[3830] WPX SSB VE7FO M/M HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO, VA7IRL
Station: VE7FO

Class: M/M HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 31

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:   49
   40:   63
   20:  193
   15:  174
   10:  222
------------
Total:  701  Prefixes = 366  Total Score = 659,352

Club: British Columbia DX Club

Comments:

Readers of my ARRL DX SSB story may remember that, instead of going all out on
my own, I decided to do a M/S and use it for introducing HF contesting to VHFers
in a club I belong to.  Only had one taker but he had a ball.  Well, decided to
do the same M/S thing for WPX SSB.  Still had only one taker, the same one.

While cndx were pretty poor Fri night I did manage 287 Qs and 181 mults before
going to bed at about 0230 PST.  Things improved on Sat but kept falling asleep
around 1500 local so went and slept for 3 hours.  Pretty well all S&P as I
wanted to give the trainee some experience running.  Figured that way he'd be
fresh meat when he got here.  To bed at 2300 local so I can get up for the Eu
opening at dawn.  461 Qs and 280 mults.  Not that great but maxing the score
isn't the objective this time.

0430 local - can't sleep so turn on the rig to see what's happening.  Not much. 
No JAs on 40, a few Ws on 20.  

0700 local - trainee arrives.  So does Europe.  Quickly get him in the chair and
off he goes, S&P.  Was sure fun watching him bang off those Eus and pointing to
the country names displayed by TR as he worked them.  Too bad there were only
about 30 of them.  One particularly memorable one was A61AJ.

1253 local - 549 Qs, 276 mults.  Time to introduce him to the joys of running. 
Provided some brief explanation including auto CQ and logging then sat down to
(ahem) show him how it's done.  To my surprise and pleasure, it wasn't long at
all until I had the short term rate up to 180.  At this time I pointed to the
rate meter, got out of the chair and sat him down.  He did very well for a first
time, including getting the short term meter up to 102 for a little while.

1430 local - 665 Qs, 358 mults.  I think it was somewhere around this time that
he had to leave.  I carried on figuring that maybe I could make 800 Qs.  Rate
started to fall off really badly so bounced around between 10, 15 and 20 trying
to get something going.

1600 local - 701 Qs, 366 mults.  Say, isn't there something in the rules having
to do with 10 minutes or something?  Check the rules, check the log.  Hey, guess
what, I just did my first multi-multi!  What a joke, 1 MkV, 2 guys, 200 watts
(50 on 15), 1 tribander, 2 dipoles.  

Boy, KC1XX, W3LPL et al are sure going to be shaking in their boots when they
see VE7FO showing up in their category in the score listings!  Say, maybe I can
get them on a technicality.  The multi-multi rules clearly state that, "Maximum
power allowed is 1500W TOTAL output power."  Not max 1500W per transmitter,
1500W total.  Now, total means that you are adding things up, in this case,
watts.  So, if the big guys are running 2 or more 1 kW rigs their total power
output at times is surely going to be more than 1500W.  Boy, we could be the
only multi-multi that operated within the rules and should, therefore, be at the
top of the list!  Maybe I could get Hashafisti Scratchi to plead our case with
Hon. Ed!  (Old timer's joke referring to a CQ columnist from a few decades
ago.)

Relax, guys, not serious here.


A little contest humour:

Heard a guy Giving a JA his number in what I took to be Japanese.  The response
was, "Huh?  What?  Pardon?  Again?"  Well, maybe not all of those, but you get
the idea.

Worked AE9B and tried to say "Thanks, Tom," but it came out, "Thanks, Dave." 
The op said, "How did you know it's Dave?"  Best I could do was lamely say, "Oh,
I get around."  I bet he's still wondering how I "knew."

Best call sign pun:  The YL signing AG1RL.  Later heard an OM signing the same
call.  Tried to work him so I could ask, "How come you're signing with a girl
call?", but didn't get him.  Probably just as well.

As mentioned, can only get about 50W out on 15 due to MkV problem.  On 15 I turn
the RF Power knob down until the output drops off a little, the hope being that
by doing that I won't be overdriving anything.  Was working 15 and decided to
switch to 20.  Worked C5P, which was pretty exciting in itself, but even more so
when I realized we hadn't adjusted the MkV power after the band change and had
worked him with 50W.

5 banders
AE9B, K0DU, KD9ST, NO5W, NW4V, VE7SV

Last year 136 JA calls, 52 JA mults
This year  29 JA calls, 18 JA mults 

My trainee informs me his cw is getting up there.  I told him that when he hits
15 wpm I'll loan him an old HQ180 Rx.  Better get it out and make sure it works
'cuz it won't be long.


See you in WPX CW, solo this time.

73 de Jim Smith	VE7FO


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