[CQ-Contest] SS Northern Troubles de VY1JA

[J. Allen]

The ARRL bulletin for today included this note:

"This weekend is the ARRL CW Sweepstakes, a great old domestic
contest. The beginning of the weekend may not be bad, but a solar
wind stream on Sunday could cause some problems for HF operators.
The planetary A index is expected to be 12 on Friday and Saturday,
and around 20 on Sunday and Monday. Since this is a domestic
contest, there won't be any problem with disruptions on the polar
path to Europe, but it could affect communications with Northern
Canada"

That "Northern Canada" note includes VY1, VE8, & VY0.  On Sunday, expect
one-way communications and the tendency for North-South communications to be
workable, but East-West from the north to be nearly impossible.

In the East coast, you may not hear us at all.  If you do hear VY1JA,
realize that when propagation is one-way, I will hear you louder than you
hear me (almost always).  Try, even if my signal is weak, especially in the
period around 1800-2000.  After that, I may not hear you at all under these
conditions.

This Sunday, it is very important to get the QSO when you hear it if you are
in the East Coast so I will stand by for East Coast from time to time.  In
the West, my signal is likely to be weaker than usual, but QSOs have nearly
always been possible.

Bottom line, WORK THE NORTH ON SATURDAY, preferably at the start of the
contest, before the solar storm hits, aim you beam toward KL7 and hope for
the best.

My rig is acting up again.  The Omni-V is cutting in and out. I am working
on the rig today to see if I can find this intermittent.  That type of
problem is VERY hard to locate, so wish me luck. It sounds like a parasitic
in the rig and intermittently kills reception.  When it is there it hits the
transmit side as well, and causes a sharp rise in SWR on transmit, and I am
now concerned that the high SWR is indicating that it is trying to transmit
out of band, which means immediate QRT when the intermittent occurs.

Fortunately, the intermittent has lasted a maximum of about two minutes...
so hang in there if we are in the middle of a QSO and I disappear.

Finally, I have been hit with a flu bug which has just started.  I still
plan to do my best to get YT to anyone that needs it, especially on
Saturday, considering the propagation forecast.  At this time I am unaware
of any other CW operations in Yukon, and I wish you all luck finding me.  I
will, as usual, find a clear spot at my MUF (which is lower than yours in
the south)before the contest, and work stations there waiting for the
starting gong.  That will make it easier to find Yukon.

If you are aware of any other YT/NWT/NT ops committed to this contest,
please let me know as it will ease my mind concerning my rig's behavior.

J.
VY1JA