Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio Contesting is a fun way to learn about amateur radio. It tests your skill, your station, your patience and your ability to change approach at a moments notice. For those reasons alone it's an activity that I recommend you have a go at. For me it's also about self-improvement. With each contest, can you make better use of your station, can you learn more about your radio, about bands, about conditions and ultimately become a better operator. I know that there are individuals who keep telling me that giving out signal reports of 5 and 9 isn't helpful, to them I say, try it in a contest setting and see what else you learn. When you start out contesting you'll quickly come across two terms, technically three, that need some explanation. The terms are Run, Search and Pounce, though the last two come as a matched pair. The essential bit of information is that when you're on a Run, or Running, you're calling CQ and responding to other stations. You essentially sit on a frequency for