[3830] RAC Winter VE6TL SO Mixed HP

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                    RAC Winter Contest

Call: VE6TL
Operator(s): VE6TL
Station: VE6TL

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: Calgary
Operating Time (hrs): 18.3

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  CW Mults  Ph Mults
----------------------------------------
  160:   23              3          
   80:  126     36      10         7
   40:  111     66       8         6
   20:  138    156       8        10
   15:  198    106       7         9
   10:   69    182       5         6
    6:           1                 1
    2:                              
----------------------------------------
Total:  665    547      41        39  Total Score = 461,120

Club: ALBERTA CLIPPERS

Comments:

That was sure a grind but, by far, my best RAC effort and outcome.  Was hoping
for 500,000 points but fell a bit short.  The toughest part was the rapid QSB
for almost the entire contest.  I could hear well for about 2-4 seconds and
then nothing for the next 2-4 seconds.  Most of the time the station would come
back and we could complete the exchange, but I probably lost 10% of my contacts
this way.  80m CW was the worst.  But on the positive side, starting out with
S7 to S9 noise across the band due to local power lines, I was able to make a
ton of contacts by using my new MFJ 1026 noise canceler.  On 80m, I used my
shunt-fed 40' tower (with TH6 tribander capacitance hat) as my main antenna and
used my expensive SteppIR BigIR vertical as my noise antenna.  The two are
separated by about 20' in the back yard and because of like polarization (both
being verticals), work very effectively to cancel local noise.  My station
monitor showed at least a 20dB lowering of the noise floor across the band. 
Until I tried this, I had almost no QSOs on 80m for over two winters (since the
noise started up).  Unfortunately, it doesn't help the QSB problem - maybe it
even makes it worse.  But at least I can hear now!  

160m was still very poor as I am using the shunt-fed tower without any
additional noise cancellation.  So I only heard BC, AB and MB (where was SK?). 
40m SSB was a bust the first evening but improved the second (last hour).  40m
CW wasn't bad but not much room to manoeuver.  20 and 15 played as expected but
10m was not quite as good as I was hoping, at least on CW.  When it was open it
was great, but this didn't last long here.  

One of the highlights was getting a call from Namibia while running on 15m. 
Also worked quite a bit of European and SA DX but only one JA (first night). 
All in all, was a really fun contest - especially being able to choose from
several open bands and modes during Saturday afternoon.  

73

Jerry VE6TL


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