1999 IARU HF Championship
VA7RR (at VE7SZ)
Single-op, SSB
Raw numbers: Band QSOs HQ Zones
160 15 2 7
80 73 3 19
40 79 7 30
20 887 20 46
15 1433 25 45
10 32 1 14
Total 2519 58 161 = 2,418,855
Many thanks to Allan, VE7SZ, for the use of his FB antennas and
equipment, and for helping me to showcase my new VA7RR callsign for the
first time in a DX-oriented contest.
Some observations:
a) Conditions were surprising spectacular here in VE7,
especially on 15 meters. I've never heard 15 sound so good in an IARU
R/S contest, and I've participated in just about all of them since the
first one in 1977. The EU and JA rates were non-stop, with most hours
between 15Z and 03Z over 100 Q/hour. The best hour into Europe was at
15Z with 157 QSOs.
b) In a typical WPX, WW, or IARU contest from British Columbia,
I'll normally work about 40% DX and 60% North America (although I'd
prefer that the ratio be reversed!) This weekend the log contained 74%
DX QSOs and only 26% North American contacts.
c) Forty meters was a real disappointment. I expected to lose out
on a bunch of mults by not being on cw, but I did not anticipate the
near shutout into JA. I logged about 6 JAs at the start of the test,
and only worked three more during the last 5 hours, even though I called
a LOT of CQs (I would have expected to log 100-200). One pleasant
surprise--I managed to work four Europeans around 04Z. EU QSOs from
here on 40 are really tough during the summer months; sunrise in
Eastern Europe occurs about two hours before my sunset.
d) Had a bit of a Murphy visit this weekend. We lost the 20 meter
Top Ten A/B switch during the second hour. By the time we figured out
why there were suddenly no signals on the band, there was a 16 minute
gap in the log with no QSOs! I'm very glad that Allan had a spare
switch to replace the bad one. Also had S-7 line noise into JA on 15,
but, luckily, the noise blanker on the FT1000 did a reasonable job of
minimizing it. I didn't seem to notice the band QRN that others have
reported.
Thanks to all for the contacts!
73,
Gary VA7RR (ex-VE7NTT)
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
Submissions: 3830@contesting.com
Administrative requests: 3830-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-3830@contesting.com
|