RSGB Commonwealth Contest
Call: VA3RAC
Operator(s): VE3FU
Station: VE3FU
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 147
40: 318
20: 274
15: 243
10: 67
------------
Total: 1049 Total Score = 10,645
Club: Contest Club Ontario
Comments:
Wow! That was a lot better than the last two years! I'm not sure if it was
just because I was an "HQ" station or if it was because of conditions.
Probably a bit of both. Either way, I'll take it :=)
I seemed to lose some momentum around the 14Z hour when I was having trouble
deciding which band to be running on and kept bouncing between 10, 15, and
20m.
Around 1825Z I was on 15m and just about to call 9J2BO on the second radio when
I heard my friend VO2AAA call him and move him to 10m. I followed them there,
heard them complete the QSO and then VO2AAA asked 9J2BO to move to 20m. I
desperately tried to get the attention of either of them before they moved, as
did 9H3ET. Unfortunately neither of us could before they moved. I followed
them to 20m, but couldn't raise 9J2BO there either (I'd already worked VO2AAA
on 20m). I did eventually work 9J2BO on 15m though, the original band I heard
him on :=)
Around 2215Z I had for the first time that I can remember during the BERU, what
I believe was deliberate QRM. Someone was sending â??CQ BERU BERU G3UJE G3UJE
G3UJEâ??pretty much right on top of me and repeating continuously for what
seemed like 30 seconds before stopping for 5 seconds and starting again. I
thought it was strange for â??G3UJEâ?? to do this, especially since I was
pretty sure â??G3UJEâ?? could hear me since I was still able to work stations
(mostly Gs) through the QRM. I knew it was deliberate QRM when the real G3UJE
called me while the QRMer was still calling CQ :=) I guess one of us must have
ticked someone off earlier in the contest ;=)
Around 2300Z (QSO #760) I realized that 1000 QSOs and 10K points was within
reach. At that point I only had 30 QSOs on 80m and still had the full night
ahead of me. When I went to 80m around 2330Z I began to have doubts as the
band was quite noisy. I kept plugging away, bouncing between 40 and 80m, with
an occasional venture to 20m to snag some VKs, ZLs, and western VEs. Around
0500Z, and the band now less noisy, I started a nice run on 80m to the UK. I
passed the 10K point mark at 0553Z and the 1000 QSO mark (including dupes) at
0640Z. I passed the actual 1000 QSO mark about 30 minutes later.
I got a little scared around 0830Z when N1MM locked up. I was using the N1MM
rotor control program to turn the 40m yagi. When the N1MM rotor control program
stopped, a couple of error windows popped up that I couldn't dismiss. (I was too
busy panicking to note what the errors were! :=) I rebooted the computer and
crossed my fingers. I was still able to use my keyer while the PC rebooted and
managed to work one station and logged it on paper. Luckily when N1MM started
again all my QSOs were still there. After entering the hand logged QSO into
N1MM I realized that I had sent the same serial number twice. I'm sure the
adjudication software will handle this and a few skipped serial numbers :=)
I finished the last hour of the contest with a nice run of VKs, ZLs, and Gs on
40m.
Looking back over my log I see that all my QSOs in the last 3 hours were all on
40m. Despite scouring 80 and 20m on the 2nd radio, I couldn't find any stations
that I hadn't already worked. I'm sure there were occasional CQs on 80 and 20m
during that time, but the only band that seemed to have any activity was 40m.
Here's a breakdown of some of my log:
QSOs Raw Dupes Bonus HQ PTS BCA
------------------------------------------------------------
80m 148 147 1 27 2 925 17
40m 323 318 5 64 4 2310 34
20m 280 274 6 46 4 1830 27
15m 250 243 7 20 4 1240 15
10m 67 67 0 14 2 515 11
------------------------------------------------------------
1068 1049 19 247 23 10645 145
Thirty-seven 5 band QSOs: 6Y6T, 9H3ET, CF3A, G0ORH, G3KMQ, G3LIK, G3RLE, G3SWH,
G3TKK, G3TQZ, G3UJE, G3WPH, G3YBY, G4AZN, G3BUO, G4DBW, G4FAL, G4HZV, G5LP,
G6PZ, GB5CC, GM0NAI, GM3SEK, GM3WOJ, J34G, J88DR, M0DHO, VA3DX, VE3EJ, VE3JM,
VE3KI, VE3KZ, VE3OI, VE7JH, VK4CT, VP2EC, ZF2XF
HQ Stations: GB5CC, VE1RAC, VE7RAC, VO1RAC, VU2PTT, ZL6HQ
145 Band Call Areas
690 QSOS in the first 12 hours, 378 in the last 12 hours.
G: 423 QSOs with 189 unique stations
VE: 221 QSOs with 90 unique stations
VK: 31 QSOs with 23 unique stations
ZL: 30 QSOs with 16 unique stations
80m
G: 82
VE: 55
VK: 2
ZL: 0
40m
G: 204
VE: 66
VK: 23
ZL: 9
20m
G: 193
VE: 48
VK: 3
ZL: 13
15m
G: 193
VE: 32
VK: 1
ZL: 6
10m
G: 34
VE: 19
VK: 1
ZL: 3
Still one of my favourite contests! Thanks for all the QSOs and to all the DX
travellers who make this contest more interesting!
73,
Chris VE3FU / VO2AC
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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