ARRL DX Contest wrap-up and "Spotting"

Hello all,

It is glad to be back on and talking about something that is relevant to the hobby of amateur radio. Last weekend on March 2nd and the 3rd, The ARRL sponsored their annual DX Contest. People wonder: "What is the big deal with contesting DX stations?" To put it simply, DX stations are international stations or stations that are very elusive that are on the air. In the DX Contest, for US (Lower 48) and Canadian stations, they have to work as many as the other stations out in the world as possible, while the DX stations have to work as many of the US and Canada stations as they can. It can be very fun, but very hairy due to many operators being stack on top of each other, trying to get the same station. This phenomenon is known to the amateur community as a "pileup", and is common in contests due to rare stations being out there to get all  of the possible regions needed to clean sweep the contest. The DX contest is heavily dependant on the solar cycle and sunspot activity, so if you plan on entering that contest, it would be wise to look up this information a few days before...

Also, I want to talk about the use of "Spotting", or the use of a packet or telnet network to solicit yourself on during amateur radio contests. During the November Sweepstakes last year, I did not use it due to stigma of being not as valued as a contact. However, during the DX contest I found spotting to be a major help into finding those ever elusive stations that are on the air and can pass this information to other operators in look for those contacts by spotting such DX stations. There is a drawback to using spotting networks, in most contests, your category of an operator will usually change. For instance, in the November sweepstakes, unassisted operators are listed by power level, ranging from QRP for less than 5 watts, to High for operators who use more than 150 watts. If using a spotting network, you are listed as an unlimited station, because of the use of these protocols. There are many ethics to spotting, such as the distasteful act of self spotting, or posting your own callsign to these networks, which is very heavily frowned upon and could lead to disqualification in some contests.

That is all I have for now, this is N2ASD, clear.