The Contest Crew is back—and this time, it’s all about a CQ WPX SSB weekend that didn’t quite go to plan.

Randy Thompson K5ZD is operating from V47T, where preparation starts strong and immediately go sideways: a shack full of amplifiers, and only one survives. What follows is a stripped-down station—one radio, one amp, and a relentless chase against Tom at 8P5A. The result? A second-place North America finish, just 800K behind, and a quiet revelation: even in a hyper-optimized, two-radio world, a disciplined single-op can still hang on if the decisions are sharp.

The contest itself was a study in contrasts. Solar numbers promised magic, but northern operators struggled while the Caribbean and North Africa thrived. Randy finds gold on 15 meters in the dead of night—an hour and a half of uncontested Europe—while Kevin Thomas W1DED, operating ZF2KT, battles the eternal beginner’s dilemma: is it me, or the band? His breakthrough comes not in raw Qs, but in confidence—holding a frequency, trusting his setup, and pushing through the low-band grind he once avoided.

And then there’s the future creeping in. AI voice keying isn’t fringe anymore—it's here, controversial, and effective. Some call it innovation; others, a step too far from the human element. But as Chris KL9A puts it plainly: “It’s not going away.” The subtext is clear—contest strategy is no longer just about propagation and endurance, but about how far you’re willing to lean into automation.

Underneath the tech and tactics, though, the human moments still win. A last-minute headset scramble. A footswitch handoff at an airport. A wife wondering what kind of hobby involves strangers delivering gear at baggage claim. In contesting, logistics can be as intense as the pileups—and just as rewarding when it all clicks.

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DX Engineering continues to show up where it counts—whether it’s overnighting critical gear or backing operators chasing every last multiplier. Their support keeps contesters, DXers, and portable ops in the game when it matters most.