[3830] RAC Winter VE7NZ Single Op HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    RAC Winter Contest - 2022

Call: VE7NZ
Operator(s): VE7NZ
Station: VE7NZ

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  CW Mults  Ph Mults
----------------------------------------
  160:                              
   80:                              
   40:                              
   20:                              
   15:  392    201      11        10
   10:                              
    6:                              
    2:                              
----------------------------------------
Total:  392    201      11        10  Total Score = 56,238

Club: Orca DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Well, I decided to try 15m SOSB since I had to go out to a birthday party Friday
night and couldn't operate late and, perhaps more importantly, Gary VA7RR was
going to be SOSB 20m and he's a world record holder (possibly not just for this
world, but all worlds) and he was certainly going to kick my [pass] band filter
given his superior skills, no need for sleep, possible use of Depends to avoid
bathroom breaks (Editor: not confirmed, but being investigated), and lower noise
from being closer to the cows than me.  I know this, because I used to live two
blocks from him from the same cows (some have passed, over the BBQ) in the
1990's.

So, SOSB 15m....

The good:
- Lot's of space in the voice band...no QRM to deal with even above .275 where
the Novice and up band starts.  Fun to work lots of hams making their first
contest QSO!  "Shall I put you down for serial number 001?"  Answer,
"Well, sure. Why not."  New hams are great.
- Generally lower sky noise, but unfortunately i had major QRM (S8 SSB, S2-3 CW)
to the East/Southeast from 4pm onwards (0000 UTC) Friday and 2pm (2200 UTC)
onwards Saturday.  Must be Christmas stuff down the street. It's not from my
house.  I focused on CW and if I pointed at 60 degrees or lower or 200 degrees
or higher it was quiet, but that excludes South America of course and much of
the southern us.

So - I was left sending RF to the mountains, the ocean, but.... if you've seen
national geographic, there aren't many antennas there!

The bad:
- Not as active as 20.  Not many exciting pileups in the afternoon like on 20,
but a steady flow, particularly on CW.
- Openings to what I consider "hey, bonus qsos others might not because I
live where I live and pay way too much tax..." to JA and S. America were
fairly limited.  Maybe I worked 20 JAs Friday night, 3 EU's and 5 SA's Saturday.
 The lack of south american contacts was really surprising.  Normally 15 is a
pipeline to SA from here every day. I think they were all watching the World
Cup.  It's more reliable than the solar cycle. Maybe there were just not many
participating from SA?

- The band pretty much died here from 2pm local (2200 UTC) onwards!!!!  I worked
a couple of VE7s ground wave, one JA, one HP, one ZL, a couple of W0's. 
Generally major suckage from 2pm onwards.  The only entity enjoying this was the
power company as my amp dimmed the streetlights with every CW CQ, causing some
seizures i expect.  But alas, no significant contacts really.  While my computer
called CQ via N1MM+, I was researching radio manuals, reading the news, drafting
these comments! About 25 contacts in last 2 hours!


The Mults:
- I assume noone was on from NU, even though i tried to get VY0MEL to do so in
email exchanges last week, but he just does FT8.  Doh!  He's missing the joy of
being more wanted than, well, [insert nature video here].
- VE8NSD was the only VE8 I heard.  He was on SSB but his beam pointed to VE3
and a massive pileup.  I think it was stuck.  Not the pileup, the beam.  He
worked one VE7 and I didn't want to waste over an hour trying to bust the pileup
from the US and VE3.  He is not romantically attached to CW like I am (sadly,
not my xyl, but she does enjoy the mic) so not much chance of a QSY to CW if I
got him.
- VE8PR (who I normally get a contact from on 20m wasn't on 15 this year. 
  His tuner on his loop antenna was frozen. Mind you, he told me 2 weeks ago
that he hasn't been able to find his car in the snow drifts for two weeks in
Yellowknife, so getting a weak CW signal out is possibly too much to ask too.
Maybe look for the top of a VHF antenna and dig down? (Paulo is a great ham and
has done much for evaluating 60m for emergency use and other fine work, so I say
this with much repsect!).
- Didn't hear any other VE8's.  I am sure there was a VE8RAC, but being royalty
they might have been watching the Meghan and Harry Netflix special and forgot to
operate.
- VY1CO was great... 20/9 on SSB.  Later worked VY1AAA on CW around S9.  Always
good to hear the territories on the air!!  
- So I got all of available mults except VE8 SSB, VE8 CW, and VE6 SSB.  I worked
two VE6's on CW very weak and they didn't understand my CW when I said
"SSB?  SSB?" I work for a division of a company based in VE6, they
don't new ideas (just kidding of course, we recently installed a fax machine, we
are on a roll).
 
This is my favourite (yes, I'm Canadian, we spell things weirdly to confuse
people, it's a thing) contest of the year.  I am so happy to see so many
participants. So many overseas (well over land in many cases, but don't ask
Brittany Spears to comment {google it if you don't get it}).

73 happy contesters.  We do it for the fame. Of course we do. That's what
attracts people to the hobby. We've all seen the photos of the sail boats and
hot girls and amazing luxury antenna farms. 73, de VE7NZ


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