ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: VY2TT
Operator(s): K6LA
Station: VY2TT
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: PEI
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 64 38
80: 261 65
40: 905 85
20: 1709 102
15: 688 88
10: 20 12
-------------------
Total: 3627 390 Total Score = 4,243,590
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
This was an unusual trip to PEI for me. The PEI DX Lodge was actually a turnkey
operation. I carried only a backpack for the flight. I could have started the
contest 20 minutes after arriving.
Of course, my flight had to circle Charlottetown airport while the runway was
plowed but I was only an hour late. I canâ??t remember how many times that
flight is late or gets canceled. Thursday was so nasty outside, snowing and
blowing really hard, I didnâ??t leave the house even to pick up food and lived
on cans and popcorn. Actually, Friday wasnâ??t much better. I was disappointed
my weather station wasnâ??t working, as the winds were supposed to hit around
60 MPH and it looked and felt like it. Mostly I tried to bank sleep and check
out the bands. I got excited and made a note when I heard a French station on
10 meters around 1800 UTC. Unfortunately, that opening just wasnâ??t there
during the contest.
ARRL DX Phone affords the biggest advantage for the PEI QTH because I can use
the Canadian phone bands and avoid the screaming crowded masses fighting up on
the higher frequencies. This year even the foreign portion of 20 meters was
jammed from 14110 all the way up to 14150. I donâ??t know why European stations
would want to call CQ in that space, because they are only going to work
Canadians, but there was sure a bunch of them.
20 and 15 opened about ½ hour earlier Saturday morning than Sunday. D4C was my
only 10 meter QSO on Saturday, despite constantly checking the band, and he was
loud at 1600Z. I got some South American action out of 10 in the late 1800Z and
early 1900Z hours Sunday, but that was it. Very disappointing after a good
opening in the CW contest and after hearing EU on Thursday.
I concentrated on moving multipliers, but still feel I fell short in that area.
ZERO of my schedules were completed.
The funniest moment was on 160 when I was calling a mult I was trying to move.
A guy told me he was having a QSO 2 khz below where I was calling and I had to
move. I ignored him and kept calling and made the mult QSO. Then he started in
on â??how could I make any QSOs with such bad audio.â?? It was actually my
voice that had given out by Saturday night and I could barely speak. On Sunday
I was close to a whisper, but I noticed I was spotted with a comment about my
great audio.
Using the K3 in diversity mode with my 80m four square and DX Engineering RX
four square was an interesting experience. It doesnâ??t sound like stereo, even
though each RX and antenna is in a separate ear. It does help pull out callsigns
on occasion. Speaking of 80m, why do stations still work split? There are
hundreds of Khz where EU and NA can work simplex, so why bother with split? I
understand the 40m rationale, but on 80???
73, Ken, K6LA / VY2TT
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