Show Notes
Mark Pride K1RX is a seasoned contester who sees Parks on the Air and contesting as two sides of the same coin, sharing skills, instincts, and a natural path between them. In this final episode of the contesting fundamentals series, Mark makes the case that many POTA operators are already doing contesting in all but name. They manage pileups, operate under real-world constraints, and make fast decisions with limited resources. The difference is not skill, but setting. POTA tends to be more casual and time-limited, while contesting stretches those same abilities across longer durations and more structured competition. The shift often comes when operators take those same skills into a different environment. At a home station or in a multi-operator setup, limitations fall away and performance scales rapidly. What once meant working a few dozen stations from a noisy park can turn into handling hundreds or thousands of contacts. Mark points to this as the fastest way to grow, especially when learning alongside experienced contesters with stronger stations and better antennas. Still, the pull of the field remains strong. Mark shares a story of a rare-county activation where preparation made all the difference. Arriving early, setting up more capable antennas, managing generator noise, and even running a modest 500 watt amplifier transformed a park operation into a serious contest effort. It was not about beating big stations, but about maximizing what the environment allowed and having fun doing it. Looking ahead, there is room for evolution. With tens of thousands of active POTA operators and rapid growth worldwide, Mark suggests contest sponsors could explore new categories that reflect portable and lower power realities. Until then, operators crossing over should expect tough competition, but also recognize they are bringing fully developed skills with them. Join the conversation and subscribe to Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio. DX Engineering continues to support operators across every style of operating, from park activations to high performance contest stations. Their commitment helps hams refine their setups, improve their signals, and get more out of every contact.
More from Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio
Jeff Bolling NA9P delivered one of the most interesting presentations I heard at this year's W9DXCC convention: Top 10 Tools the Beginning DXer Shouldn't Be Without. We're doing something a little different on Q5 this week. Jeff joins me to reprise his W9DXCC presentation in its entirety, followed by questions and discussion about his remarkable progress as a relatively new amateur radio operator. Licensed in October 2024, Jeff has already confirmed 178 DX entities, operating with just 100 watts and a wire antenna from a suburban Illinois lot. His presentation draws on that experience, offering ten practical tools and strategies for getting more DX in the log, including propagation planning, GridTracker, contesting, CW, Club Log, and QSL management. What makes Jeff's perspective particularly interesting is that he's learning DXing in today's amateur radio environment, with today's technology and the guidance of experienced operators from the Northern Illinois DX Association. His presentation is valuable not only for beginning DXers, but also for experienced operators interested in mentoring the next generation. Join the conversation and subscribe to Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio.
Tonno ES5TV is the builder and owner of ES9C, one of Europe’s most formidable contest stations. He started in Estonia at age 13, influenced by his father, operating a 40-watt homemade Soviet radio into a Delta loop strung between apartment buildings. Today, ES9C operates from his family’s old country home with multiple towers, full-size 80- and 160-meter four-squares, stacked tribanders, and an extraordinary 15-meter array with eight five-element antennas. But this conversation is about more than hardware. Tonno has won Europe as a single operator, built record-setting multi-multi teams, and assembled crews of more than 20 operators. Increasingly, though, the score isn’t the entire point. He talks about bringing young operators from across Europe into ES9C and creating an experience where they can learn, compete, and become part of a team. We also talk about contesting from Estonia, the challenges of competing from northern Europe, some extraordinary openings to North America, station design and automation, and why Tonno sees encouraging signs for the next generation of European contesters. Join the conversation and subscribe to Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio.
