RSGB Commonwealth Contest, CW
Call: VE7CC
Operator(s): VE7CC
Station: VE7SV
Class: Open-24 HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 60
40: 83
20: 304
15: 47
10: 12
------------
Total: 506 Total Score = 7,050
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
Thanks to Dave VE7SV for the loan of his station while he is in CE with the
ground shaking.
While Dale was in CE for the CQ WW CW in November, a group of us planned to use
his home station for the contest as MS. We arrived to find that one of his
towers had blown down a couple of days before the contest. This was the 120 ft
tower with many yagis for 40 through 10, 80 meter vertical array and 160 meter
sloper. All that is left of the yagis is a giant pile of bent and broken
aluminum.
This tower was high enough to peak over the top of his hill to Europe, but was
always a bit down from what it could have been if it was on the top of the
hill. His 140 ft rotating tower is fine, but it was always several S units
down to Europe as it is further down the wrong side of the hill.
Dale came home before Christmas. We helped him clean up the mess. The
neighbor who lives at the top of the hill talked to us as were taking the tower
apart on the ground. I think he felt sorry for us. He gave us permission to
install some antennas on his property, as long as we didn't block his view.
Installing antenna systems in the winter is not the greatest fun, but we now
have a small tower with 1000 feet of coax feeding a 3 ele 20M yagi at 40 feet
and 3 ele 15M at 20 feet. Even with about 3 dB of feed line loss these
antennas perform very well. Anyone have some cheap Heliax? These antennas
have a clear view of the valley floor, 1500 feet below, something the old tower
never had. They are a couple of S units better than the stacks on the rotating
tower!
I arrived on Wednesday night with plans to put up a 40 meter dipole at the top
of the hill before the contest. Overnight it snowed. I was unable to get up
there on Thursday. The snow finally melted, but by then it was dark. I spent
Thursday trying to configure SO2R, which I finally got working.
On Friday morning I tried installing N1MM version 10, with its new BERU feature
on Dale's computer. Half way through it told me it was unable to complete the
installation due to my Win 2K not having the latest installer. It overwrote my
version 9, which was then unusable. Not having a version 9 installer, nor an
Internet connection I was forced to drive down the hill to borrow an Internet
connection from VE7WY to re-install N1MM. I had to wait until the snow, which
again fell overnight, had melted enough so I could drive my 4x4 down the hill
without falling off the road. This overnight snow once again prevented me from
installing a 40 meter dipole at the top of the hill.
Conditions on 20 were very good, the rest of the bands not so great.
Without the 40 meter yagi and 80 meter slopers to Europe, it was a tough
struggle to work stations in that direction. Hopefully we can add some more
antennas at the top and improve this in the future
UK stations worked on 20 = 198, 15 = 1 (Tnx GM4YXI!), 40 = 7, 80 = 4.
Hard to get a really good score without working more UK stations!
G6PZ had a huge signal on the 3 bands I worked him on. Much louder than anyone
else from the UK.
I also heard DL1T in the BERU. I finally figured out it was really ZL1T, with
a very, very, slow antenna relay. I worked him on 5 bands.
The first couple of hours on 40 and 80 were not too bad. Many VK and ZLs. 76
Qs. From 1200Z to 1400Z I had a further 18 contacts. Then 20 opened and the
rate took a big jump. During the first 12 hours I had a total of 410 Qs. In
the rest of the contest I made another 96 contacts. At 0100Z, with a rate of
11 per hour I took a nap of 1 hr 45 minutes. I figure I lost maybe 15-20
contacts during this time. I probably worked most of them later anyways.
Conditions were the best I have heard for many years, although they still have
a long ways to go.
Thanks to ZK3YA and ZK3OU for taking the time to give me a couple of contacts
each during their DXpedition.
SO2R with a pair of K3s and Alpha 86s.
Great fun as always.
Lee
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