Well this recap is a little overdue but I ran into a little problem
early in the week. Less than 24 hours after arriving home from VE6JY I
was back on my way into Regina for emergency gall bladder surgery. The
experience leading up to the surgery made the first 12 hours of the
contest seem like heaven!
This contest was actually a tale of 2 contests split roughly into the
1st 12 hours and the last 12 hours. The contest started out all right
with me operating on 40 ssb with the 2nd station on 20m ssb. Hmmm, VE3EJ
in the log in the 1st 4 minutes, is he in this for real?? The hour
finished with 101 Q's in the log. Not bad but I was hoping for more. In
the Canada Day Contest I had opened with an hour of 129. The next 2
hours were more of the same with hours of 109 followed by 97..... And
then the wheels fell off. The next 7 hours ranged from 59 to 15 Q's. 218
Q's for 7 hours work. 40m was open to the east, but marginally. 80m was
particularly frustrating. It was the Western Canada QSO party all night.
I spent lots of minutes calling VE2ZP ,VE3EJ and VE3WG in vain earlier
in the evening, around 0300Z or so. The first VE3 wasn't in the log on
80m until 0510Z when VE3WG finally heard me. The first on CW was VE3JC
at 0654Z. There are very few VE3's in the log on 80. But surprisingly I
work a handful or two of W4 stations. At 0717Z I come across VA3SK on
80 ssb, we go to cw. Did we try 160m guys??? I don't remember. I didn't
get VE3 on 160m till I ran across VE3EJ at 0848Z on ssb. Guess he's in
it for real. Damn. John and I quickly move through 160 and 80 both modes
and 40 cw. Out of no where at 0915Z comes VE9RAC on 80 ssb. No cw Q
though. No other east coasters to be heard either. By this time I am
dead tired. In the next 45 minutes I only worked 12 more stations. 20m
ssb is wide open so I decide to go up there to run some 2 pointers. Boy
is 20m open, I rattle off 152 Q's in the next hour and a half. Only 4 of
them are worth more than 2 points though. I decide at this time that its
just not worth it and if I want to be in any shape to last the final 12
hours I had better grab a power nap. So I go off at 1125Z with 684 Q's
in the log. Usually when I go off I have a little trouble relaxing
enough to go to sleep. Not this time. The first 12 hours has been hard
on me. I'm out like a light.
I come back on at 1234Z and low and behold there is VE2ZP in 80m.
Quickly to 80cw and QC is in the log on 80m both modes. We try 160 with
no joy. Come back to 80 and set up a sked for 1300Z on 1812 kHz with a
backup of 2330Z on 1812. I work a few more VE3's on 80 then it slows
down and 40m ssb is hopping. Its suddenly the VE2/VE3 QSO Party. I'm
thinking that this might not be too bad. At 1315Z VE9AFM shows up on 40
ssb and kindly moves to 40 cw to give me the mult. VE1JBL stops by for
the NS mult and at 1335Z VO1RAC is worked on ssb and kindly moves to cw
for the double mult. The first of many times that station would move
from band to band for me.About 13:45 I finally get the 2nd station back
on 20m and start running both bands, 40 ssb is still full of VE3's for
me. Around 1430Z VE2DO stops by and asks me to go to 15m with him. I
agree and the QC is quickly gobbled up on 15m easily. I'm beginning to
think that we are in for a good day. At 1452Z VO1RAC goes in the log on
15m. This is just about exactly and hour before sunrise at VE6JY. At
1500Z VA3SK provides the ON mult on both modes. While 2 minutes later
VE4AJO is kind enough to move from 20 ssb to 20 cw for a mult. 15m
sounds good so I run there. Its mostly 2 point DX Q's with just enough
VE action to keep it interesting and worthwhile. At this point I know I
am way behind in mults. The low bands are a wasteland of missed mults.
Everything east of ON is missing on 160 and 80 for the most part. VY1JA
was kind enough to fill in the low bands for me in the evening. But
there are gaping holes in NT, NU, and PEI. I've only worked VY2SS on 20
ssb so far. At 1600Z I only have 81 mults in the log. I'm in serious
trouble. But there is lots of easy ground to be made up. I only have 2
mults on 10m, SK, from when I moved VE5FX through the bands the night
before. And 20 and 15 cw are still ripe for the picking multiplier
wise.From 1600Z I am running on 10 and 15m. Where do all the VE's hang
out on 10m?? I never really found and area that was dominated by VE's.
At 1630Z I move one station to 10 cw and start running there. This
quickly fills in lots of needed mults and I get a 1st class DX pileup
calling in too. I spent a little too much time running 10m cw but it was
just too much fun to leave that pileup. They dont happen like that from
home!! While I'm running on 10 cw I keep a station on 15 ssd and 5R8FL
calls in. Why doesn't he call me when I'm operating from home?? The time
from 1658Z till 1700Z is very fruitful on 10 cw as VE6GUS, VE9GM, and
VE7XF call in, all for mults. At 1710Z VE9KM calls in and he kindly
moves to ssb to give me another mult. The next couple of hours are busy,
spent mostly on 15 and 10 ssb and moving guys where they are needed.
