[3830] BC QSO VA7RR Single OpMixed HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    British Columbia QSO Party - 2021

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

Class: Single OpMixed HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 19:25
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  CW Mults  Ph Mults
----------------------------------------
  160:    0       0       0         0
   80:   47       6      29         6
   40:   98     215      44        55
   20:  301    1189      63        66
   15:   63     107      34        41
   10:    1       1       2         2
----------------------------------------
Total:  510    1518     172       170  Total Score = 1,756,512

Club: Orca DX and Contest Club

Comments:

This was the first BCQP in which I have ever participated.  Not having done this
contest before, I had no idea what to expect.  The strategy to maximize one’s
score is particularly tricky given the large number of potential multipliers on
each band mode and that CW QSOs are worth twice as much as Phone contacts. 
Looking back on things, I did make some strategy errors, so there is room for
improvement, particularly with the multipliers.

Conditions on Saturday were very good on 20M, and on SSB it seemed like a
bottomless pit of callers with more than 700 in the log – it was fast and it
was fun.  On 15M there were about three hours of openings, but without nearly
the volume of 20.

It was on 40 SSB that I encountered the very good and the very bad.  Once I
settled in on a frequency,  it took just a minute or two to generate the largest
domestic 40 meter pileup I’ve ever experienced.    There were so many stations
calling, just about all of them at S-4 or so, that it made the receiver on my
FT1000D sound like mush.  It was, for most contacts, impossible for me to pick
out full callsigns, and I know that I left a lot of QSOs on the table.  The rate
was outstanding for the next hour and 15 minutes, and then – disaster – my
40 meter antenna decided to go intermittent.  The SWR meter on the Nye Viking
watt meter pegged and locked out my transmission, and with it both my two-radio
switch box and electronic antenna switch failed.  This put me off the air for 35
minutes while I tried to figure out what was wrong, and determine if it was
possible to get a 40 meter signal back on the air.  As it turned out, the
switches failed because the high SWR condition took out the breaker on the 12
volt supply powering them – turning the power off and then back on reset the
protector, and I was able to get back on 40 by running the antenna through an
external tuner.   However, not only did I lose air time (and the QSOs that would
come with it), but the absence put me out of sync with the rest of the BC
activity as stations moved through 40 and onto 80 and 160.  I never did make it
to 160, and my 75 meter SSB total is really disappointing.  My 80 meter inverted
v antenna is a very ordinary performer as it is, and by the time I got to 75,
the band had gone long and there was very little to work before the first
contest segment ended at 04Z.

     With the A index increase to 14 on Sunday, conditions were not nearly as
good.  Twenty did not come to life until around 18Z, and I heard and worked
nothing except locals on 15.

     Perhaps the only good thing to come out of the pandemic has been a big
increase in contest participation in North America (and probably in Europe as
well, but for us VE7s it’s hard to tell with present band conditions).  The
result has been, for me, great enjoyment in my contest activities during the
past year.  The activity in this BCQP greatly exceeded my expectations – I
want to say thanks to all for the QSOs, and for helping to make this a super-fun
event for those of us in British Columbia.  A big thanks goes as well to
Rebecca, VA7BEC, who coordinates this contest on behalf of the Orca DX and
Contest Club.  Both in participation and scores, the 2021 running of the BCQP is
looking to be the most successful of all.

73,
Gary
VA7RR


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