[3830] WPX SSB VO1HE SOSB20 HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: VO1HE
Operator(s): VO1HE
Station: VO1HE

Class: SOSB20 HP
QTH: The Rock
Operating Time (hrs): 28

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:    0
   40:    0
   20: 1694
   15:    0
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1694  Prefixes = 776  Total Score = 3,408,192

Club: East Coast Canada Contest Club

Comments:

Sure didn't feel like 28 hours.

This was great! The most fun I've had in a contest... ever! If this is how I
can do with this set up at the bottom of the cycle... come on sunspots!!

My antennae for the low bands are no good for the phone parts of the bands and
10 and 15 have not been stellar of late so I figured I'd run the money band
only. Plus I wanted to get some sleep. I think it was a good decision on my
part but never started out that way.

Friday night, I pointed that antenna to NA and worked a bunch of W/VE and a few
South America and Central America stations before the band crapped out. I
figured that I would get up early the next morning and get a jump on the rest
of the continent into Europe and hopefully catch a few VK/ZL on the greyline
path. Man, was I wrong. I heard maybe 5 stations that I could work from 5AM to
7AM local so I took a break and went for a coffee. Came back an hour later and
still nothing. So I went to breakfast with the regular bunch of local hams for
a couple hours. Yeah, I know, this is not the way to win a contest.

Anyway, when I got home around 11AM local time, the band was open finally so I
squeezed in and went to town.

I decided to try Gerry W1VE's Live Score page and talked Gus VO1MP into doing
the same. This made the contest very different; and the most fun ever. I have
no idea why there were only 30-40 stations connected to it. I figured that I
would just be one of the also-rans in the list but found that Gus and I were
leading the pack for the section. I had N1MM and Internet Explorer situated in
such a way that I could follow the scores while operating. That made it all the
more enjoyable to beat Gus in the category that matters... Mults! And I was
single band too... all the more reason to gloat :)

My voice keyer, such that it is, was not working properly so I had to do it all
myself but my voice is not that bad today. Got another one on order. I have no
idea how some of these other guys manage to keep from blowing out their vocal
cords with the way they shout into the mic. There was one big time contest
station operating on the higher region of 20M on Sunday that was about 50kcs
wide. I could hear him from about 14300 to 14350 no problem... on the back of
the beam. When I found where he was actually operating, he was that distorted
it was painful to listen to. Many of the European stations were equally as bad,
audio-wise. I tried to use an even tone and normal talking voice and found that
I got just as good results than if I shouted at the top of my lungs.

One of the more interesting things I heard was when I took a look at the top of
the band to start S&P for mults. There was a European station calling CQ on
14349 and a US station berating him for operating outside the band edge.  I
found it interesting because, as loud as the European station was, he was not
splattering outside the band edge nearly as far as the US station was.

Some highlights of the contest were in the last couple hours when 20M went
long. I turned the beam north and got a few stations that I normally never
hear, Alaska, Yukon, Japan, Taiwan (an all-time new one) and the last 2 zones I
needed (Asiatic Russian 18 & 19), and a bunch of mid-west and western states. I
had a few nice ones in Africa call me and even got a 4S for a new one on this
band. I think I only missed Paraguay in South America. VP8NO gave me a call as
well.

Anyway, sorry if I don't share your view on how lousy the bands were. I do
agree that they weren't peak but, for my money, they were good enough to give
me a taste of how things will be. The gear worked great. I have to say that the
SteppIR is a fantastic antenna for single band operation with a minimum of
tuning required as opposed to band changes. My 30 year old SB-220 ran like a
champ. I could use a good SSB filter in the rig but I may end up getting a new
rig later on. We'll see.

I set a few goals for myself at the beginning: 

1.	1000 Qs
2.	1M points
3.	100 countries

I got them all so I can't complain. Anyway, I can't remember everything that I
was going to write about. Going to have to take notes in the next contest.
Having never done this good before and having never entered this contest
seriously, except for the M/S effort from VO1MX at VO1MP last year, I guess I did
OK. And if I can manage to keep nipping at Gus' heels, then you should see some
more nice scores out of VO1 in the coming years.

Rig:		FT-920
Amp:		SB-220
Antenna:	SteppIR 3 Element
Log:		N1MM 7.3.6
Motivator:	W1VE's Live Score web site. (Get on and try it!) (No, I'm not
getting paid :) )

73 -- Paul VO1HE


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