VA2SRE - SOLP, SINGLE BAND 15 METERS - CQ WW SSB
ZONE 2 - QTH: Lac Ouescapis Park, James Bay Region, Quebec
662 QSO's
25 ZONES
78 COUNTRIES
174,791 POINTS
EQUIPMENT: Kenwood TS690S & 3 element monoband yagi @ 20 ft.
Powered by 5 KW Honda generator
Not exactly a stellar performance given the QTH. Mr. Murphy was present
at all times! Operation was "field day" style with single band stations
on all bands i.e. VA2DXE on 160, VA2BY on 80, VA2RHJ on 40, VA2KCE on 20,
VA2SRE on 15 and VA2VFT on 10 meters.
The three element monobander was not working properly until late Saturday
afternoon till Carl VE3BY and our resident tower guy Fred VA3RMF performed
some emergency surgery. Could not use the amp because the antenna
was way out of whack. After the surgery, the antenna's SWR dropped
down to 1.6:1 and was essentially performing as a dipole with very
little in the way of directional characteristics but at least was in the
ballpark. Since I started the contest low power, I figured I may as well
finish it that way.
Also, every time I transmitted I totally wiped out our 10 meter station
VA2VFT so had to sort of "take turns" to allow him some air time.
Nevertheless got in at least one good USA run on Saturday and a couple
of good European runs on Sunday. We were running out of gasoline
late Saturday afternoon so had to make a trip into Matagami (80 km.
away) to fill some more containers so we could operate Sunday....so
missed getting any sort of half-decent run into "JA".
A word to "CT" users and possibly other computer logging programmes.
The province of Quebec north of 50 degrees is in Zone 2, while to the
south is in Zone 5. "CT" automatically defaults to Zone 5 whenever you
enter a Quebec callsign. Several stations didn't even bother to listen
to me give my "5902" exchange. So in addition to being rude, lost a
multiplier. Remember a valid contact is a valid "two-way" contact not
a one-way contact.
As well, the VA2, VA3 and VA7 prefixes have been assigned to Canada for
regular amateur use for quite some time in addition to VE2, VE3, and VE7.
Please take the time to listen to what the callsign is and not what you
think it is.
In any case had a wonderful time, the company was great and plan to do
it all over again next year!
For photos and other details of our dxpedition have a look at the
terrific website put together by Brad VE3RHJ at:
http://ve3rhj.freeservers.com/zone2.html
Thanks to all who were able to copy my "pipsqueak" signal from Zone 2!
73 de Bob VA2SRE/VE3SRE
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