ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: VY1AAA
Operator(s): W1NN VY1JA
Station: VY1JA
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: NT
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 8
40: 84
20: 216
15: 27
10:
------------
Total: 335 Sections = 73 Total Score = 48,910
Club:
Comments:
VY1AAA is the newly-issued call sign of the Yukon CanAm Contest Club (YCACC),
established by J Allen, VY1JA, and Gerry Hull, W1VE and hosted at the QTH of
VY1JA. The purpose of the club is to support J to make the Yukon Territory
multiplier available in the major contests, mainly via remote operation. The
members include a small number of ops interested in remote contesting and in
supporting this effort.
This was the second time I’ve operated VY1JA’s station via remote. My
first experience was in the ARRL CW contest earlier this year when, operating
from my apartment in Tokyo, I made 580 contacts using low power and J’s
vertical antennas. I thought this was a really poor showing and blamed it on
the rather awkward and primitive remote software setup we were using. I
expected this time would be a lot better since we had a new K3S at J’s place
(thanks to many generous donations by contesters to a fund set up by W1VE to
help VY1JA upgrade his station), a new K3/0 Mini at my place, and an amp for
HP. Knowing how popular and needed the NT mult is, I hoped to put at least
1,000 contacts in the log and enjoy some fun pileups all weekend. Little did I
know that I would only reach half of my February QSO total. I was not counting
on something called a coronal mass ejection (CME).
At first I did not pay much attention to the news that a CME was forecast to
make a “glancing blow” on Earth on November 7. I was too busy working with
J and Gerry, the YCACC’s remote technology guru, to get the remote working
properly. Then Friday night J sent some pictures of the aurora that was
visible from his QTH in Whitehorse and it began to sink in that I might not
have those pileups I had been hoping for. Another issue was J’s antenna
situation. He had been working for weeks to improve his antennas, but he was
mostly working by himself and the WX was not cooperating, so none of J’s new
antennas would be available (hopefully they will be ready by SS Phone). This
double whammy would make for a frustrating and slow weekend.
The system we worked out was that I would do most of the operating from Ohio
and J would change and tune the antennas and tune the amp whenever I wanted to
change bands. He also kept an eye on the other bands to alert me if I needed
to change. We communicated with a message board on a program called TeamViewer
so we had instant written communications. Due to getting J’s help with the
equipment, I entered us in the multi-op category. When I tired out late
Saturday night, I passed the log to J and he worked 8 stations on 80 meters and
passed the log back to me. J’s support throughout the weekend was super. And
I should say that the remote equipment worked extremely well. We did have one
sudden disconnection when I was in the middle of one my few runs and it took
about 5-10 minutes before we could get our connection back. I was right in the
middle of a contact with a K1 (K1JR ?) and was not able to complete the contact.
I’m really sorry about that!
The results above pretty much tell the story. We made 335 contacts and helped
a few to get the NT multiplier, but we were very disappointed that we could not
help a lot more ops to get their sweeps. Win-Test doesn’t tell me how many
CQ’s I made, but it had to be a couple thousand. I called CQ during those
hours when one would normally expect the bands to be open, hoping that somehow
conditions would change. There were lots of hours with only one or two
contacts. I dis some S&P but very few stations could hear me.
Occasionally the band would open a little and allow some half-decent runs.
After the first three hours I had 19 QSOs in the log. Then the 0000 hour shot
up to 33, declined to 9 the next hour, and then at 0200Z on 40 Saturday night I
had my best hour of 61. Unfortunately, this did not continue and the rate fell
off to 20 and then to just a single contact. After a painful Saturday night
and Sunday morning, the best rates of the second day (49 and 37) were achieved
in the 1700Z and 1800Z hours. Most disappointing were the last two hours of
the contest. Despite continuous CQing on 40, I was able to make only two QSOs
during this time (the previous day had yielded 81 contacts during this period.
40 really tanked on day two.)
I had quite a surprise when I worked KL7RA at 1236Z. His QSO number was 634
vs. my number 153. His station in Kenai is at the exact same north latitude as
VY1JA but he is 800 miles to the west and apparently outside the worst of the
aurora halo (if that’s the right term). Still, I suspect that he may have
seen some impact from the CME because quite a few of my friends in Ohio said
they never heard or worked KL7.
Overall, we missed these sections: NH, RI, SFL, PR, QC, ONE, GTA, MB, AB and
NL.
Although I have never set foot in J’s town of Whitehorse, I have flown right
over it dozens of times on my way to Japan, so I feel some small connection to
the place. Here’s a little information I dug up on it.
Whitehorse is a small town (population below 30,000) in the southern part of
the Yukon Territory (YT). YT borders Alaska to the west, Northwest Territories
to the east, and British Columbia about 50 miles to the south. The border
between YT and BC runs right along the 60th parallel. Although BC is just a
few dozen miles away, Vancouver itself is over 800 air miles away and a lot
further by road. The town of Whitehorse sits in a valley through which runs
the Yukon River, which flows to the north, then turns west and runs all the way
across Alaska to dump into the Bering Sea across from Russia. Whitehorse is a
stop on the Alaska Highway and is around 640 meters above sea level. VY1JA is
not quite in the Arctic Circle (which begins at 66 degrees north latitude) but
near the summer solstice he will have 20 hours of sunshine (and of course in
the depth of winter only four hours of daylight).
I would like to thank J for all his help and support in this contest and for
his efforts to keep VY1 active in and outside of contests. Thanks also to
Gerry, W1VE, for his generosity in helping all of us get all these remote wires
connected in the right way and the software settings correct. I don’t know
what we’d do without him.
And thanks to everyone for the contacts. The YCACC members are hoping to make
Yukon available in future Sweepstakes and other contests.
73, Hal W1NN
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