WAE DX Contest, CW
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
80:
40: 7 0 18
20: 144 114 62
15: 33 70 24
10:
-------------------------
Total: 184 184 104 Total Score = 38,272
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
* FT-2000
* 3 element SteppIR at 47' (tower nested at 27' Friday night)
* SteppIR 40M dipole at 47'
2010 -- SFI=85, A= 3 K=1
2009 -- SFI=67, A= 8 K=2
2008 -- SFI=66, A=19 K=2
For added fun, I left the amplifier off this weekend and still managed a
personal best. Polar-path openings on 15M on Saturday morning and Sunday
afternoon helped obliterate the past three years of high-power attempts, and
put me well beyond the 31,700 points of my previous best in 2006 (also
low-power).
Conditions were good enough to keep me in the chair for a total of 9 hours this
year -- had a hard time doing that over the past three years (2, 5 and 5 hours
respectively).
Friday night was great to Europe on 20M, but at no time was EU very easy to
work on 40M. Didn't have the tower cranked up on Friday night, so didn't bother
trying to work Europe with the SteppIR dipole at only 27'.
I cranked up the tower early Saturday morning. The rather stable recent flux of
85 provided some Europeans on 15M for about an hour at 1700z but a couple of
C-class flares took out the band and it was gone for the rest of the day.
Saturday night, with the dipole at 47', I was able to work a handful of
Europeans on 40M -- just 7, but in 6 countries for 18 valuable multipliers. A
recently overhauled 40M twin vertical array that has never worked to Europe
still doesn't do the job. On A-B testing, it was down a couple of S-units from
the dipole, so next up is a 2-element quad (or maybe inverted-V yagi) high in
the pines, dedicated to Europe. I don't want to go another contest season
without a bit of gain to access Europe on that key band. A strategically
unstructured vacation this week should accommodate that little project.
Went to 15M again on Sunday morning at 1700z, but nothing heard. Back to 20M.
Calling on 20M, RU1A checked in a couple of times asking me to try 15M but it
never worked out. The band was stone dead all morning.
After a lunch break Sunday afternoon, I thought I'd check 15M again and flipped
the bandswitch at 2030z to hear LZ8E very loud even before retuning the SteppIR.
To my surprise, LZ8E asked for QTCs and it was smooth sailing. The band wasn't
just open, it was actually rather strong and compared to the cacophony of QRM
and QRN on 20M there was no noise at all.
Over the next 30 minutes or so I worked another 31 stations and handed off a
total of 70 QTCs on 15M, adding 12 countries (24 mults) to the tally. Wish it
had lasted longer, but the band died away just a few minutes after 2100z.
Managed to hand off every available QTC for a change, with a couple of short
batches to strong DL stations on 20M in my final hour.
Thanks for the contacts over the pole! Looks like NAQP SSB is up next weekend,
so I'll have the beam aimed east and southeast from BC. See you there.
-- Bud VA7ST
http://www3.telus.net/va7st
Year Qs Mults Score (claimed)
2010: 184 104 38,272 9 hrs
2009: 50 42 4,200 HP 2 hrs
2008 71 57 7,695 HP 5 hrs
2007: 124 62 15,128 HP 5 hrs
2006: 144 112 31,696 11 hrs
2005: 71 52 7,124 4 hrs
2004: 102 76 15,276 5 hrs
2003: 58 18 1,944 8 hrs
2002: 41 38 1,520 -
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
|