[3830] Rus RTTY VA7ST SOAB LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    Russian RTTY WW Contest

Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 8

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   Mults
-------------------------
   80:   14    70     2
   40:   32   165     3
   20:  155   900    29
   15:                 
   10:                 
-------------------------
Total:  201  1135    34  Total Score = 38,590

Club: 

Comments:

Went in with a modest goal of 200 Qs and 50 mults. Didn't even come close in
mults -- worked only 7 Russian stations, all on 20M, and 6 of those were during
a midnight opening that was pretty weak and required many fills.

It took a long five minutes to work #200 with half an hour to go, and 201
shortly after. There just wasn't much left on 20M in the closing hours.

LU4DX and CO2IZ gave nice mults in the last hour. Was nothing from over the
pole Sunday morning or afternoon, except SI9AM, who somehow heard one of my CQs
at 30 degrees. At 23:05 I turned to Japan and started calling. No response after
several minutes. Finally found JA6GCE calling up the band for my only JA
contact. 

In the second hour Friday afternoon/evening, someone told me my signal was bad
-- describing a hum and freely (but incorrectly) diagnosing that I was
overdriving my transmitter. Took more than an hour checking everything. Turns
out the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) was causing quite a hum. I realized
how bad it was even in my headphones on receive. Bypassed the unit, and the hum
was gone. No overdriving at this end, but the signal needed cleaning. Done.
Hope I sounded better after the first couple of hours of the contest.

Haven't yet decided whether the new 40M rotatable dipole on the tower is a
keeper -- 40M wasn't in very good shape, again. Did manage to get the 40M
inverted-V 2-element beam back up at about 80', and an 80M inverted-V at the
same height. Thought 80M was reasonably good Friday night to the east coast,
but only worked 14 stations, so guess activity wasn't there.

Missed the 2005 contests (prepping for tower base pour), and in 2004 only
managed 24 Qs, 3 mults and 3,240 points. This weekend was a big improvement
score-wise, and it'll get a lot better from here on out. 

http://www3.telus.net/va7st/


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