[3830] Commonwealth VO2AC(VE3FU) Open-24 HP

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                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest, CW

Call: VO2AC
Operator(s): VE3FU
Station: VO2WL

Class: Open-24 HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   80
   40:  107
   20:  248
   15:   36
   10:   14
------------
Total:  485  Total Score = 5,565

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

80m: Dipole
40m: 2el at 50ft
20/15/10m: TH7 at 50ft

TS-850
TenTec Centaur (400W)

Many thanks to the Hams of Western Labrador for the use of the VO2WL club
station.   Thanks especially to Nazaire VO2NS for the "down home" hospitality
and for going above and beyond with his help.

They say that bad luck comes in threes and this trip is further proof .....

1 - This contest always falls on the first weekend of the school March break. 
Unlike most families that go South for March break, we decided to head back
home to Labrador to visit my parents and do some ski-doing and ice fishing.  I
also planned a little side trip at the start to the VO2WL club station in
Labrador City, about 500km west of my parent's place in Goose Bay.

The original plan was to arrive in Labrador City on Thursday, about 36 hours
before the contest started.  Weather delays caused us to miss one of our
connections and I didn't arrive in Labrador City until 6pm Friday evening - 12
hours before the start of the contest.  After supper at Nazaire's and setting
up the station, I managed to get about 4 hours sleep before starting the
contest.   As an appreciation for the use of the club station, I bought Harbach
soft-start and soft-key mods for the club's SB-201.  I didn't get a chance to
install them so Nazaire graciously loaned me his Ten-Tec Centaur amp.

2 - About an hour into the contest I managed to over rotate the antennas and
ripped the coax apart on the both the TH7 and 2el 40m!  (I'll blame it on lack
of sleep and unfamiliarity with the station :=)  I used the 80m dipole, through
the external Dentron antenna tuner, and turned off the amp until Nazaire showed
up about a 1.5 hours later to check on me.  Nazaire and I then spent an hour at
the top of the tower, in thick, heavy, and wet snow, splicing the coax back
together.  I was off the air from 1223Z to 1338Z.

3- As many other people have commented, condx were horrible.  The CME on March
10 really tore up the bands.  I hadn't heard anything about condx until Naziare
picked me up at the airport and told me he heard very little on the bands that
day.


Six 5 band QSOs: J68PJ, J88DR, VE3EJ, VE3KZ, VP2MXF, and XL3A

Bonus Stations: VA3RAC, VE7RAC, GB5CC

103 Band Call Areas

363 QSOS in the first 12 hours, 122 in the last 12 hours.  The last QSO was at
0834!

Here's a breakdown of some of my log:

	QSOs	Raw	Dupes	Bonus	HQ
80m	80	81	1	29	1
40m	107	108	1	39	2
20m	248	253	5	45	2
15m	36	36	0	30	2
10m	14	14	0	14	1
	485	492	7	157	8 

G:	264 QSOs (including HQ and dupes) with 196 unique stations
VE:	171 QSOs (including HQ and dupes) with 75 unique stations
VK:	  1 QSO
ZL:	  4 QSOs with 3 unique stations
ZS:	  2 QSOs with 1 unique station

(Compare that with 2010 from VE3FU:

	QSOs	Raw	Dupes	Bonus	HQ
80m	120	121	1	39	4
40m	180	181	1	63	4
20m	258	262	4	60	4
15m	173	174	1	43	5
10m	5	5	0	5	0
	736	743	7	210	17 

G:	494 QSOs (including HQ and dupes) with 258 unique stations
VE:	107 QSOs (including HQ and dupes) with 44 unique stations
VK:	25  QSOs with 15 unique stations
ZL:	26  QSOs (including HQ) with 11 unique stations
ZS:	 7  QSOs with 4 unique stations
)

80m
G:	36
VE:	36
VK:	0
ZL:	0
ZS:	0

40m
G:	41
VE:	51
VK:	1
ZL:	2
ZS:	1

20m
G:	186
VE:	51
VK:	0
ZL:	1
ZS:	1

15m
G:	1
VE:	25
VK:	0
ZL:	1
ZS:	0

10m
G:	0
VE:	8
VK:	0
ZL:	1
ZS:	0

This was definitely not the year to go North :=)

Still one of my favourite contests!  Thanks for all the QSOs!


73,

Chris VE3FU / VO2AC


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