CQ Worldwide VHF Contest
Call: VO1MCE
Operator(s): VO1AU
Station: VO1MCE
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: GN36lp
Operating Time (hrs): 25
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 100 55
2: 1 1
-------------------
Total: 101 56 Total Score = 5,712
Club: East Coast Canada Contest Club
Comments:
This was my first full-time effort in the CQ WW VHF. Knowing that
GN36 was a very rare grid, I got the agreement of Dave VO1FU to take
over the Irish Loop ARC station, VO1MCE, at Cape Race on Newfoundland's
south-eastern tip. I hoped that if conditions were favourable, I
would get a lot of additional interest for activating GN36.
I arrived a couple of hours before the contest began, with a 3el 6m
yagi borrowed from my cousin Dan VO1MX, and a long-boom 12el 2m yagi
borrowed from the Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs (SONRA).
Dave VO1FU helped me take down the existing HF tribander and replace
it with the two VHF antennas. That took a bit longer than I had hoped,
and I started the contest almost two hours late. As things turned out,
those two hours were the best two of the entire contest, with excellent
Es to the USA. By the time I got on, the opening was waning, and for
the remaining 25 hours of the contest, there was only very spotty Es,
some scatter and no evidence of tropo at all.
CT3 and EA8 were my only Africans, and from Europe only IS0, EA, CT,
CU and F made it into my log. I did hear the I0JX beacon, and I heard
a UR5 working western and central European stations that I could not
hear. Beacons OX3VHF and VE8BY provided frustratingly strong signals,
but no real live hams with which to make contacts.
Two metres was a disappointment: only one local QSO. I did hear K1WHS
by meteor scatter, but the operator at the time was not paying
attention. As Cape Race was shrouded in thick fog during the whole
contest, there was no likelihood of a tropo opening. I had fantasies
of making a 2m contact with Europe, but the Es was never good enough.
I nonetheless CQed on 144.300 a lot whenever I was working Europe on
6m.
Thanks to Dave VO1FU of ILARC (VO1MCE), Doug VO1DTM of SONRA and
Dan VO1MX for all your help and encouragement. You all went to a lot
of effort so I could make 100 QSOs.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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