ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: VO1HE
Operator(s): VO1HE
Station: VO1HE
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: The Rock
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 75 43
40: 204 44
20: 1078 74
15: 400 65
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 1757 226 Total Score = 1,185,822
Club: East Coast Canada Contest Club
Comments:
Well, that was fun.
The best effort on my part from my own station ever. I made more contacts this
weekend than I have ever made in any single month since I got my licence. The
station worked great, except for an intermittant problem with the amp on 15M.
The bandswitch cuts out. I think it has a cold solder joint so I'll have to see
if I can repair it without too much fuss. Not a lot of room to maneouver a
soldering iron in the front of an SB-220.
The PTT jack on the back of the rig crapped out with about 45 minutes to go
before the contest started so I had to take the rig apart and resolder it onto
the board. Got it back in place with about 3 minutes to spare. I wish they used
less screws in these rig cases.
Anyway, I was hoping to do well but the Qs just kept coming. 80 and 40 were OK
the first night but most of the Europeans were listening around 7250 and above
and my antenna is not cut for that. Last time I tried up there, I ended up
getting the alarm company to call and seee if we were in trouble. I have to
work on a solution for 80 but I think a SteppIR upgrade is in order for 40.
With s9 or better noise, I think 160 is not going to be an issue for me here
at this station.
20M opened to Europe at around 6AM local time and, being in the middle of the
North Atlantic, I had my way with it as there was very little, if any
propagation with the US at that time. Got some good runs going on 20 and 15,
which was open later on. At one point someone told me I was on the same
frequency as KC1XX but I never heard them at all and it never affected my rate
very much. 15 was like that. IN fact, it was late in the day before I could
hear any the US stations working into Europe although I could hear Europeans
working US stations. QSB on the second day and shifting propagation. No 10 or
160 was a bother but that's the way it is.
I noticed quite a few PA0 25W stations on. That was good to see. There were a
lot of QRP stations as well, most of which had bigger signals than some of the
kW stations.
Anyway, it was my first million-point result so hopefully I won't have to
scroll down the results page to find my call this time HI. It didn't feel like
I spent 23 hours in the chair but I guess I did. Not a lot of time S&P in this
one except when 15M started fading in the evenings all I heard was Caribbean
and South America so worked then for mults.
Rig: FT-920
Amp: SB-220
Antennae: 3El SteppIR and wire dipoles
Software: N1MM 7.1.7
1506 individual stations worked
95 individual countries worked
16 stations on 4 bands
England was most worked country at 253 Qs
Thanks to all who called and sorry to all I couldn't work. At times on 40, 20
and 15 when I was running, I'd let up the PTT and was greeted by a steady buzz
of equally-strong (weak, that is) stations with no calls standing out for a few
seconds.
I hope to get most of those G stations next weekend during the BERU. Keep an
ear out for VO1RAC hopping around the bands.
73 -- Paul VO1HE
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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