Russian DX Contest
Call: VE7CC
Operator(s): VE7CC
Station: VE7SV
Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Countries Oblasts
----------------------------------------
160: 18 0 3 0
80: 77 1 12 3
40: 272 1 43 12
20: 236 240 65 14
15: 4 4 5 0
10: 0 1 1 0
----------------------------------------
Total: 607 247 129 29 Total Score = 542,414
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
This year I asked Dale if I could do an SO2R operation from his QTH. Combining
our equipment, I figured a decent SO2R operation could be done from there. We
both have new K3s and I have the SO2R controller. I did a trial run in the
BERU the previous weekend. I arrived at VE7SV's mountain top QTH about 5 PM
local time (0000Z) to complete setup of SO2R. It's a small mountain, 1500 ft
high, about an hours drive from my home. Dale had stayed in the city.
Unfortunately there had been a big windstorm. There was no AC power, the same
as at my home. Looking around I discovered that one of the 20 meter antennas
yagis had a vertical reflector. This I fixed quite quickly.
It then got dark. Light snow was falling. It was very windy. Inside the
temperature was about 55 deg F. No heat. My cell phone had an almost dead
battery. I had put it on my cell charger at home, but almost immediately my AC
power had been knocked out by the same windstorm. No problem I thought. I will
recharge it at Dale's. First big mistake! I phoned home. My AC power was
still out. Then my battery died. I started to reconfigure the station. Then
my rechargable flashlight died. I had been using it at home to find things
before I left. No problem I thought. I will recharge it at Dale's. Second
big mistake. Then I got to sit in the house in the dark. It was slightly
below freezing outside. It was getting really cold inside. I had planned on
getting some sleep before the contest. Now I couldn't sleep. Besides being
really cold, I was worried that the power wouldn't come back on before the
contest started. I got up. I cut off the output cable from my AC charger for
my cell phone and connected it to my car's battery. I managed to get enough of
a charge to phone home. My wife told me the power was still out. I could talk
for about 2 minutes before the cell died. It just wouldn't charge properly. I
keep recharging and phoning home. Finally about 0430Z the power at home came
back on. However I couldn't see inside Dales house to take the station apart
and take my equipment out and go back home and operate from there. I decided
to stay and hope the power came back on. If it was still off when it got
daylight (1600Z), I would take my equipment home and operate from there.
I couldn't sleep. Finally about 2:30 AM local time I fell asleep. At 3:30 AM
the power came back on. I woke up immediately. Temperature in the house is
now 50 deg F. The contest starts at 5:00 AM local time.
I finished putting the station together. The logging computer wouldn't work
properly. Neither would the packet computer. They wouldn't talk to each
other. (no Internet available at Dale's, so we use packet) At 1200Z the
contest started. Still trying to get the computers to talk to each other.
Finally at 1215Z they do. I get on the air and make a few contacts. Then the
computers stop working. I reboot. They work again for a few minutes and stop
again. I change things and reboot again and again. Finally about 1245Z they
start working properly. The conditions are so bad I haven't lost much.
By 1300Z 24 contacts are in the log. The second hour is even worse, 19
contacts. The third hour brings a further 9 Qs. Then 20 opens a bit. The
rate is up to 20 contacts an hour. 4 hours into the contest, 72 Qs. Things
gradually improved from that point. I operated the whole contest period with
breaks of a few minutes here and there. In the time leading up to the contest
I had one hours sleep in the previous 16 hours. By the end of the contest I
had had one hours sleep in 40 hours. Conditions were poor. Lots of local
lightning QRN. The low bands had a huge amount of QRN, both nights. The high
bands didn't open up very well. Even worse than last year, when I wasn't SO2R.
Highlight of the contest was being called by VK9AA on 40 CW. Nice to work lots
of old friends.
Thanks to Dale for the loan of his station, and for fixing another 20 meter
antenna during the week between BERU and RDXC contests.
Maybe next year the conditions might be better! I hope so.
Lee
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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