[CQ-Contest] VE6JY CQWW CW Story

[Todd Bendtsen]

 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: VE6JY
Operator(s): VE5MX
Station: VE6JY

Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: AB
Operating Time (hrs): 43

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20: 1705    37      128
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 1705    37      128  Total Score = 693,660


Headed up to visit VE6JY with pretty high expectations given the events from the last solar rotation when Joel, VE6WQ, turned what looked like a dud weekend into a great score on 20m single band. I hoped for a repeat performance but it was clear fairly early on that this wasnt going to be the same kind of weekend. 

The contest started out ok with a good run to JA and NA. 127 Q's in the first hour. This continues into the second hour but by then things are slowing down and I go and S&P some South Americans. I find XQ4ZW for the ever elusive Zone 12 in the 0300Z hour. The band doesnt sound all that great so between S&Ping and chatting with Don and looking over Joel's shoulder (he's doing single band 40m) I work some of the "deep" Russians. 0630Z finds the first Europeans in the log. All zone 15, 16, and 17.They're not runable but they are hearing me. The first zone 14 goes in the log at 0830Z when I crash for a nap. I'm back on at 1015Z and I am running EU. Not a blistering pace but they are calling in. I only make 8 Q's in the 1100Z hour. I'm not sure if this is conditions or sleep deprevation. I caught myself a few times with the finger stuck on the enter key calling an endless CQ. By the 1200Z hour I have righted the ship and steadily working guys, the rates are pretty pathetic but doing single band you have to slug it out. Finally in the 15Z hour I break through the 50 Q's/hr rate. Thats the good news. But by the end of the hour I am working more W's than EU. But the rate stays good until the 00Z hour when I drop below 50/hr again. Had some nice stations call in, ZD8, A35, FK8. The first JA of the day shows up at 2110Z and I continue to have the odd EU station call in, including R1MVC  !! I took a quick sweep of the band in the 22Z hour to pick off the easy Carib/SA mults. I finish the day with 969 Q's, 31 Zones and 84 countries. 

I keep running until 0300Z when I stop for  a sleep because things have slowed right down. I get back on in the 06Z hour for a few contacts but things are pretty quiet so I go back to sleep till the 09Z hour when I get up and sweep the band, hey theres 8Q7DV not very strong but he goes into the log in short order along with 9H1ZA and IH9P. EU is much louder this morning and I am able to run by 10Z. Lots of the rare stuff like ER4, IT9, YL, and LX that I missed the first morning are there this morning. Where are all these OK1's and OK2's coming from????? At 1245Z I see a large pileup just above me on the scope of the PRO II. I tune up there and find 5Z1A for zone 37. Later in the hour I get DXCC when J45KLN calls in. By 15Z EU is very loud and the rate meter goes over 100/hr for the next three hours with it being just about all EU calls. Where did all these damn OK's come from? It seemed like there wasn't a time in those 3 hours when the screen did not have an OK call on it. The run finally peters out in the 19Z hour when I am working more W's than EU again. A sweep of the band in the 20Z hour nets me 13 country mults and zone mult in the form of ZS1EL. Plus TZ5A and 3DA0NW. I hear 3B8/OM3PC at this time too but I cant get his attention and after around 10 minutes of trying when the closest I get is a "?", he disappears. I sure wish I had spent more time in the VQ9JC pileup the morning before. ( Hindsight is a wonderful thing). In the 22Z hour I am working W's so I turn the high yagi to the west to see if I can scare up one of the western VK's for a zone 29 mult and just about as if on cue VK6HD calls in within 15 minutes. Things have slowed down again so I do a sweep of the band and find T88AA, VP9I and S9SS. It is a cinch to find these guys, just tune for the huge pileups and try and dig out who is underneath it. The first two were pretty easy but S9SS was a tough nut to crack. Why do guys keep calling over and over again? They obviously dont hear the DX station well enough. I go back running for the last part of the contest with the high yagi over the pole hoping to scare up a VU2 or the A52 who I never heard all weekend. With about 10 minutes to go the scope starts jumping again up above me and I tune up there to hear the roar of the pileup on HS0ZDJ. He's much louder now than he was 3-4 hours ago when I called him without any luck. But that makes sense as its now past sunrise on his end. I join the fray and after about 5 minutes he is in the log for a nice double mult. I go back down in frequency and run a few more stations till the end. That seemed like an awful lot of work for only 1758 contacts.

I would like to thank Don for being such a great host. He does a wonderful job of keeping the station in top condition. I can not imagine the hours he puts in to keep it that way. Then he lets me come in and sit down and run the hell out of the equipment and he picks up the pieces when I'm done. Thankfully there havent been many pieces to pick up. Thanks Don. 

73 Todd