Tennessee QSO Party
Call: VE1RGB
Operator(s): VE1RGB
Station: VE1RGB
Class: SO Fixed LP
QTH: Halifax, NS
Operating Time (hrs): 8
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs Mults
-----------------------------------
160:
80: 23 21
40: 44 40
20: 43 33
15:
10:
6:
2:
222:
432:
-----------------------------------
Total: 110 0 0 94 Total Score = 31,220
Club: Maritime Contest Club
Comments:
It all started when I got an email from Bill, K4LTA, who said that his XYL was
going to take him mobile and would we please keep an ear out for him in TnQP.
After cautioning him to be nice to Ruby or she would push him out of the van
somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I then found VE1OP (Scott, in Sydney) and
Al, VA1MM, next door(and No, Al, I don't like your new QRO amp)who were
available to return a favour to Bill who always plays in our contests. Of
course one can't just simply work one operator in a contest and ignore the
rest, and before I knew it 9 hours had passed and I had had a whole bunch of
fun chasing mobiles around the State.
The bands were really, really noisy here. Most of the time on 40M and 80M I
ran the K3 with the AF wide open, ATT On, and the RF gain backed off to about
10 or 11 o'clock. It was brutal. Still, I'm not unhappy with my score.
I have two complaints for TCG:
1. There are too many counties in Tennessee. I would like TCG to talk to the
State government about having every second county amalgamate with its neighbour
(before next year, please) so that at least a guy would have a reasonable chance
of getting the sweep from up here. It's true that nearly every QSO was a mult
(see above score) but does the State really need 95-or-so counties? That's
more than the sum of all the counties in all four Provinces of Atlantic Canada,
and we're doing OK aren't we? Well, aren't we? As it was, I worked 60 counties
and I only recall two that I heard but couldn't get. [Note: One alternative to
reorganizing TN County boundaries would be to turn the TnQP into a full 48-hour
contest. More time would help.]
2. You need a CW-only VE-only category for us CW-only VE operators so that we
have a reasonable chance of getting back the equivalent of the plaque that we
(the Maritime Contest Club) have to keep sending to K4LTA for winning our
Canadian contests in our new CW-only category. Some of us lobbied hard to get
our RAC organization to break out the CW-only category in our two annual
national contests thinking that we (OK, me) might then be able to win something
and it's painful to see our trophy scooped up and transported south of the 49th
parallel to Oak Ridge every year. I'm tempted to suggest a CW-only, VE1-only
category, but I don't want to be seen as being unreasonable.
In the end I snagged Bill in 12 counties, 11 of which were mults for me. The
consistently strongest signal was W4NZ/M whom I worked in 19 counties, but
others came close to that. How those guys heard my puny 100W and wire antennas
is beyond me.
In all seriousness, my thanks to TCG and to all who worked me including the
mobiles whose efforts really go way above and beyond the minimum requirement
and who make these State QSO parties well worth the participation.
73,
Gary, VE1RGB
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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