[3830] CQWW SSB VE2IM(VE3DZ) SOAB Classic HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2021

Call: VE2IM
Operator(s): VE3DZ
Station: VE2IM

Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Classic 
QTH: Zone 2
Operating Time (hrs): 41:45

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  188    10       29
   80:  785    17       74
   40: 1499    27       91
   20: 2014    32       99
   15: 1632    26      103
   10:  367    20       59
------------------------------
Total: 6485   132      455  Total Score = 9,879,797

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

The initial plan was to fly, however because of COVID19, a lot of flights were
cancelled and the only remaining daily flight to Sept-Iles was from Montreal
leaving around 7 A.M. meaning I would have no choice but stay overnight in
Montreal which would make my trip last approximately the same time as I would be
driving.
So, no other choice rather than ... 1600 km one way... you know the drill.
Traditionally, I caught a cold on the way and that contributed to my decision
not to do SO2R and just use Classic set-up with one radio and amp. After all, I
could never create a competitive fully functional SO2R station here for SSB CQ
WW from scratch in a couple of days anyway.
This year our main Beam - a Mosley Classic 37 Tribander - was finally rebuilt
and was supposed to replace our temporary HyGain Explorer 14 which we used for
the last 4-5 years. Frank VA2FGG and the guys at VE2CSI had it ready and I was
supposed to climb the tower and swap the antennas. However to my surprise when I
arrived on the spot on Wednesday evening to my surprise the Mosley tribander was
already on the tower!
Thanks to Frank VA2FGG, Robert VA2RDK, Steve VE2TKH and other members of VE2CSI
the work was done and it saved me a lot of time!
The bands were in great shape, but everybody anticipated the blackout from the
solar flare expected by Saturday or Friday (which actually never happened).
Anyway, all bands but 10 meters were great on Saturday. 15 was open to Europe
for almost 6 hours, but whenever I would come to check 10 meters I could only
hear South American and some Caribbean stations.
80 m sounded like 20 at times.
Equipment worked fine and I had no problems except for the RF coming into
keyboard and laptop when I would turn the beam towards the shack. I had to deal
with it on the fly swapping keyboards and winding RF chokes using various
toroids. Had to reboot computer a couple of times.
I slept 2 hours on Saturday morning and by the time I completed first 24 hours
of operation my "Classic" score was around 5 M points.
Sunday morning was much slower so I took almost 4 hours nap. 20 m opened later
and 15 was not as good as on Saturday hurting my rate. However, by 13 Z it all
went more or less back to normal. I didn't check 10 meters up until around 14 Z
and when I did, the band was wide open to W4/W5, Caribbean, Africa and Southern
EU. However, I couldn't get a decent run and since S&P'ing was really
slowing things down I switched back to 15 shortly.
I kept checking 10 meters time to time, but it never really opened to EU except
for the 2 instances of 15-20 minutes run which resulted in many EU multipliers,
however I never heard or worked such easy countries like ES, GM, GW, HA, LA, LY,
OZ, S5, YL or YO.
I heard a lot of W4's, W5's and even our closest neighbors in VE3 were enjoying
EU runs, but it was not the case here.
I tried to move rare mults, as usual, sometimes pretty successfully, 2 or 3
bands at a time. Thanks to all who helped.
I see there were few more Zone 2 stations active, however I managed to work my
own Zone only on 80, 40 and 20m.
Though my current score is far from the best (12 Mil from this location), I am
pretty happy with it. Looking forward to return here for CW part which I intend
to operate SO2R.
Thanks again to Frank and crew for their effort in keeping VE2CSI afloat and to
all participants for activity and QSOs!
Only one sad thing happened on my way back - I learned that my friend Yuri VE3XB
(known as "the other Yuri") passed away on Monday, November the 1st. 
May He Rest In Peace.

Equipment used: old YAESU FT1000MP  + ACOM 2000A. 
Antennas: 10-15-20: Mosley CL37 at 50 feet, 2 el. HyGain 40 m Beam at 60 feet,
80/40 m dipole at 50 feet and one half of K2KQ Double L for 160 m (TNX VY2ZM).

 73 and thanks for reading.


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