[RSM] ARRL CW SS VE4VT

[ed_richardson at shaw.ca]

Class: Single Op LP
Operating Time (hrs): 21 

	

Band

QSOs

		

160:

7

		

80:

117

		

40:

216

		

20:

275

		

15:

4

		

10:

0

		

Total:

619

Sections

80

Total Score

99,040

 Well our planned get together at 0200z on 3515 didn't seem to happen, or
perhaps I just couldn't hear anyone. I did find Todd VE5MX Just below that
frequency. By then I had already worked Tom and 2 other ND stations so I
didn't stick around for more than 10 minutes.. Thought I was going to miss
the MB mult until Rob found me.

Spent all of Saturday turning the dial S&P.  I haven't run low power in a
contest in a while and I definitely did not feel loud on 40/80. 

I do not know what happened but I normally have a S9+10 noise floor on 80m
However on November 1 at precisely 9:30 pm ( I was actually watching the
radio doing noise test on the new RX antenna), the noise suddenly vanished.
I was left with an S4 noise floor and it was amazing.  It has stayed this
way for the past week.  I wonder if some local business shut down for the
Covid closure or did one of them retire some old piece of equipment?   I
just hope it doesn't come back.

Sorry I missed you Kelly on 80m.  I did hear a ve- calling but could not
make out the call and thought I may have stumbled onto someone else's
running frequency.

I don't know what it is about CW-SS but I seem to miss the AB multiplier
about 50% of the years. This year I also missed WY NL and NT.  I heard a NL
running Sunday morning on 20 as usually happens but the pileup was big and
ugly and he wasn't very strong. I figured I would come back and when I did,
I couldn't find him.  The usual tough ND, SK and ONN mults were logged on
20m before 2200z on Saturday, thought the sweep was in the bag.

I am a coward when it comes to running CW especially in SS. The ensuing
pileups often result in a single zero beat tone and it becomes a very
uncomfortable situation. So thanks to Kelly and Rob, the VE4 mult was not
high in demand on Sunday when I started to run. I reduced my power to 50
watts and ran at a slow rate for about 10 hours on Sunday. Eventually
cranking the power up to 125 watts! I looked at it as practise time.  Give
me a SSB pileup any day!

Tuned past Tom multiple times, sorry Jack, we never heard you, even with the
lower noise floor.

Also seemed like every second station on Sunday was running "Q" class.  A
week ago I would never have dreamed of working a east coast WMA "Q" station
on 80m.

Looking forward to SSB! 

Ed