[3830] Commonwealth VE3KZ Open-12 HP

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                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest, CW

Call: VE3KZ
Operator(s): VE3KZ
Station: VE3KZ

Class: Open-12 HP
QTH: Milton, ON
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   39
   40:   51
   20:   85
   15:  172
   10:   18
------------
Total:  365  Total Score = 4,745

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

Wasn't that a propagation disaster! I had planned out an entry in the BERU as
Open section-12 hours (in light of advancing age, etc). Taking my log from last
year, which was almost 21 hours, I calculated how many points were earned in
each clock hour of that contest. Last year's score was 6520 points for 468
QSO's. The highest 12 hours of these 21 totaled 5125 points. Note that this was
higher than the high Open-12hour score of 4925 by 5H3EE that earned him the
VP8GQ Trophy for the 12 hour category. I decided to give it a try and decided
to operate only during those selected hours this year. The schedule was as
follows:
10z-17z
19z-23z
06z-07z
In implementing the plan I made only minor deviations, mostly as anti-noise
therapy between sessions. I split the first session in two after a very grim
opening hour on 80/40. I introduced two short sessions in the open evening
hours to make up for the hour lost between 11z and 12z.

A number of contestants have commented on the noise that seemed to be
associated with the unsettled conditions. In addition to that, I was dealing
with a beautiful power leak that was directly NE from here. It seemed more of a
problem on 15 and 20 where I could figure where it was coming from. On 10 even
the few Europeans did quite nicely with the antenna S and SE. The wire antennas
on 40 and 80 are always noisy and that new power leak may or may not have been a
factor. For some reason the beverage to Europe was very noisy after working well
all week. My best S/N on 80 was when using the 40m vertical for receive! Anyone
listening to me early Sunday morning on 80 may have noticed some timing delays
while I feverishly switched antennas. My apologies to the G's that endured this
circus!
Conditions definitely deteriorated east to west. I can only imagine what it was
like to operate farther west. Thanks for being on! I'm happy with my score and I
want to congratulate VE1OP and VO1TA on their Open-12 hour claimed scores. There
may be other high scores out there as well.
Congratulations to the Canadian teams. Good luck to all of you!

73 Bob VE3KZ


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