CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: VE2IM
Operator(s): VE3DZ
Station: VE2CSI
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Sept-Iles
Operating Time (hrs): 42.2
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 201 11 26
80: 936 27 86
40: 1649 30 98
20: 1525 34 110
15: 1286 31 100
10: 1552 30 103
------------------------------
Total: 7149 163 523 Total Score = 12,675,908
Club: Contest Club Ontario
Comments:
(*) Total score is subject to change a bit since I have not used the newer
country file.
It’s been a while since I’ve been doing two CQ WW’s (SSB an CW) from Zone
2 in a row… I guess it was 2009, wasn’t it?
I decided to do it this year again for 2 reasons: the need of mainyaining and
keeping the VE2CSI station on the fly and (hopefully) the feeling of being
“the only Zone 2 station” in the contest (in the CW part). About a month
before the CW leg, however, I talked to Gus VO1MP and learned that he was going
to Zone 2 as well, operating VO2CQ… I can’t say it affected my score too
much, but at the same time I can’t say that I had “crazy” pile-ups like I
used to have before…
Anyway, let me tell you, driving back and forth 3200 km is not fun and after
returning from the Phone part I was simply trying not to think about my next
trip at the end of November. :-)
The weather can be very rough in Northern Quebec at this time of the year so I
put winter tires on my vehicle well in advance.
I was supposed to leave on Monday to arrive in Sept-Iles on Tuesday night, but
last minute work commitments kept me home until Tuesday morning, so I left with
1 day delay around noon on Tuesday for Montreal and was at Victor’s (VA2WA)
house around 7 P.M. Spent a night there and left for Sept-Iles around 7 A.M.
The ride was good, weather cooperated and I set a new recordfor myself: drove a
bit over 900 km in 9 and a half hours. Previous record was 9:45. However, due to
some misunderstandings I could only get to the station by 9 P.M.
That left me not too much time for set-up and tuning. I spent more than a half
of the day on Thursday setting up 2 stations and resting after a long ride. I
intended to use 2 radios with 2 separate amps and a Hexbeam and a Tribander,
however, the cross-band interferences were so high even with 2 sets of band
pass filters �" probably because of the close proximity of the HexBeam to
Mosley 7 el. Tribander �" that I ended up with a “limited SO2R”: I
used 1 radio exclusively on 40 meters with 2 ele.Yagi on a separate tower, and
another radio on the rest of the bands with a 7 el. Tribander and low dipoles
for 80 and 160. Spent few hours operating on WARC bands because usually I get a
lot of requests from people needing Zone 2 on 12, 17 or 30 m bands.
On Friday as usual I had to devote few hours to setting up logging software
(N1MM), working on minor glitches and driving to town for food. I managed a
short 1 hour nap around 3 P.M.
I hoped to start a contest on 15, but it closed literally 5 minutes before the
start. However 20 and 40 were in good shape almost 24 hours. 80 and 160
weren’t good the first night but much better on the 2nd night and especially
right before the end of the Contest. Having one radio dedicated to 40 meters
and another radio with ACOM 2000 automatic amp made it relatively easy to move
people so I moved a lot of mults! Thanks to everyone who moved for me. Overall
conditions were pretty good and by the mid-contest mark I already had 4,000
Q’s in the LOG. As usual, fatigue from long driving started to increase and
around midnight, when I started to fall asleep on the keyboard, I decided to
take a short brake, and that’s when accident happened which affected my final
result. I set an alarm in my cell phone, but being extremely tired and sleepy I
probably forgot to save it and instead of sleeping for just a couple of hours,
I slept five! I woke up with the feeling that I lost everything!
:-((((((((
Anyway, I continued to operate and finished with pretty decent score, even for
only 42 hours of operation. Looks like it’s my personal best (from Zone 2)
and a new Canadian record. The biggest thrill of the Contest was being called
by 7O2A on 40, and then I managed to move him to 20. When I returned to 40,
then he moved me to 80 and we had a nice QSO �" he was real S9 here! Also
remember ZD8O called me on 80 for a very rare mult.
Low point, of course is my accidental “oversleep” which I’m sure will
affect my overall final standing big time. Oh well, what can you do? I guess if
I go here again I will have to find a way to fly with 200 lbs. of equipment…
Congrats to Dave K5GN and especially to Andy N2NT! Great score ov V47T from a
2-point location.
Have to wait for the scores of 8P5A, TO7A and P40C.
My sincere thanks to Victor VA2WA and his lovely wife Elena for hosting me in
Montreal on my way to and from Zone 2, and also to Frank VA2FGG and Andre
VA2VVV of the VE2CSI Club in Sept-Iles.
Radio 1: FT1000MP + ACOM 2000 @ 1200 watts
Radio 2: K3 + SB220 @ 900 watts.
Antennas: Mosley Classic 37 at 50 feet, 2 el. 40 m KLM at 60 feet, 160/80 m
dipoles at 40 feet, Hexbeam at 30 feet (not used). No RX antennas.
Summary of 2014 travel to Zone 2: 6673 QSO Phone and 7149 QSO CW, plus 1479
Q’s outside of Contest. Total: 15,301 QSO. Which makes it 118,588 QSO total
from Zone 2 as VE2IM since 1999.
6450 kilometers driven. :-)
Thanks to everyone for the contacts and big Thank You to CQ for sponsoring such
a great contest!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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