[3830] RAC Winter VA7ST SO CW HP

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                    RAC Winter Contest

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

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  CW Mults  Ph Mults
----------------------------------------
  160:   15              2          
   80:  154             10          
   40:  295             11          
   20:  316             10          
   15:  106              5          
   10:    1              0          
    6:                              
    2:                              
----------------------------------------
Total:  887     0       38         0  Total Score = 139,688

Club: British Columbia DX Club

Comments:

Gear:
FT-2000 + N1MM Logger + SB221 amplifier
1 x  3-el Steppir at 47' 
1 x  40M Steppir dipole at 47'
2 x  80M elevated verticals
1 x 160M inverted-L
1 x 260' Beverage (East-West). Priceless.

2009: SFI = 84    A = 2    K = 0
2008: SFI = 69    A = 1    K = 1

What a fantastic start to a two-week holiday! I was fully revved up for this
test. For several days I had visions of sugarplums (sunspots) dancing in my
head (on spaceweather.org), planning my strategy in more detail than usual,
plotting a clever early escape on a festive final Friday at work, and knowing I
could catch up on sleep all I want in the next few days. 

Everything worked like a dream. Rates were good, mults were actually there, the
sun didn't slam us. But now I pay the price: I have just learned of a 4 a.m.
road-trip to an out-of-town hockey game Sunday morning. I drew the short straw
so my lovely but crafty XYL says home with the other kid for his home game at
7:30 a.m.

Compared to recent weeks, 84 is a highly elevated flux, and it was nice to get
a bit of a spike after another prolonged dry spell sunspot-wise (SSN hit 38
this week and settled down to 20 for Friday and Saturday, but it was 0 for the
previous few weeks). Fortunately, a CME arrival expected Saturday didn't seem
to happen as the A and K never changed, though something kept 15M and 10M from
acting like SFI=84. 15M was pretty good even east-west, but 10M was dead with
only K7RL worked after a couple of attempts moving up there Saturday
afternoon.

Went in thinking I'd like to advance my previous best, which was 96,060 in
2006. Also wanted to see if I could get closer to the big boys on multipliers
as I keep hovering around the 30 mark and never had more than 32 (back in 2005
running low power -- go figure).

Well, I surprised myself. Felt like I stayed in the chair more than usual, and
didn't notice any real droughts rate-wise, alertness-wise, or otherwise-wise.
Taking a nap from 0730z to 1030z (11:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.), and then sticking
to the rig till 1400z (6 a.m.) was a good idea. Despite low rates, the activity
was sustained and helped rack up some good totals on 80M. Alas, 160M wasn't very
good for me and, although it has never been a big contributor in this one, sure
would have been nice to fill in a few more 160M mult boxes.

Slept for two hours after the wee-hours stint, and was back on 20M by 1620z and
didn't get out of the chair until the bitter end. (Well, other than one foray
upstairs to get a drink and, while I was in the kitchen, also pilfer chocolates
from the XYL's gift pile (she teaches first grade, so there is a generous supply
of gingerbread, chocolates and cute hand-drawn Christmas cards with notes I
can't quite decipher).

Biggest surprises this year: 40M in the afternoon Saturday, and overall band
performance.

Moved to 40M at 2 p.m. 2200z but things were slow so I went back to 20M to bump
Qs there over 300. Returned to 40M at 2300z for the end and ran 85 Qs in that
final clock-hour, including adding PEI and hitting 11 mults on a band for the
first time.

Looks like there weren't many more than 70 CW ops in Canada, given the ceiling
I saw... as I topped 50 or so on a band they got pretty scarce. VE8EV was
lounging around on a J68 beach (THAT's a Christmas holiday!) but he had a keyer
with him. Luckily, VE8RAC was on handing out NT 20-pointers. Must thank Gary
VE1RGB for our Qs -- a long hop for 100w on a tough 80M band at the time.

I looked at previous years and estimated best-case Q and mult targets by band,
and I kept an eye on those throughout the test. Was surprisingly close to
predictions on 80M and 15M, but 160M and 20M didn't pay out as I'd hoped.

       TARGET                    ACTUAL
        Qs  Ms  VE   DX   Pts     Qs  Ms  VE   DX   Pts  
160M    50   5  25   25   300     15   2   9    6   112  Bad
 80M   150   8  50  100   700    154  10  56   98   786  Good
 40M   250   9  70  180  1060    295  11  64  231  1122  Good
 20M   350  10 120  230  1640    316  10  69  247  1214  OK
 15M   120   5  25   95   440    106   5  26   80   440  Good
 10M    30   2  10   20   140      1   0   0    1     2  Bad

Rate    48 Q/hour for 20 hours   49 Q/hour for 18 hours     

Year-over-year shows the marked improvement this year:

       QSOs   Pts   Sec    Score
2009:  887     38  3676  139,688  18 hrs HP
2008:  453     29  1912   55,448   9 hrs HP
2007:  500     30  2184   65,520  16 hrs HP
2006:  682     30  3202   96,060  16 hrs HP
2005:  424     32  2202   70,464  11 hrs LP

Thanks for the contacts. All the very best of the season to everyone! See you
in Stew Perry TBDC and RTTY Roundup. 

-- Bud VA7ST
http://www3.telus.net/va7st


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