[3830] CQWW CW VE9AA SOAB Classic HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: VE9AA
Operator(s): VE9AA
Station: VE9AA

Class: SOAB Classic HP
QTH: nb,5
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   11     5        7
   80:  112    14       45
   40:  539    21       66
   20:  663    26       70
   15:  525    26       81
   10:  937    23       89
------------------------------
Total: 2787   115      358  Total Score = 3,578,718

Club: Maritime Contest Club

Comments:

VE9AA unplugged.  24 hours of  blissful no spot all band action.

Speaking off all band.  I searched back into the past and could see not an
instance of me ~ever~ doing a SOAB effort in CQWW (SSB or CW) assisted or not
in 36 yrs!

I like the single band affairs.  I had really no idea what I was doing as I
never do this all band thingy.  Too lazy to rotate the band switches and
dials.

OK, where to start?

I looked at some reasonable scores from the classic category from last year
(VC2R and TM6X come to mind) and decided I would scribble down some goals,
however lofty they might seem and attempt to attain them.  Seeing as how I am
quite unexperienced at this whole band switch fiddling, I would just wing it
and sleep when I got tired or rate went into the dumper…..

On my scrap paper I have this written down:

2000Q’s, 2M pts, 100 zones and 300DXCC’s.  As a bonus, if I could place in
the top ten in Canada I would consider it icing on the cake.  Top ten in NA or
even zone 5 and I would be simply  elated.  

So this was no packet, no internet and barely any antennas.  Amp was  400-600w
out depending on the band and temperment due to flakey SWR.
Antennas were:
10m-used the A3S @ only 24’ - 90% of the time, along with a CW-160 OCF dple @
30’ abt 10% of the time.
15m HF9V (2 raised radials per band)…flakey 15m wire swoops SWR constantly.
20m 90% HF9V or 10%  CW-160
40m HF9V 100% of the time.
80m wiggly wire literally tossed up over a leaning tree. About 35’ up and
35’ fallen down on the far side, literally into a ravine.  Worm warmer.  6
above gnd radials.
160m different excuse for a wire, only longer but apex @ 35’.  Radials are a
mish mash (all buried) and laying under the white stuff we tend to get here
from Nov through May.
So, I seemed to have made my numerical goals.  Where that takes me is anyones
guess as I have no idea how anyone did yet.  Might be in the bottom 10 NA for
all I know.

I do know I had a lot of fun !!! yeah buddy!

  I cranked the keyer up to 35wpm and left it there.  It’s beyond my ragchew
QSO speed limit, and 3-4wpm above my normal comfort zone but only had a few
send to me @ 45-50wpm so it seemed to work out alright for a contest where the
exchange is usually known.  I wouldn’t do 35wpm in the ARRL SS however. 
Yikes !

Highlights were VU4KV calling me.  Unreal ! Thanks!

Also a VR2, BA4 and S0S all calling in….the last one a slim? No idea.  Log
first, worry later.

Thanks to the many other callers too numerous to mention.  I spent most of my
time running with brief excursions every hour or so trolling for dbl mults or
new countries.  Spent way too much time on day one doing this I think.

I have something to say about ID-ing……argh… It kills me to complain about
this.
(but I feel I must)

  Being unplugged means that waiting to hear the DX send their callsigns can be
downright painful and I wasted precious time sitting in a pileup and even
working the station to try and get a callsign. (I already knew the zone would
be a dble mult)  More than once I was tempted to say to heck with it, connect
to some telnet node and get plugged back in, but the idiots would win.  Idiots
in this case were guys going 5+ minutes w/o signing.(I never waited more than
5)….most seemed to be expedition types.  I will just say NONE were in the
Caribbean.  The zone 8/9 guys were awesome at sending their calls.  Take from
that what you may and read between the lines.

I even went so far as to send 5NN 5 CL? And never got one reply…NEVER !
One pileup I had had enough and after working the DX, I sent “CL CL” and of
course, yes, you guessed it, the DX sent “CL 5NN 38”  ARGH !

So I learned my lesson after 3 or 4 of these self riteous idiots wasted my
time.  If no call in ~1 minutes, I passed them by after that, dbl mult or not. 
No sense working a dbl mult if I could be working 25 calls up the band
somewhere..

Believe it or not, I don’t think there is one VK or ZL in my log.  Quite a
change from my 10m single band efforts which always have several.

All in all, had a lot of fun.  Hope I did well.
Mike VE9AA IC7410, N1MM+ and the previously mentioned wires and whatnot for
radiating equipment.
(and yes, I send my call after every QSO--not that I am some rare dbl mult, but
still)


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