[3830] CQWW SSB CG7SZ(VA7RR) SOSB/20 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: CG7SZ
Operator(s): VA7RR
Station: VE7SZ

Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 36

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20: 3173    39      129
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 3173    39      129  Total Score = 1,252,944

Club: British Columbia DX Club

Comments:

First and foremost, many thanks to Allan, VE7SZ, for hosting me for the contest
weekend.  The station played great, as it always does.  Allan is constantly
making station improvements, and it's a real treat to be able to operate from
there.

     I missed out on WW SSB last year because of an unexpected stay at the
local hospital.  I've done very little SSB contesting in the past two years,
and for awhile it really showed.  It took about an hour to get back into the
groove, as well as to get used to the special CG7 callsign. 

     I decided to take a run at the 1.3M 20M S/B HP Canadian record, figuring
that this might be the last time for awhile with band conditions such that
there would be significant 14 MHZ activity in combination with good
propagation, to make a record possible.  My thinking is that, as we make our
way through this period of better propagation, more and more stations will
gravitate to 15 and 10, and 20 will become more of a transition band - open
perhaps around the clock, but with less time spent there by the participants
due to better conditions on the higher bands.

     As it turned out, unless another VE entrant bested the mark, no record was
broken.  In my case, I missed it by about 5%.

     I noticed this year a real decrease in JA activity.  Although the band was
open to Japan for a number of hours each day, I only logged about 150 in total.
Conditions to Europe were excellent on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, and
the Saturday afternoon USA run was just awesome - it felt at times like I was
operating from the Caribbean.

     I missed Zone 36 - never heard one.  One thing of note to report -
although I spent a fair bit of time in S&P mode, it seemed like I encountered a
lot fewer big pileups than I usually encounter in a normal DX contest.  Most of
the S&P QSOs were with garden variety countries, and many of the "jucier"
multipliers called me.  My first thought would be that the bigger pileups were
on 15 and 10, but obviously there were a lot of multipliers available on 20,
judging by the large band country totals that have been reported by other
entrants.

     Many thanks to all for the QSOs, and cu on CW for sure.

73,

Gary  VA7RR


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