CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
-----------------------------------
80: 78 27 4 6
40: 172 41 10 11
20: 367 42 44 18
15: 108 21 16 12
10:
-----------------------------------
Total: 725 131 74 47 Total Score = 403,452
Club: Orca DX and Contest Club
Comments:
30 hours of mostly fun time. The low bands were okay, 20M was pretty good, and
15M was at least open to North and South America from out west.
Lowlights: frequency hijacking, and stations who don't know any better than to
answer a CQ with their full exchange and a greeting while other stations are
trying to get through. Lost at least one multiplier to this behavior. Ignored
the offender after that and didn't work him on that band. Just the call is all
we need to start the contact.
Highlights: the emergence of VY1CO onto the RTTY bands. Took some convincing
that he could do it with a QRP rig. He could and did, and ended up enjoying it
so much he fired up an amp, too. I hope we now have another Yukon mult
hander-outer.
Europe was only within reach on 20M, though I did manage zone 15 and 16 mults
on 40M. Wasn't too happy with 80M -- it was working nicely but not a lot of
action to be had. Mind you, I operated the first 18 hours of the contest low
power before deciding enough was enough and turned on the amp for the second
half of the weekend. Made quite a difference to rate.
Lowest score since 2007, and four of those higher-scoring years were low-power
outings. I figure three years from now we'll see things improving and scores
rising again. Just have to get from here to there through the doldrums of solar
min.
Had a lot of fun, and was surprised to see the butt-in-chair clock at 30 hours.
29 has been my max in this one over the past decade except for a 35-hour stint
in 2013 when conditions were so good I couldn't bear to step away from the
radio.
Thanks for the contacts.
-- Bud VA7ST
http://zone.va7st.ca (contester's diary podcast)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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