[3830] ARRLDX CW VE7FO SOAB LP
jimsmith@shaw.ca
jimsmith@shaw.ca
Wed, 20 Feb 2002 16:15:13 -0500 (EST)
ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s):
Station:
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 24:40
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160: 1 1
80: 18 5
40: 50 18
20: 190 52
15: 178 59
10: 280 52
----------------------
Total: 717 187 = 398,871
Club:
Comments:
Seeing as how I seem to be working again there isn't time to do my usual story
so I'll try to make this brief.
Trivia question #1.
Q. What do you call an old guy who doesn't have a job?
A. A consultant
PREPARATION:
Nothing new station-wise. One thing I did some time ago was to prepare a
contest calendar for my wife for the contests I am interested in. They are
marked with stars to indicate importance. One star means that if she wants to
schedule some mutual activity during the contest period to go right ahead, no
negotiation required. Two stars means that we try to reschedule the
conflicting activity. Three stars means I'm not available unless something
really important has to be done. Well, Friday night I get an e-mail from VE6JY
on another matter in which he expressed surprise that I wasn't in the test. I
run and get the calendar, no contest scheduled for this weekend. I check in my
contest schedule and rules binder and, sure enough, I've already missed 10
hours of one of my 3 star ones. Grrr..
WHAT HAPPENED:
All times are local (PST = GMT -8).
1600 Contest starts
0159 First Q. OL7R on 20.
0208 Have switched to 40. Third Q, JA1.
0259 17 Qs and 10 mults. Mostly JA and Caribbean but also RA0UF and WH0V,
which was pretty exciting for me on 40. Switch to 80. Back and forth between
80 and 40. Made 1 Q on 160 using the 80 dipole, KL7WV. Also worked him later
on 40 & 20. Was hoping to see him on 15 & 10 for my first same guy on 6 bands,
but it was not to be. Did have HC8N on 5 bands once. Say... where were they
this time?
0504 54 Qs, including another KH0 on 40, - incredible - and 21 mults. Pretty
well all S&P. Had a moment's fright when TRLog vanished (I run it in a Windows
DOS box) and found myself looking at the virus checker. Oh yes, it's scheduled
to run at this time. Click on TR icon and back in business. Notice cw getting
very choppy and hard drive is clattering like crazy. Back to the virus
checker, realize I hadn't shut it off and do so. Sorry guys. All OK now. Off
to bed. Was tempted to stay up for sunrise but thought better of it.
1214 Back at it. Bounced around between 10, 15 and 20. Did a lot of S&P.
Conditions were great, even the weak eu stations would come back on my first or
second call which leads to pretty good S&P rates, saw 60 on the rate meter at
one point. Also did some running. Best 10 minute rate was 84/hr. Not as good
as I have done in domestic contests but hardly surprising. Had a 72 hour but
the rest were all much less.
0138 508 Qs and 119 mults. Last 20 mins on 40 and 80. Worked 8P9JA on 80
which pleased me a lot. Time to go to bed so I can get up in time for the eu
opening. First, the ritual check of 20, 15 and 10. Good grief! I hear East
coast guys working eu on 10. Don't hear any eu, though. Check 15. Wow, quite
a few eu stations. Too bad they can't hear me when I call. I have never found
the following procedure useful in the past but, what the heck, point the beam
south. Hey, they not only all got louder, so did I and they can hear me! This
was really exciting. I'm used to hearing eu on 20 early in the morning but can
rarely get their attention, no matter which way I point the beam. But this is
15, it's 2 in the morning and I'm working them long path! Never had this
experience before.
0225 515 Qs and 123 mults. Off to bed fantasizing the number of Qs I might
have had if I hadn't missed those 10 hours at the beginning. Not likely to
break 1,000 Qs now but still happy with what I did in the 17 or so hours to
date.
0835 I actually managed to get up. Earlier would have been better, but still
lots of eu activity. Started on 10. Lots of S&P.
1116 604 Qs and 162 mults. Well, the Qs weren't that great but got most of
the eu mults. As always, don't seem to quite reach the Mediterranean. Switch
to 15.
