[3830] CQWW SSB VA7ST SOAB HP

webform at b41h.net webform at b41h.net
Sun Oct 25 23:20:21 PDT 2009


                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

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

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 29

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    3     2        2
   80:   62     6        5
   40:  121    11       14
   20:  605    26       71
   15:  239    16       38
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 1030    61      130  Total Score = 434,525

Club: British Columbia DX Club

Comments:

* FT-2000 + SB221 (SO1R, unassisted)
* N1MM Logger (didn't bother with the DVK much this time out)
* 3 ele. Steppir @ 47' (27' until Saturday morning 1500z)
* 40M Steppir dipole @ 47'
* 2 x 80M verticals
* 160M Inverted-L (75' high/60' horizontal)

2009 opening bell -- SFI=74 A=17 K= 4 (A fell to 8 and SFI was 76 by the end)
2008 opening bell -- SFI=68 A= 1 K= 0
2007 opening bell -- SFI=67 A=14 K= 4

Crazy conditions across the whole 48 hours. Worst was 80M, but 40M wasn't much
better from here. The M/2 guys at VE7SZ a couple hundred miles away had a great
outing on the low bands, with almost 1,000 Qs on 80M! I must be stone deaf, as I
only worked 62 :)

After hovering around 70 this week, flux rose to 76 Friday evening on the
strength of Group 1029, with a SSN of 30 on Friday and 28 by Sunday evening.
That was generally good for 20M and 15M, but a coronal hole's howling solar
wind well above 400 km/s and strong aurora combined to make the lower bands
very rough here. Bz went deep minus for a big chunk of Saturday.

I could hear European sigs on 40M both evenings, but couldn't work much from
anywhere. Despite a major spike in solar wind speed at the time, Saturday
evening was better than Friday evening for 40M action, due in part to calm
weather here allowing some extra dipole height.

80M was a major disappointment. Worked mostly West coast and little else for
the second weekend in a row. Fell short of last year's outing by 7 zones and 14
countries, which hurt plenty. I kept expecting to see a tumbleweed roll across
the band.

160M was very dead -- managed to work close-in zones 3 and 4, and AB and W7 for
country mults, but nothing else heard.

The best story was 15M, which provided some real surprises, including the
legendary Scandinavian Express on Saturday afternoon with several OH, LA and
SMs calling in over the pole with big signals fluttering like they were talking
through a fan. The only other long DX I worked on 15M was on Sunday around noon
when EA, CN and a few more OHs were really loud here. Finished up with 11 more
countries and a couple more zones than last year on 15M.

20M was not a pleasant place to be. Not only was there no elbow room, it was
hard to hear anybody less than S9 under the splatter. Add powerline noise and
it was QRM soup.

The 20M Eu openings both mornings were pretty strong, building after 1500z, but
tough to work guys through the tiny holes they had in the clutter. I have to go
over the pole for Eu and didn't have quite the QRM wall that guys in the
midwest must have to battle. But that also requires Eu to point a little off
the beaten trail to hear me, so it's a saw-off. Definitely one-way propagation
(from there to here) early in the openings, easing by 1700z or so.

Had some good times working JAs and a few BYs on 20M late in the afternoons and
early evenings. Big highight: finding a loud ZS4U low on 20M for a double mult
-- in the noon hour, as usual. Also was heartened to work N6DQ/C6A. Was
honoured to work N4EE, the C6APR memorial station, on 40m and 20M. I thought of
the C6APR lads often this weekend. A tragic loss for four families and the
worldwide radiosport community.

Took plenty of breaks but also put in some longer than usual stints in the
chair. Planned for 36 hours; ended up with just under 29 hours on.

Couldn't take the local line noise on 20M on Sunday so took a break after 15M
was worked over around 2000z, napped and got up for the final hour on 20M. Some
good rate as the band folded in the East but not quite steady traffic, so just
126 stations to put me over my 1,000 QSO target for the weekend. Local line
noise was horrendous for much of that hour, and the usually effective 1026
noise canceler was not able to knock it down for some reason. 

Sorry to the folks I couldn't pull through. I probably only heard the guys who
had big power or antennas pointed at me and JA, but not weaker signals or
fellows looking for a fast hit off the backs and sides of beams. Fortunately,
rain set in with 20 minutes to go and I could hear again for the final dash. 

Didn't land zone 25 on 15M although I heard guys working JAs there. I was happy
anyway, having gathered zones 14, 15 and 20 over the pole earlier in the day.

Livescores.org was great fun to watch, with me and Ed VE4EAR in the HP
Unassisted list. We were neck and neck until Ed figured out his new radio by
Saturday morning and away he went. He had far more 15M and 40M mults than I
could find from a thousand miles further west of balmy Manitoba. The score
server crashed (timeout error) every few minutes, so it wasn't quite the
entertainment value this time, but still fun to watch when it was alive.

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

Year-over-year comparison:

        Qs    Zn   Cty   Score
2009: 1030    61   130   434,525
2008: 1080    73   154   559,101
2007:  349    54    97   123,367

Band comparison:

160M     QSOs  Zones  DXCC
2009        3      2     2
2008       14      2     3

 80M     
2009       62      6     5
2008      149     13    19

 40M     
2009      121     11    14
2008       54     18    32

 20M     
2009      605     26    71
2008      614     27    74

 15M     
2009      239     16    38
2008      249     13    27


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