WAE DX Contest, RTTY
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 11
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts QTCs Mults
------------------------------
80: 53 53 0 44
40: 135 155 20 81
20: 156 256 100 86
15: 2 2 0 4
10:
------------------------------
Total: 346 466 120 215 Total Score = 100,190
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
* FT-2000 + SB221
* N1MM Logger + MMTTY
* 3 element tribander at 45'
* 40M 2 x half-square array (E, W)
* 40M 2 x elevated verticals
* 80M 2 x elevated verticals (E, W, N-S)
* Short beverage -- 270' (E-W)
Year QSO QTC Mults Score
---------------------------------
2008: 346 120 215 100,190 < HP 11 hrs
2007: 511 170 318 216,876 < HP 19 hrs
2006: 431 70 218 93,958
2005: 452 159 259 158,249
2004: 311 117 198 84,744
2003: 113 109 120 26,640
2002: 251 40 186 54,126
SFI=68 | A=14 | K=3 (Poor conditions)
Had to work on Friday evening, but managed to work 19 stations on 20M before
pulling the plug at 0019z. Got back on at 0549z, but only 80M was active.
Only put in 10.7 hours in little pieces. Saturday afternoon, something bad was
happening in the yagi's feed system on 20M. Power fell off in the middle of a
QTC exchange with a nice JA fellow. Figured perhaps a catastrophic breakdown
between the random-wound loops of coax in the 8" coil choke at the feedpoint. I
ran LP for a while, then headed to 40M.
Saturday morning got up early for the 20M European opening, but it wasn't a
good one. Some strong signals, but not many weak signals at all. Had a hard
time working anyone. Sunday morning was even worse with few EUs heard.
Had a lot of fun on 40M Saturday night (despite the primary antenna being
half-deaf, see below), but never could catch up to even last year's score.
Overall mults were down by 103 this year, due to slack conditions on all bands.
Made just 2 Qs on 15M for 4 mults vs. 44 mults last year.
Outside at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. I was going to tilt the tower, but first I wanted
to finish reconstructing my 40M rotatable dipole. What started as an hour of
finish work turned into four hours of rebuilding, testing, never finding
resonance in the band, and finally at 1:30 p.m., giving up and putting it
behind the greenhouse for the winter. Will look at it again in Spring.
Got the tower tipped over by 2 p.m. (2200z). Removed the old bunch-wound coax
and replaced it with a solenoid-wound choke (~7 turns on a 4.25" form -- hangs
from the boom like a little beehive, which I guess it might become next
summer). Tower was back up by 3:15 p.m. Worked the last 30 minutes of the
contest mostly pointed at Asia on 20M and had a really great time. Note to
self: press hard for JA QTCs -- low-hanging fruit there. Managed to hit 100,000
points and 350 Qs (targets set after seeing how dismal conditions were
Saturday).
A few stations posted real-time scores on http://www.getscores.org but many
more would make for a lot of fun!
So, had a great day today despite not getting the rotary dipole to work. Did
fix other problems, though. I was wondering why my 40M performance with the
dual half-squares hasn't been too hot to the US over the past month or so --
blamed conditions, but others didn't note any degraded performance. Lo! and
behold! while prepping to tilt the tower, I discovered that the East
half-square's shield-side connection had failed.
Ran out of daylight this evening, but with another hour or so I hope to
resurrect the twin array on Tuesday (Remembrance Day). Looking forward to
seeing if I can tell the difference with both antennas working like they
should. When they work, they work great!
Planning a casual operation in SS Phone next weekend. XYL and kids are off to a
hockey tournament for CQWW CW, so I'll be full-bore for that.
Thanks for the contacts this weekend and hope to work many of you over the in
SS Phone and CQWW CW.
-- Bud VA7ST
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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