Almost everyone is willing to move to help you out. Although I was
sweating NS on cw on quite a few bands for awhile. At 1900Z I find
VY1RAC on 10 ssb. As it turns out that is the only time I hear them in
the contest. Some time in here I realize that I am missing 2 very easy
mults, AB on 20 and 15 cw. VE6VW calls in at 2005Z on 15 ssb and kindly
takes care of the 2 missing mults for me. Thanks Norm. At 2023Z I start
tuning across 20 ssb and mercy be the the 3rd station I come across is
VE8RAC. I ask him if we can make a sked for 15m and he says "Why dont we
go now?" I say sure and by the time we are through I have 9 NT mults in
the log. Including an 80m ssb QSO at 2044Z, broad daylight. That little
run of NT moves me over the record from last years contest, sorry Bob.
At 2100Z I have 104 mults, just about respectable, and around 1500 Q's.
I am in serious multiplier mode with one radio constantly tuning for
mults. At 2122Z I finally hear VY0CW on 20 cw. He kindly moves to ssb
and makes it known that he is 20m only. Thanks Boyd. 20m was the only
band that I swept the mults on. Just before that VO1RAC had moved from
15 to 20 cw to give me 2 mults. At 2140Z the 2nd stroke of luck hits,
VE1EO calls in on 20 cw, wait a secong did he send me PE?? Sure enough,
and then he is kind enough to move to 15 cw and then 15 ssb where we co
ordinate further Q's on 10, 20 and 40m, 13 minutes and 6 more mults in
the log. Thanks Gord. Just before that VY1AC had called in on 20 ssb and
said he would be around on the other bands. True to his word 45 minutes
later he goes in the log on 15m both modes and 10 cw. And all of a
sudden I'm sitting at 129 mults, holy cow. Comparing notes with VE2ZP on
the air a couple of times during the day I know I am neck and neck with
him. But where did VE3EJ go? I haven't heard him in some time. He is
making me nervous. Its now 2232Z and I have all the mults that I think I
am likely to get so off I go running on 15 and 20 cw which I have
overlooked most of the day. At 2330Z I try the 160m sked with VE2ZP, it
is just after sunset at VE6JY and I can hear Dave but he cant hear me. I
spend the last 30 minutes running 80 ssb working some of the VE3's that
I missed last night. At 2400Z its all over. The final line looks like
1700 Q's and 129 mults for 1.34 million. Chatting on 14.140 after the
contest it is clear that alot of people have missed the north. Finally
VE2ZP shows up and a load is lifted off my shoulders. Thanks for pushing
me all 24 hours Dave. But where did VE3EJ go? I would be without a gall
bladder before I would find out. Good job John.
The station preformed flawlessly for me. The number of hours that Don
puts in to get it to that level is just unimaginable to me. All I have
to do is show up, get a refresher on the changes that have been made
since my last visit, and then we're ready to go. Apart from a little RF
in the one voice keyer there were no other problems. TR is just about
magical. It can look after radios, on different modes, key one of them
and handle antenna switching for the other, all at the same time. It
handles it better than I do. There is not a better logging program on
the market for your money as far as I'm concerned. A VERY big thank you
to all the people that were kind enough to move to other bands and/or
modes. Thats the easiest way to pump up the mult totals in this contest.
VE1EO, VE8RAC, VO1RAC, VY1AC and VY1JA all deserve special mention in
this regard. They went right out of their way to help out. At 10 points
per QSO it pays to move every Canadian station that you can. They guys
at VE5RAC were very willing in that respect and they were the only 8
band sweep for me. 16 RAC QSO's adds up in a hurry boy. Those 20 point
RAC Q's do help alot and it pays to find as many of them as you can. I
found 46 this time around. That surprised me. It didn't "feel" like I
had worked that many of them. VO1RAC, VE8RAC, and VE5RAC were the main
contributors to that number.
Overall I am very pleased with the outcome. The 2nd 12 hours were
awesome. Its not very often that you make more Q's in the 2nd half of a
contest than you do in the 1st half. I was very happy to see so many of
our friends from the south taking part. N6RO always turns in a big score
that needs to be mentioned. And there were others out there giving out
good sized numbers too. KA6BIM and LY2OX are two that come to mind
quickly. All in all it was a great time and I look forward to next year.
Happy New Year everyone.
Callsign & Station Used : VE6JY Operator : Todd VE5MX
Single Op all bands high power
5 radios, 4 amps, 4 computers, 3 keys and only 2 arms
BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Mults
__________________________________________________
160CW 7 7 80 4
160SSB 12 12 122 4
80CW 26 26 240 7
80SSB 97 95 814 8
40CW 152 151 864 12
40SSB 151 148 1494 12
20CW 146 143 790 13
20SSB 370 363 2200 13
15CW 97 97 584 12
15SSB 319 312 1530 12
10CW 82 82 408 12
10SSB 218 218 1034 12
6CW 2 2 30 2
6SSB 2 2 30 2
2CW 3 3 40 2
2SSB 15 15 160 2
__________________________________________________
Totals 1699 1676 10420 129
Final Score = 1,344,180 points.
Here are some numbers for you statisical types.
Rate.
HOUR TOTAL ACCUM
---- ----- -----
0 101 101
1 109 210
2 97 307
3 59 366
4 40 406
5 33 439
6 18 457
7 35 492
8 18 510
9 15 525
10 106 631
11 46 677
12 19 696
13 40 736
14 51 787
15 131 918
16 154 1072
17 114 1186
18 133 1319
19 125 1444
20 63 1507
21 42 1549
22 79 1628
23 48 1676
QSO Distribution
1. On 329
2. Ab 111
3. Bc 107
4. Pq 72
5. Sk 59
6. Ns 35
7. Mb 34
8. Nb 30
9. Nf 20
10. Pe 9
11. Yu 9
12. Nt 9
13. Nu 2
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