[3830] SS SSB VE4VT SO Unlimited HP

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ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: VE4VT
Operator(s): VE4VT
Station: VE4VT

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 23:56
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  176
   40:  504
   20:  666
   15:   10
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1356  Sections = 81  Total Score = 219,672

Club: Radiosport Manitoba

Comments:

A dismal outing that seems to match the declining sunspot cycle. Missed PR and
ND this year. PR is not a surprise but my neighbor ND! Saw ND spotted on 15/20
and 40 but the bands were always too long.

Started on 20m for the first 90 mins with excellent rate. Shifted to 40 and had
a difficult time finding a spot to run it as the east coast folks had already
established themselves. Found a spot to slide into and had another 90 minutes
of decent run. That is when someone turned off the ionosphere and the band went
very long and rate dropped to near nil. Forced to move to 80m and found it to be
crowded, noisy and also very long.I was not able to hear the close in sections
like SD, ONN, and even MN. The next 7 hours were a struggle with the rate meter
averaging less than 30 Q/hr. Called wit quits at 0700z needing ND, PR, AK, WY,
NL, NT.

Sunday I had planned to start at 1300z on 40m. The band appeared in great shape
but was packed with signals. Ihad to go to 20m way earlier than expected but did
find a slice of clear frequency and managed to hold the run frequency for nearly
5 hours 

15m was a wasteland from here. the band stayed very long and yielded only a few
west coast and southern Florida stations. Did hear VE6SV but he couldn't copy
me.

Kept losing my frequency on 20m to hidden transmitters from nearby sections
that would start calling CQ close to my frequency. As they were fresh meat, the
ensuing pileup that would result when they were spotted would always force me to
move.

Decided to move to 40m earlier on Sunday then I had planned. Even at 21:30z the
band was packed. just like Saturday, the band instantly changed and went long. I
saw from the cluster that 80m had become the band of choice but stuck to 40m and
had a good hour of working distant 5,6,7's. 

The last hour was mostly S&P as I could not establish on 80m. With S9+10
noise level it was a struggle.

Thanks to all that worked at completing the exchanges, especially on 80m. 

Until the next one...73

Ed VE4VT

IC7700 and IC746Pro
Optibeam OB11-5 for 20/15 at 51'
Force 12 Delta 240 for 40m at 60'
1/4 wave sloper for 80m fed at 50'


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