I'm joined by Max Freedman N4ML and Gregg Marco W6IZT to talk about VK9XY, an unusually ambitious DXpedition to Christmas Island—and one designed to put the next generation of serious operators in charge. Max is leading a 12-person team with 10 operators under the age of 26, representing six countries and five continents. From November 16 through December 4, VK9XY plans to operate around the clock with a particular emphasis on 160, 80, and 40 meters. They'll bring four FlexRadio Aurora 520s, two Flex 6700s, two PGXL amplifiers, remote operating capability, and an EME station. They'll even take on CQ Worldwide CW from the island. The logistics are nearly as interesting as the operating. Getting gear from Perth to Christmas Island is complicated, baggage space is uncertain, and after landing the team will have only about four hours of daylight to start building stations. Then there’s the uniquely Christmas Island complication: the annual red crab migration, when some 40 million crabs make their way from the forest to the ocean to spawn. Gregg is hoping the team won’t have to contend with it. But Max has a different measure of success than simply putting a huge number in the log. He wants to hear afterward from the ham who worked VK9XY QRP from a park or from a mobile station. And with experienced DXpeditioners Gregg Marco W6IZT and Glenn Johnson W0GJ deliberately giving the younger operators room to lead, VK9XY is also about what happens after Christmas Island: who takes this experience and leads the next big expedition. Join the conversation and subscribe to Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio.
Uli Ann DM5EE is a WRTC 2026 gold medal winner whose path to the top of radiosport was anything but conventional. For decades, Uli was primarily a low-power operator—working with wires, verticals, borrowed stations, and whatever opportunities came his way. He discovered contesting not because he wanted plaques, but because contests gave his 20-watt signal a chance to reach DX that otherwise couldn’t hear him. For years, Uli regarded WRTC as a competition for “the big guys.” That changed after listening to W2GD and AA3B train for WRTC 2018. He realized he might belong there—not yet as a competitor, but as a referee. Then a work assignment in South Africa created an unlikely opening to qualify for WRTC 2022, held in Italy in 2023. With DL9EE, Uli arrived hoping simply to prove they belonged. They ultimately finished fourth after later corrections to the results. That performance led Manfred DJ5MW to choose Uli as his teammate for WRTC 2026. Their partnership is striking for what it lacks: ego, shouting, and drama. Both are quiet and analytical. Mistakes happen; they move on. They prepared intensely, studied propagation and strategy, then trusted decades of operating instinct once the headphones went on. Following the post-event review of the results, Uli and Manfred were awarded the WRTC 2026 gold medal. Uli also talks candidly about the controversy surrounding WRTC and what should happen next. His position is notably focused on second chances: enforce the rules and accept the consequences, but leave a path back for talented operators willing to compete cleanly. It’s a conversation about winning, certainly—but even more about what decades of modest stations, persistence, friendship, and quiet confidence can produce. Join the conversation and subscribe to Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio.
I'm joined by Chris KL9A and Randy K5ZD to break down the WRTC 2022 rescoring, what changed in the final results, and what it could mean for WRTC judging going forward. A new review of the Italy logs resulted in two teams being disqualified after investigators found evidence of pirate multipliers and frequency-holding schemes similar to tactics uncovered following WRTC 2026 in the UK. The revised results move DJ5MW and DL1IAO into first place. Randy explains how contest logs, SDR recordings, and Reverse Beacon Network data can reveal patterns that weren’t caught during the original judging and why trying to produce final results just hours after a WRTC may no longer be realistic. Chris and Randy look ahead to what could change next time: real-time logging, better automated detection of suspicious activity, more people involved in judging, and potentially a longer period before results become official. They also discuss what consequences should follow a WRTC disqualification. Through it all, both make the same larger point: the operators breaking the rules represent a very small part of contesting, and the effort to find and address these problems reflects how seriously the contest community takes the integrity of the competition. Then we turn to contest season. Randy reports on CQ Worldwide RTTY and what the conditions—especially a lack of east-west activity on 10 meters—might tell us about CQ Worldwide Phone. He’s headed back to the Caribbean, while Chris is preparing KM7W in Montana with antenna work, hardware upgrades, a crew coming in from around the country, and a long list of projects to finish before the contest begins. Join the conversation and subscribe to Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio.