Most of my contesting is rather casual. Once in awhile, time and family permitting, my approach gets a bit more serious. Needless to say my modest setup can’t compete with mega contest stations running 1.5 kW or more into enormous antenna arrays. 

However, I can’t complain as at several occasions I ended up with the highest Belgian score in my participation class.

To me contests are a valuable tool in boosting one’s score for several national and international award programs. As an example, thanks to the Swiss contest, I managed to achieve the Helvetia award.