RAC Canada Day Contest
Call: CF7RR
Operator(s): VA7RR
Station: VA7RR
Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 19:24
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs CW Mults Ph Mults
----------------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 406 1395
15:
10:
6:
2:
----------------------------------------
Total: 406 1395 11 12 Total Score = 163,438
Club: Orca DX and Contest Club
Comments:
Thanks to all for the QSOs as we celebrate Canada's 150th birthday this year.
Most of my contest activity is as a guest op, but there are a few domestic
contests, such as SS and the California QSO Party, where I can often be
competitive in operating from my home station. I'm located on a city lot on
the flats in a suburb of Vancouver, BC, where I have a 72 foot tower with a
bunch of short boom Force 12 monobanders on it.
Despite the low sunspot numbers, I thought it would be interesting to try a
20 meter single band entry for the RAC Canada Day contest, especially since the
test would happen on a Friday and Saturday with the possibility of greater
overall activity because July 1st would occur during a weekend day.
All day Friday 20 sounded terrible, with very few signals, many of them
week, and no real DX except for a few South Americans. My guess was that the
band would close a few hours after the start, and that I would spend most of
Saturday in "beg mode" trying to attract attention to myself. Boy
was I wrong, because when the contest started up, it was like somebody flipped
on a light switch, and it turned into the start of some surprisingly superb
conditions over the next 24 hours.
The particulars:
- probably the biggest SSB pileup I've ever experienced here in Canada during
the first 15 minutes of the contest. It was crazy deep.
- an average rate of nearly 93 an hour for the entire 19.4 hours of operating
time. Had 700 on Friday night and another 1100 on Saturday.
- missed VY1 on both modes and VY0 on cw. Number of Europeans worked - zero.
- I had no line noise until the last hour, and it was otherwise really really
quiet. This was critical because, just like in Phone SS last fall, there were
lots of weak signals and rapid QSB, resulting in lots of back and forth to
confirm callsigns and exchanges.
- tons of USA activity. 23% of the QSOs were with Canada, and most all of the
rest were from the US.
- a staggering 472 stations outside of Canada gave me QSO Number 1. 165 more
passed along QSO Number 2.
- the highlight of the contest - with a couple of hours to go a station called
in with his callsign and QTH. I gave him the exchange, and asked him for his
QSO number. He replied that I was his first contact . . . ever and that he had
just got his ham license. That's the sort of "Number 1" that I've
never otherwise encountered in more than 40 years of contest operating.
Thanks again for the QSOs.
73,
Gary VA7RR
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