[3830] CQ160 SSB VE3MGY Single Op LP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB

Call: VE3MGY
Operator(s): VE3MGY
Station: VE3MGY

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: ONTARIO
Operating Time (hrs): 26.0

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 550  State/Prov = 53  Countries = 5  Total Score = 152,830

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

What an interesting weekend, to say the least. Definitely an eye opener. It was
my first time, ever, in the CQ160 SSB, running more than 4.5 watts. What a
revelation it was!! First of all, I held my run frequency for over 7 hours on
Friday and only lost it when, in the wee hours of Saturday morning, I ran
upstairs for 5 minutes to make a coffee - but thats life - and contesting. As
well I was asked more than once, politely I might add, to move up/dn a bit at
times as I was wiping out adjacent stations within 1 Khz of myself when I was
finding a new run frequency - of course I politely agreed and quickly moved. 

Previously I had RX everyone on my Inverted L. Now I see why. I was not
attracting the really weak TX stations with 4.5 watts. They were probably the
stations with less than ideal TX and RX antennas, not having the proper antennas
for 160M, confined QTH, very low power, local EMI, etc etc. Because of this I
had  never really used my beverages alot for domestic contacts but there were
close to 200 stations that were only copiable on the beverages this weekend
because they were so weak and QRN wasn't that bad, overall. Speaking of QRN, it
was about S5 - S6 on the Inverted L all Friday night [ S0 - S1 on the beverages
]  but spiked to 59+10 on the Inverted L Saturday night around 0500Z and stayed
that way until it dropped back to S7 at 0900Z Sunday morning. Sunday night it
was down to S4 on the Inverted L - too late!

But heres the kicker - I worked 5 more W/VE Mults this year than last - which is
to be expected, but [ running over 20 times more power ] I worked only 5 DX this
year with 100W compared to 7 DX last year with 4.5 watts??!! I did find
propagation was somewhat less than ideal this year and Europe and South America
were weaker than normal here. SR / SS propagation peaks were not as dramatic as
they should have been either. BUT when Puerto Rico calls you on your run
frequency saying 1: " your 59+20 in Puerto Rico " and 2: " you can't be QRP this
year!! " it all seems worth while. Overall it was a very enjoyable weekend and I
can only wonder what I could have done if I had of had last years condx with
this years power! I guess we all wonder that one.....

73 
Brian
VE3MGY


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