1402 663 Qs and 175 mults. Hmm... doesn't feel like yesterday, much harder
work. Tried running on all 3 bands, 10, 15 and 20. Called cq for 5 minutes at
a time with rarely any answers. Yet, doing S&P, lots of folks I called came
back the first time. I can only conclude that the ones I called picked
frequencies of least QRM which meant they could hear me while the spots I chose
to cq might have been obliterated by QRM in eu. Starting to worry that I'm not
even going to make 700 Qs. Switch to 20. Well, that was a good idea. Got
called by an extremely faint 3W2LWS. Wouldn't have got his call if I hadn't
already worked him on 10. (Having worked him on 10 really has nothing to do
with the story but, whenever you get a chance to maybe make the East coast guys
jealous, you gotta take it.)
1535 705 Qs and 185 mults. Whew, made the 700 Qs. 4 more mults would put me
over 400,000. Frantically bounce around between 10, 15 and 20.
1559 716 Qs and 186 mults. Work FG/YL2KL for 717 Qs and 187 mults. 717 x 3 x
187 = 402,237. So what's with the 398,871 TR is showing me? Oh, subtract the
6 W/K stations I worked to get rid of them. Damn. Hmmm..... 5 of the 6 were
on 10. I wonder if they own the call they were using? Well, it's cw, so they
probably do.
SUMMARY:
Last year, my first ARRL DX CW from here and probably my first contest with the
MkV, I made 287,130 points with 33 hours of op time, so this represents an
almost 40% improvement over that score with an op time of somewhat less than 25
hours. I was crowing to my family about this (they have learned that it is
best to show polite interest after a contest) when my daughter asked if
conditions were a lot better this time. Sigh!
When I write these stories I typically give the calls of any DX that got me
particularly excited. It is a common occurrence for me to receive e-mails
after posting the story which suggest that I may have misread the call. The
latest was HN9V which did, indeed, turn out to be SN9V. I must be getting
better (or maybe he is) because when I worked him this time there was no doubt
as to the call. So, here goes. These are the calls that got me really
excited. Feel free to point out where I may have goofed. 3W2LWS, 5U9C (1st
ever), A92ZE (1st), EA9EU (1st), JY9NX (1st), KG4DZ (1st), UK8OM (1st), Z35M.
Wow, 6 first ever countries. Sure hope I didn't goof. Fabulous conditions.
Log says I got 80% of DXCC in 25 hours.
This is the 2nd anniversary of my ham reincarnation after a hiatus of 30 years
or so. My long time friend, VE7IN, talked me into doing this contest at his
QTH 2 years ago as an HP multi-single. At that time we did 1236 Qs and,
interestingly, 193 countries. He probably did 3/4 of the Qs. Foolish me, 30
years on the wagon, take one harmless little walk on the wild side thinking
that I am safe now, and, I confess, I'm hooked. The ugly truth is that I have
spent thousands of dollars and countless hours of time engaging in this
obsessive behaviour. I have even, at considerable expense, built a special
sound-proof room in the basement where I can engage in this depravity without
my family being able to hear what I am up to. Piling horror upon horror, there
is even a door to the outside through which I can secretly admit other lost
souls to share in these unspeakable activities where, through the issuance of
eldritch incantations, sometimes by voice and sometimes by a peculiar, hand
manipulated, vibrating instrument found only in the tombs of that long lost
civilization of which no one dares speak (although obliquely referred to using
that ancient name, McElroy), the ethereal emanations of kindred souls can be
made manifest. Non-initiates who have stumbled on these dark ceremonies report
that, while a variety of disturbingly inexplicable sounds may fill the air, not
only do they make no sense whatsoever to the practical person, some of the
least audible of them can drive the practitioners of these esoteric arts into
fits of ecstasy rarely seen outside the walls of those institutions in which
are incarcerated those poor creatures who have neither the stability nor
fortitude required for the living of a normal life.
These pitiful stories I write are, in effect, a diary of the heart rending
details of my fall from grace. I publish them as a warning to others.
Well, this was starting to get away from me. (Any H.P Lovecraft fans out
there?) The stories are a diary, though, to which I refer from time to time.
It's fun (for me, anyway) to read through them and see the growth in station,
skills and scores. I printed the log from the VE7IN effort and, while writing
this, glanced through it. I am amazed by the number of calls which I instantly
recognize and also remember working this weekend.
I don't believe it, missed KH6 on 20. Ron, Arnie, where were you?
If Don, VE6JY, hadn't sent me that e-mail I would have missed the whole thing.
Thank you Don.
Thanks to all for making this activity both possible and so much fun.
73 de VE7FO
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