM (A Q Signal indicating “being interfered with…”) – interference from other stations, etc. Also notice stations operating split-frequency rather than 1 single frequency. Quite a bit of skill and capability are required to do all of this. The S/N – Signal to Noise Ratio is from bad to terrible. An average Cell phone and MP3 weaned person would probably “hang up” and give up. Not ham radio operators! It is these skills that allow them to get a message through, for example in an emergency, when conditions are quite a bit less than favorable. This also hones skills in Radio Propagation … as these signals are bounced off the upper atmosphere (Ionosphere) and certain bands work at certain times of day or night.
Lots and lots of Ham Radio (Amateur Radio) operators in the U.S. and around the world will be transmitting radio signals in an effort to contact as many other operators / stations DX (far away, non-local) as possible.
The ARRL International DX Contest starts tonight at 7 pm Eastern Time ( 00:00 Zulu) or Universal Time Coordinated 00:00 until 23:59 Zulu on Sunday – Ham radio operators will be operating between 100 watts and one Kilowatt this weekend. Between 1.8 and 30 Mhz. There will likely be more signals – more RF on the air waves than other times of the year.
Actually you will be quite safe … less danger than the Myan end of world this year. Most signals will go over your head at relatively high angles and those that come down will be at low enough of a dBm (signal strength) to not bother you.
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73 de KA4UDX,
Alan Spicer