CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): M. BALAG E. DIANO VE7FO VE7YBH
Station: VE7FO
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Vancouver
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80: 41 8 7
40: 35 8 16
20: 109 26 42
15: 301 15 31
10:
------------------------------
Total: 486 57 96 Total Score = 160,497
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
Some of you may recall previous efforts of mine to engage total newbies in
contesting. Typically, they are students in the VECTOR Club basic licence
class, which I teach, and so don't have their tickets yet. One year I ran 12
of these folks through individual 2 hour sessions getting on the air and making
contacts in WW SSB. NCJ kindly ran a story on this in the Jan - Feb 2005
issue.
For a variety of reasons, it wasn't possible to do this in 06 and 07 but we did
it again in this one. Unfortunately, I was only able to get two participants,
one from the course and an employee from Vancouver's emergency comms centre.
However, they did make off-continent Qs and were pretty happy with the
experience.
As well, VE7YBH (ex VE3YBH and G3YBH) was able to put in a couple of 5 hour
stints and made most of the points. Thanks Phil.
The original plan was to operate two positions when there weren't any newbies
here. This would normally class us as an M/2. However, I find the band change
rules rather irksome so we ignore them and go M/M. Kinda cheeky with a MkV and
a 706, no amp and low and few antennas but, what the heck, it's fun.
Been quite a while since I had the second position running - better check it
out. Hmm... computer won't boot up. No time to fix it so we're down to 1
position.
My first newbie arrived promptly at 0000Z on Fri (5 pm local). I provided some
orientation to what contesting is all about and the details of making Qs and
then coached him through his first S&P contact. We then S&P'd on 20, looking
for strong signals in the clear (newbies have a difficult enough time sorting
out what's going on without adding weak signals and QRM). I did the tuning as
experience has taught me that it takes too long for newbies to do it which
means that they don't make many Qs.
Well, 20 died after a couple of hours and prop on 40 & 80 was hopeless from
here at that time so that was it for his session. (Actually, prop on 40 TO
here was really good for a while. Heard more Eu stations than I've ever heard
before on 40, some, like OM7M, were S9 on my 40 ft high dipole. Too bad they
couldn't hear us.)
He did make 16 Qs including some LU and JA. He's already asking when he can
come back for more.
40 & 80 didn't start showing up until about 11 pm local. I succumbed to the
late night DX prowl enjoyment again when I should have gone to bed. At 0130L I
concluded that maybe the 18 Qs and 22 mults were all I was going to get before
my head landed on the keyboard and I went to bed, really, really tired.
Why so tired? Well, it's been 2 years since I invited newbies so every
horizontal surface in the shack except a little space in front of the op
position keyboard had about half a foot of junk, paper, file folders, etc on
it. So much so, that you couldn't even see the dust bunnies, let alone the
IC706 at the spotting position. Took two days of flat out work to make it
presentable again and finished about 10 minutes before first newbie arrival.
Sure hope I can keep it looking good. Now, what do I do about all the junk
which was moved into the general basement area?
Slept in and barely got up in time to greet Phil, VE7YBH, when he got here at
about 1130L. Eu opening was over by then.
Phil left for work at about 1700L leaving me to the misery of a dying 20m and
hopeless low bands.
Well, 20 died around 1800L but 80 opened around 1900L and 40 around 0000L.
Actually, 40 was open long before then but it is usually several hours before I
can get anyone to hear me. Once again, stayed up too late because I actually
got a few runs happening. Finally, around 0300L my wife, presumably worrying
that the old fart had died, came down stairs and rousted me out of the shack
and into bed.
Not too smart staying up to 0300L because newbie #2 is showing up at 0800L to
catch the Eu run.
Was actually at the radio at 0730L, feeling surprisingly decent and hoping to
catch some JAs on 40. No such luck.
Newbie #2 arrived at 0800L. He was very interested in everything and was full
of questions. This chewed up a lot of time so he only made 4 Qs. However,
they were all Eu which made him pretty happy because he was born there. I'm
pretty sure he'll be back too.
He left at 1030L which gave me an hour or so to work S. Eu and Af before VE7YBH
arrived again at about 1130L. Our score at that time was about 75,000.
While I got some shuteye, Phil got some rate happening on 15 and, by the time
0000Z (1700L) rolled around, he'd run the score up to 160,000. Amazingly, 15
was our best band. Even more amazing given that I only get about 60W out on 15
on the MkV due to a problem I have yet to address. Looks like I have some
incentive now.
Some of the "funnier" things.
When S&P I generally spot folks who haven't been spotted, whether I've worked
them or not. I spotted one station while he was transmitting. At the same
moment the spot showed up on VE7CC I heard a loud DING from the spotted
station. Guess he has an alarm set to go off whenever he gets spotted. I
wonder how he did that as I'd like to do the same. Maybe N1MM will do this and
I just haven't noticed.
Lots of "funny" antenna problems.
All my fault for not making sure a newbie was on the right antenna. For
example, we probably spent 20 min calling DX on 20 using the 40m dipole.
The funniest one was when, after doing some audio level testing and setup after
recording a CQ wav file for Phil, he commented, after 10 minutes or so of CQing,
that 15 had totally died during the few minutes it took to do the audio stuff.
Checked 20 and it was dead too. Hmm... no storms or flares being reported -
weird. Then Phil suggested I check the antennas as he's not that familiar with
my setup. Oops.... the antenna switch is in the dummy load position.
I can remember a time in my life when I would have greeted such old fart
behaviour with scornful comments. Things look different now (for a start,
they're harder to see).
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results.
Got 2 newbies who will probably be back.
Phil had a good time and got a chance to contact some of his old G and VE3
contesting buddies from days of yore.
Considering that we were only on for 17 hours (ignoring the two hours during
which the newbies were operating), at this point in the cycle 486 Qs doesn't
look too bad at all for this modest station.
Thanks for the Qs everyone, and, in particular, thanks for your patience if you
got called by one of my newbies.
73, Jim VE7FO
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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