[3830] CQWW CW VE6JY(VA7RR) SOSB/20 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: VE6JY
Operator(s): VA7RR
Station: VE6JY

Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: AB
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20: 1412    35      119
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 1412    35      119  Total Score = 485,254

Club: British Columbia DX Club

Comments:

First and foremost, many thanks to Don, VE6JY, for hosting me for the WW CW once
again this year.  It's become a bit of a tradition for me to be one of Don's CW
WW guests at his superstation located about an hour north of Edmonton, AB.  I
appreciate the opportunity to compete with his well-engineered setup.

    As many have reported, conditions were disturbed, and, as a result, many of
us in the northern latitudes had our share of challenges.  My weekend was no
exception.

    Among the lowlights - a sum total of 86 QSOs on Friday night, only about
100 total JAs in the log, and only 150 EU station the entire weekend.  Almost
all of my Europeans were worked between 10Z and 14Z during hours of darkness. 
Both mornings, as sunrise occurred, the Zone 5 guys appeared, and the Europeans
disappeared.   Also, I found a LOT of mults while S&Ping that I called but could
not work, in many cases because the propagation was one way. I could list them
out, but it wouldn't really matter.  Probably the most frustrating was JT - I
called three different JT stations, and none could hear me - had what I thought
was a pretty good shot at JT1CO, but I guess he could not copy me through the
European QRM. 

    Among the highlights, there were stations coming in from the north, for
very short periods of time, just about all night on both nights.  Typically, I
would tune the band and hear nothing, say, for 10 or 15 minutes, then, all of a
sudden, there would be weak signals, from UA0A, UA9, UN7 or Zone 21, for
example.  If they had a "hollow" sound, I learned that they likely would not
hear me when I called.  On the other hand, if the conditions shifted so that
the sound was "full," even though weak, then I had a pretty good chance of
logging the QSO.  The usual case was that I normally had about a 1-3 minute
window when the sigs would have this full, solid quality. So the challenge was
to work as many as possible before the band shifted and the stations
disappeared.  It was actually quite interesting and fun, although somewhat
frustrating when the band dropped out in mid-QSO before a new mult could be
logged.

   Had some transceiver relay issues, but they fortunately occurred at
opportune times, so the down time to replace radios hurt very little.

   Thanks to everyone for the QSOs!  CU in 2008!

73,

Gary  VA7RR


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