ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: VE4GV/6Y
Operator(s): VE4GV
Station: VE4GV/6Y
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: 6Y
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40: 443 52
20: 312 50
15: 529 55
10: 369 49
-------------------
Total: 1653 206 Total Score = 1,021,544
Club: Radiosport Manitoba
Comments:
VE4GV/6Y
This was my 37th trip to Jamaica. I’ve taken the rig to operate many times
before but and have previously been active during the ARRL DX CW contest from 6y
- vacation style. My XYL and I rented a small townhouse just north of Negril ,
which featured a very small private garden in the back. It was about 150 yards
from the beach. With such a restricted space and no trees in the area (because
it was a new development) antenna, options were limited. I decided to go with a
DX Commander expedition vertical antenna. I had never used one before, but I was
pleasantly surprised at the overall performance, considering the simplicity of
the antenna and the ease of assembly and take down.
Pre-contest operation was casual, mostly on 10 and 15. 20 m is the money band
and VE4 land but surprisingly, I ended up having the fewest QSO‘s on this
band. To put it mildly, 10 and 15 m were insane. During the weekday, before noon
local time,the band was full of DX from Europe and Middle East. I was hearing
stations on 10 m that I never had heard for probably 15 or 20 years from VE4
land….4X, A6, 9K, and many others. Checking RBN I noticed my signal was being
copied virtually all over Europe. The pileups were spectacular. I even managed
to work a little bit of FT8 until, for some reason, the laptop I was using would
not properly reload the IC 7300 USB driver.
40 m was incredible to the US in the test, with fantastic runs on the first
night. I got a good nights sleep and woke up to find 10 m completely filled with
Eu signals from 28.000 all the way up to 28.130 and higher. It was so bad that
it was difficult to find an opening in which to squeeze in my 100 watt signal.
At that time of the morning it was virtually impossible to work any of the
Americans because of the pack European bands and long propagation. After noon
time things got better to North America.
Unfortunately, I did not have antennas for 80 m in 160 m because of the
restricted space. However, I was really amazed at how well that small vertical
worked out on the higher bands. Assembly took just a few minutes and I spread
out 20 x 10 ft radials in the small garden yard.
It was very gratifying to work many many stations on all four bands, 10, 15, 20,
and 40 m
I only wish I had spent another week there.
Many thanks for all the Qs. It made the stay a real treat.
73 ROB VE4GV/6Y
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