The RTTY Rookie Roundup was the 3rd ham radio contest I participated in this weekend.  I was watching TV and process the logs from the other 2 contests when I realized the Rookie Roundup had started (almost 3 hours earlier) so I got back on the air to participate and see what was happening. There wasn’t a tremendous amount of activity but there were a few stations calling CQ and a few stations coming back to them. I worked whoever was calling and then picked a frequency and called CQ for a bit. It’s a 0 point contact to work a non-Rookie but this contest isn’t about the points or certainly not about the points for a non-rookie.

Some folks had a nice clean exchange and some others stumbled a little which is to expected, especially for folks that are really new at it. But they all got out their exchange and got my report and it was a good contest contact. Some folks had the entire year of their report in the exchange vs just the last 2 digits and N1MM didn’t let me click it to store it in the field.

One of the states which seems to never have enough hams is Mississippi and the 2nd rookie I logged a contact with was from MS. I’m really hoping he enjoys contesting and gets on the air in future contests. I have to say it was really a “feel good” contest and if anyone is near their radio for a Rookie Roundup contest, get on the air and make contacts. After just 1 hour, I could hear thunderstorms rolling in so I disconnected the antennas, etc. It was more like a monsoon than a thunderstorm, but it lasted through the end of the contest so that 1 hour was all I had in this contest.

It looks like I ended up with 23 contacts with 13 being contacts with rookies.

Thanks to all the rookies (and non-rookies) for their contacts!
K2DSL