We don’t need a TL;DR for this post, looks like yours truly has come third in the ARSI QRP-Day Contest 2026! One might argue it could b third out of three contestants too ;-). I noticed that the results were posted on the groups.io page a while ago.

As a short re-cap, the contest was held between 27th June 2026 at 11:00 IST to 28th June 2026 17:29:59 IST (a strange total of 18:30 hours). I operated with the zBitx and an EFHW from the field.

I had written about my activation previously, and how it was a challenging day for operating in the field. It was a cold, rainy, absolutely dark and in the mist kind of day for me at the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary. I assume either the band conditions weren’t great in the rest of the country or QRP operations or contesting isn’t very popular (maybe during that period?). At some point I’d like to know why these particular time-slots were chosen for a QRP contest, as the band conditions on the day weren’t optimal for any QRP operations. I’m surprised VU3OSA, VU37KP and VU3EEY were able to make any SSB contacts at all and possibly learn from their setups for the day.

Furthermore, I hope my travel days coincide with any new contests, or maybe like other “sane operators”, I could plan my travel according to the contest calendar and band conditions!

@online{vu3gljarsqrp2026,
  author = {Bharath M. Palavalli},
  title = {ARSI QRP-Day Contest 2026 Results},
  date = {2026-10-22},
  url = {https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20261022212910-arsi_qrp_day_2026_contest_result/},
  language = {en},
  note = {Callsign: VU3GLJ}
}

Bharath M. Palavalli. 2026. "ARSI QRP-Day Contest 2026 Results", 22 October 2026. https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20261022212910-arsi_qrp_day_2026_contest_result/.