ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: VA7RR
Operator(s): VA7RR
Station: VA7RR
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 72
40: 174
20: 760
15: 176
10:
------------
Total: 1182 Sections = 82 Total Score = 193,848
Club: Orca DX and Contest Club
Comments:
This is the sixth low power SS Phone effort I've done from my city lot home
station in the suburbs of Vancouver BC. One really great thing about
Sweepstakes is that you can often be competitive with a "relatively"
modest set up (it's a 72 foot tower here with short boom Force 12 monobanders).
I think what makes the difference is that you can only work a station once
during the weekend, and, because of that uniqueness, you don't have to have a
killer signal on every band to run up a good score. And I suppose it doesn't
hurt to operate from a section that's a bit less common than many. When I have
tried the low power NAQP in the past from here, I have done poorly every time
out, and I think it's probably because this station is not a good competitive
match as it relates to the contest's rules, typical propagation, and locations
of the participants.
I don't recall if I have ever described my QTH in these 3830 Posts, but we're
on the flats in the city of Port Coquitlam on a 65' by 120' lot at zero
elevation with a good takeoff angle from the northeast through south. There
are high tension power lines directly east about 200 feet away. They are
bothersome occasionally on 10, 15, and 20, but they get worse and are always a
factor in terms of being able to copy weak signals as we QSY from 40 through to
160. I have neighbors close by in all directions except to the east, and
interference to their electronics can be an issue if I am using an amp, so I
frankly choose to limit HP in contests and in casual operating from here.
As for the contest itself, twenty meters was the money band for me this year.
Rates were consistently good there at just about all times during the daylight
hours, but not so good anywhere else as soon as the sun went down. Propagation
for me deteriorated significantly on 40 and 75 between 03 and 07Z - it was
difficult to work ANYONE during this time, and frankly, painful to be in the
chair. I took a couple of unplanned breaks during these hours. At 07Z 40
recovered a bit, and was at least somewhat ok for a couple of hours when I
QRTed for the night. I only made a handful of Qs on 15 on Sunday. In
hindsight that was probably a mistake as I should have called CQ there much
much much more than I did.
I missed PR as many others did, and was lacking about 15 mults at sunrise on
Sunday (such as North Carolina - hard to believe). I steadily picked them off
as the day went by - the last one I got,#82, was EWA near the end of the test
on 40. I was really surprised to work so few GTA stations, and NLI too.
Thanks to all for the QSOs.
73,
Gary
VA7RR
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