[3830] Commonwealth VE3BR SO-Restricted-24 LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest - 2021

Call: VE3BR
Operator(s): VE3BR
Station: VE3BR

Class: SO-Restricted-24 LP
QTH: FN03es
Operating Time (hrs): ~20

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Bonus Pts
-----------------------
   80:   34      600
   40:   68    1,100
   20:  148      820
   15:    1       20
   10:              
-----------------------
Total:  251     2540  Total Score = 3,775

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

Radio: Ten-Tec Orion
Antenna: DX-Eng 80/40 Thunderbolt 55ft Dual Band Vertical
Software: N1MM Logger+ 1.0.9018.0

A few notes on my usual points: propagation, motivation, stamina, running.

Propagation, in a word, "wasn't" (as in "wasn't there").
Again. This year there was an additional layer to my standard statement
"There is only so much you can do with LP and an 80/40 vertical": a
layer of noise and very strong QSB. I had to constantly ask for repeats.
Stations going from 599+ to below my noise level within one transmission.
Getting just one digit of the exchange per repeat and then parsing/pasting it
together (hopefully right) was the name of the game most of the time. Noise I
could deal with better this year; I still do not have an RX antenna, but I had
installed a phase noise canceller and it seems to be helping quite a bit. But
that QSB thing was a killer.
 
The rest of conditions as per usual for the last few years: 10 and 15 pretty
much dead (I only had one Q on 15, with ZF2CA who was consistently very loud on
all bands other than 10, where I heard no one); 20 m - average, just
uncharacteristically low signals, nobody seemed to be strong; 40 - OK by my
standards, and the way ZL6HQ/2 was coming through the second morning: wow! if
everybody was that loud and clear, all frustration (and fun?) would be gone; 80
m - noisy, but otherwise OK; just really long stretches of
"nothingness" because of my set-up.
 
Hearing my "locals" carry on with good rates of running, while I
cannot hear a thing, reminded me of my place on the totem pole: below the big
guns, below little pistols, below BB guns, amongst the "pea
shooters".
 
Motivation, I thought I had this time. No distractions and full commitment to go
24 hours. (My N1MM+ shows ~20 hours of operating time.)
 
It was the stamina, that I had not. I could make excuses that it is not really
"morale boosting" when your Q rate in the last 7 hours of a contest is
exactly 1 QSO/hour. But it was the stamina that failed me - utterly. Several
times towards the end I found myself falling asleep, sometimes for extended
periods of time. Probably it would be better, if I had a "pre-emptive"
nap for an hour or two, rather than trying to plough through. The early morning
hours of the second night, before the SR opening to Oceania, are totally
unproductive with my set-up anyway. 

On the positive side: because I did not pack it in early, I worked V31MA (with
small 2-digit exchanges from him, must have started late) on both 80 and 40 in
the very last stretch of the contest.
 
Running while "legally deaf" proved necessary again. Without it, and
without people who can -amazingly- hear me and answer my CQ, I would not make
many Qs, some unexpected and very rewarding, like in my runs on 20 that produced
VK6LW, 5Z4VJ, ZD7BG, 9J2BO, ZS1C among others. Thanks to all who answered. 

As usual it was tough slogging with LP and an 80/40 vertical. And the
realization that I am not becoming an "old geezer", I am already
there, did not help. However, I see an effective solution to this: I should
consider moving to the ocean side 100+ acres property with phased vertical
arrays, stacked monobanders and assorted beverages. I do not know when, or if,
that will happen, but, wherever my QTH is next year, I bet I will still like
this contest very much. See you next year...

As usual, it's the emptiness of a giant arctic ice floe out there... when you
are running low power to a vertical.


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/