[RSM] WPX SSB Recap

[ed_richardson at shaw.ca]

Well I wont say it was a great contest, but it was still fun.  Full of
frustration, mistakes and still plenty of lessons to learn.

 

Started the contest on 40m when a lot of folks started on 20. The result was
having a pretty clear frequency up high in the band (7.280). This resulted
in 4 hours and 500 Q's.  No Europe, but just 120 Q/hr of US and South
America.  I figured I wouldn't even bother with Europe as the East Coast and
those with 3 element 40m beams at 130 feet would be way too much competition
for my puny signal. At that point I was over 100 Q ahead of our prairie
superstation VE5MX and even ahead of VE2WA.  Then the wheels fell off when
it was time to go to 80m.

 

80 was noisy as usual and the rate was slow.

 

I quit at 1:15 am and took 5 hours off. i had planned on getting on for the
VK/ZL and JA openings on 40m.  You will be glad to know that the bovines are
well and the non-contest geezers are surviving the covid isolation well. I
think I landed on every "Net" and "private" frequency on 40m Saturday
morning.. I heard no Asian stations and worked a couple VK/ZL.

 

The European opening on 20m Saturday was pretty weak from here. It started
about 08:30 local (13:30z) and lasted until about 11 am local with a few
western EU stations heard until about noon.  I could not establish a run
frequency anywhere. I called CQ endlessly below 14.150 and got 5 replies in
30 minutes. Two of those were US stations out of band. Went back to S&P and
rattled off 45 in an hour.  The Ontario and east coast stations had no
troubles with runs.as usual.

 

After netting less than 100Q in 3 hours of prime Europe time Saturday
morning, I was pretty disheartened and turned the beam back south. I even
tried 15m and found the signals very weak. So stayed on 20m. and worked
stateside. Some very good runs Saturday afternoon. I checked 15m around 1500
local and found the South Ameri can stations to be loud so worked a bunch of
multipliers there.

 

Tried for Europe on 40m about 2 hours before sunset. Signals were weak and
was only able to work a few superstations. Clearly not as good as during the
ARRL DX contests.  I believe the seasonal changes and increased solar
disturbances made the path not as good.

 

Instead of going to 40m, I stayed on 20m as the clock approached 0000z. This
worked well as I ran for two hours, at very good rate. The western half of
the US and South/Central  America were plentiful.

 

Eventually went back to 40m for Saturday evening with pretty steady rates. 

 

Since I needed 7 hours of off time, I quit around midnight. 

 

Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of Saturday.  Spent too much time
calling CQ with poor rates. S&P was more productive to Europe.  Worked
several middle east stations, including A$, A6, A7, 4Z, TA, and HZ.  Most of
these had not been spotted on the cluster so it pays to spin the dial
instead of point and shoot.

 

Sunday I discovered that there was some 15m propagation to southern US. I
was hearing stations in Florida and SC, GA and TX.  Saturday morning I
worked Cary in Vermont on 15m sporadic E. So there are some surprise paths
you can find if you check.  I even worked K0TT in MN via 15m back scatter. I
heard Todd VE5MX nut he was S&P as well.  Plenty of strong SA stations.

 

Even checked 10m and worked one PY station easily.

 

So bottom line it was fun.  Worked some DX but the rate was only good to the
US.  

 

Sorry for the dupe John, I was actually calling a CR6 on your frequency.  I
hadn't heard you at first.

 

I know Rob VE4GV was tearing up the bands, I heard John VJR, Dan VE4EV,  and
other VE4's DL, RK, GKM, and JCJ.

 

We will soon have more regular sporadic E and 6m to look forward to.

 

73 Ed 

 

 

 

 

Ed Richardson