WAE DX Contest, SSB
Call: VE7CC
Operator(s): VE7CC
Station: VE7CC
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs):
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
80: 4 0 16
40: 30 0 57
20: 571 605 94
15:
10:
-------------------------
Total: 605 605 167 Total Score = 202,070
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
I started the contest on 20 meters. I worked CS2T, and that was it before 20
completely closed. One contact. I went to 40 and worked a handful of
stations. I went to 80 and surprise, I worked M6T. I had all of 23 contacts
in the log when I went to bed. One on 20, one on 80 and 21 on 40.
I got back on 20 in the morning. The band started to open just before 1400Z.
I did S&P while the signals improved. After about an hour I tried a CQ. Then
I was spotted. This created a massive pile-up. Unbelievable. I think
everyone wanted the VE7 multiplier. I had a run of 275 contacts in the next 2
hours and 20 minutes. I gave out very few QTCs during this time, as I wanted
to get as many in the log as I could while the band was open.
It was easy to work the louder guys, but when the pileup got down to S5 or so,
at times it was not possible to even get a single letter of a call. When the
pile-up finally died down, I got some time to S&P for the rarer mults. Many of
them commented that they had been in the pile-up calling me and had given up! I
continued to CQ off and on. By 2000Z, 20 had almost closed to Europe. I worked
the occassional station until 2200Z. Then I waited for 40/80 to open. I worked
a few more multipliers on the low bands. I even found S50A, HA8JV and ES5TV
workable on 80. I also found about another 20 stations that were unworkable.
The second night I went to bed with about 425 calls in the log. I had visions
of getting up and getting right back at it on 20 meters. About 1115Z (4:15 AM
local time) I woke up to the beeping of my office computer's UPS. No power in
the house. I called the power company. The automated message said the outage
was due to a car accident. They expected the power to be back at 2100Z. I
tried to get back to sleep, but it was difficult.
At 1515Z I went back to the radio room. Fortunately I have battery backup for
the station. Using my K3, I could tell the conditions were not anywhere near
as good as the previous day. Running barefoot was going to be challenging. As
I started looking for someone to call, a miracle happened. My AC power came
back on. I turned on the amp.
I had almost 400 QTCs to get rid of. I called CQ. I gave QTCs to anyone who
would take them. Another 180 contacts on 20 into the log and all QTCs gone
before the band died. Some stations like RU1A and OH8X had huge signals.
Others like SV mobiles were much weaker. And then there were the dozens of
almost ESP ones. Like the previous day the band was almost closed to Europe by
2000Z. I listened to the east coast continuing to run Europe. It must be
nice.
I used N1MM. It caused all sorts of problems. It kept skipping numbers.
Occassionally it would only give me 9 QTCs in a batch. At the end I had 605
valid contacts but N1MM was at number 647. There were a couple of dupes, but
not anywhere near 42! Sometimes it would tell me the contact was invalid.
This is the first time I really have had problems with this program.
I had a great time. It was nice to see 20 open like the old days. For once a
contest during peak conditions. Now if we only had a few sunspots...
K3 & TL922
FT1000D & Henry
Setup for SO2R. Just makes band changing easier. Not possible to use it as
SO2R. No voice recorder. Can't talk and S&P at the same time.
20 - 5 ele KLM mono at 100 feet.
40 - 2 ele Hygain 402 at 105 ft.
80 - 4 square made of wires hanging from trees.
beverage 480 ft at 45 degrees.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|