WAE DX Contest, SSB
Call: VE6CNU
Operator(s): VE6CNU
Station: VE6CNU
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Calgary
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
80:
40: 16 6 23
20: 246 246 78
15:
10:
-------------------------
Total: 522 522 111 Total Score = 57,942
Club: ALBERTA CLIPPERS
Comments:
Going into this weekend with zero sunspots (again), I thought I was in store for
another grinding contest with only S&P. But Friday night seemed to have a small
opening to Europe on 40m and I made 16 QSOs compared to only 2 last year. There
was a problem with N1MM as I was handing out my first batch of QTCs. It said I
had no more to give after only 6 of the 10 were specified. I think this had to
do with the window not being sized properly where my QTCs were being displayed.
So when I tried to enlarged the window it thought I was done. After that, N1MM
seemed to work just fine. I did listen on 80m late into Friday night but
didn't hear a peep from Europe.
Saturday morning, I started listening about 7AM (1300Z) and got really
depressed hearing all the VE3 stations, already in the hundreds of QSOs. It
was about an hour later when I started hearing Europe with QSO rates at about
10 per hour. Then suddenly, the "big switch in the sky" was flipped and I
started running Europeans around 14.130 MHz in a pileup as big as I've ever
heard. The opening lasted for about 40 minutes and then died almost as
suddenly as it had started. I had to think about QTC strategies - which is
what makes this contest one of the most challenging of them all. You hate to
kill the pileup but you also don't want to get left with a bunch of QTCs you
don't take credit for. After about 1PM (1900Z) I gave up on Europe and went
outside to plant a few more radials for my BigIR vertical which is on order.
And with a dinner date Saturday night there was no more contesting until Sunday
morning.
On Sunday morning I started listening again about 7AM (1300Z) and was
anticipating another big opening. It never came. I had to struggle to pull
stations out of the mud and I know many heard me much louder than I could hear
them (aurora?). By noon it was all over (1800Z) but at least I almost doubled
last year's score. And I'm really looking forward to next year if and when we
get a few sunspots.
One suggestion for N1MM would be to display the QTCs of previously worked
stations when typing in the callsign into the logging window. This way you
would know if you've already given that station QTCs before. Currently, you
have to search the log separately to check for this.
Thanks again to all who made this a really fun contest and hope to see you
again next time.
Jerry VE6CNU
Rig: FT-1000MP
Amp: FL7000 (about 250 - 400W)
Ant: TH6DXX (20m) and Inverted Vee for 40m
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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