CQ WPX CW as a Learning Weekend

I worked a little of the CQ WPX CW contest this weekend (2026-05-30 & 2026-05-31), but not in any serious score-chasing sense. I was on the air for maybe eight hours total and finished with 37 QSOs. The real goal was to use the contest as a learning opportunity and as a very dense source of DXCC entities that I would not normally find so easily.

The contest speed was often far past what I can comfortably copy by ear. A lot of stations were running around 35 to 40 WPM, and I had to work for many of the contacts. I copied most of the station callsigns only after several rounds of repeated CQ calls. After the first few QSOs I started recording the audio on my phone and playing it back slower so I could confirm the serial number for my log. It was awkward, but it totally worked.

At a glance

• When: May 30 to May 31, 2026
• Operating time: Roughly eight hours total
• Result: 37 CW QSOs, with all but one on 20m
• Radio: Elecraft K4D at 100 watts
• Antenna: DX Commander Expedition (native 1/4 wave for 20m)
• Headphones: Heil Pro 7

I used the K4D at 100 watts into the DX Commander Expedition which is basically just a quarter wave vertical for 20m, and it did amazingly well. Most of the log was on 20 meters, with one 40-meter contact to the Isle of Man (!!). I used headphones, but I also kept the K4D speaker active so I could record difficult exchanges on my phone when I needed to.

The K4D’s decoder helped sometimes, but only up to a point. When conditions were clean it could give me enough confirmation to stay in the contact. When there was QSB, crowding, or nearby interference, it was not reliable enough to use on it’s own as confirmation.

The contest was part of the backdrop for my East Bay three-park POTA rove, but that outing stayed focused on checking off more Rhode Island parks rather than trying to operate inside the contest itself (though the contest did make it VERY crowded).

What the contest actually felt like

The first barrier was nerves. Sending in a contest feels more exposed than a normal POTA contact because the pace is so unforgiving. Once I got past that, though, it went better than I expected. A couple of operators were really kind and matched my speed for the serial-number part of the exchange (but most didn’t).

I made plenty of mistakes. I got enough NR? and NR NR requests for repeats that I was hearing it my sleep on Friday night. That was probably the most honest part of the whole weekend: I was fast enough to get into the exchange, but not consistent enough to get through all of them cleanly on the first try.

The one part of the exchange I still do not buy is the RST. Everyone sends 5NN every time. I understand that this is simply how the contest works, but it really does feel like dead weight in the exchange.

Why it was worth doing anyway

The contest was useful because it compressed a lot of rare-for-me DX opportunities into a short window. I was watching the DX cluster, looking for countries I do not already have, especially on CW, and then trying to work those stations even if it took several repeats to get through the exchange.

That strategy paid off. Based on my LoTW baseline before the contest, the weekend added 13 new DXCC entities in any mode:

Crete, Estonia, Cayman Islands, Georgia, Trinidad & Tobago, Hawaii, Isle of Man, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Serbia, and Bonaire.

On CW specifically, it added 18 new entities:

Crete, Estonia, Cayman Islands, Georgia, Trinidad & Tobago, Hawaii, Isle of Man, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Serbia, Morocco, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Czech Republic, and Bonaire.

I do not have many confirmed entities yet in any mode, and even fewer on CW, so contest weekends like this are a little like shooting fish in a barrel. That is not a complaint. It was awesome!

What I want to keep

• Keep using big contests as structured CW practice, not just as a score contest.
• Keep leaning on the DX cluster for targets when the full-rate contest flow is too fast to follow casually.
• Trust the 20-meter DX Commander Expedition setup more.

What I want to improve

• Get better at copying serial numbers in real time at contest speeds instead of relying on phone recordings.
• Keep working on sending accuracy so I do not turn every exchange into a repeat request.
• Spend more time intentionally practicing at contest-adjacent speeds instead of only comfortable speeds.