IARU HF World Championship
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 7 0 3 1
80: 126 2 10 1
40: 326 4 20 7
20: 212 9 19 11
15: 38 1 5 1
10: 8 0 2 0
-------------------------------------
Total: 717 16 59 21 Total Score = 179,120
Club:
Comments:
Overview:
Sun Spots: 0 as of 07/10/2008 :: Flux: 65 | Ap: 3 | Kp: 2 | Au=6
Pretty much a domestic contest this year, with 673 of my 733 Qs being from
North America. Only 8 EU stations, 21 South America, 12 Oceania, and 24 from
Asia. Yeesh.
Only 21 HQ stations worked (vs. 40 last year). Just 59 zones worked (vs. 70
last year). QSOs up by 30 but score down 58,000 points due to lack of mults.
I ran mixed mode but I stuck to CW for most of the time because phone operation
was so bleak. Antennas are all optimized for CW bands and none are very
wide-banded so SSB gets short shrift . Didn't S&P very often, which I am sure
hurt the mult count but kept rates fun. Found myself walking away from the
radio several times, accounting for the 15 hours on-time.
Contest diary:
Got to bed at 11 p.m. Friday night (6 hours before start). Up half an hour
early for a fresh-air walk-about in the back yard as first light arrives in
British Columbia. Check antennas, add a little tension to the catenary to keep
the wire antennas high. Very calm at this time of day, so up goes the tower to
a whopping 45'.
5 a.m. (1200z) Need a great start out of the gate -- have both the 40M and 80M
vertical arrays switched to the Pacific and Asia. Nothing happening on 80M so
start on 40M. It's a domestic festival until JA1YPA appears at 1226z, then ZLs,
VKs and JAs show up in earnest just after 1300z. Rates in the first few hours:
65, 37, 80 and 27. Up and down.
6:20 a.m. (1420z) Move to 20M. It's real early for 20M out here in the Pacific
time zone, but my first Q is the RCV mult from YV. Go to 15M and then 10M (yay
-- I made 10M contacts!). But have to go back to 20M for rate and it's all
North America for 5 straight hours, until finding TM0HQ for the REF mult around
1930z. Work exactly 6 EU stations (including 3 HQs) and that's all there is for
the opening on Saturday. There's a flurry of three more EU stations at 2220z.
20M is hopping with signals, QRM and QSB, and I have a good clear frequency for
a while before fellows move in on either side of me. The FT-2000 rocks in this
environment. I think everyone I work is calling me and in sync, but could be a
few are working my slot-mates (slightly delayed replies, etc.). For this
reason, I only pick out calls close to zero-beat with me. Someone far off
frequency has to throw out a few extra calls to get my attention -- when you're
searching and pouncing, turn the RIT knob to "Off" and apply SuperGlue.
If you have a tin ear or your rig doesn't show CW tuning, try SP5CFD's "CW
Tune-In" software to see where you're tuning:
http://www.va3cr.net/software/Utilities.htm
It's early afternoon, and I take an hour off and raise the 40M bush verticals
that point to Europe, ready for an evening EU opening. Also pull the
hanging-straight-down 160M inverted-L's horizontal section out so it's at least
an end-fed inverted-V.
5:30 p.m. (0030z) Ap-index has gone from 3 up to 20 in a big hurry. There's no
hope: we have lousy, rotten, horrible propagation. 20M is tough even to the
U.S. from BC. Flux: 65 | Ap: 20 | Kp: 2.
5:45 p.m. (0045z) High Ap index might leave the low bands in OK shape. Cannot
stay on 20M. Go to 40M about 2 hours earlier than usual. Rates are slow at
first but pick up -- best rates are 87 and 89 in the 0400z and 0500z hours.
11 p.m. (0600z) Spend the evening riding the bands from 40 to 80 to 20 to 40 to
160 (at just 50 watts, which is all I can get into the mismatched Inverted-L)
and back to 40M. No EU opening at all here, even on the bush verticals. But
ZD8Z Ascension Is. calls in with a great signal for a thrill on 40M. Up on 20M
there's a very weak midnight opening to EU with about four needed HQ stations
calling but they're in the noise, probably working Asia, and can't hear me even
when I open up the carburetor to the 3-500Zs.
1:13 a.m. (0813z) After an hour on 80M working slow rate W/VE and sparse DX, I
decide to nap for an hour or two and get back on for the 40M grand-slam into
Asia in the final two hours.
5:34 a.m. (1234z) Open my eyes and see the clock. Contest ended half an hour
ago. Back to sleep with nothing to do but dream about next year. We'll have
sunspots by then, almost guaranteed. Just as I thought last year. And the year
before that.
I did my best, and it wasn't very good. So on to better things: off to
Longbeach on Vancouver Island for some surf and sun with the kids. Will close
out July vacation season with NAQP RTTY next Saturday. (Aurora Busters unite!)
Thanks to everyone for a fun 24-hour test. See you all again soon.
-- Bud, VA7ST
http://www3.telus.net/va7st
Year Qs Pts. Mult Score (claimed)
---------------------------------------
2008 733 2239 80 179,120 -- 21 HQ SOmixed (HP)
2007 703 2091 114 238,374 -- 40 HQ SOCW (HP)
2006 630 2012 96 193,152 -- 44 HQ SOCW (LP)
2005 267 843 42 35,406 -- 10 HQ SOCW (LP)
2004 462 1446 88 127,248 SOCW (LP)
2003 181 31 17,019 SOCW (LP)
2002 235 799 77 61,523 -- 27 HQ SOCW (LP)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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