CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: VE2IM
Operator(s): VE3DZ
Station: VE2CSI
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Zone 2
Operating Time (hrs): 38
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 99 7 5
80: 481 16 60
40: 500 17 66
20: 1870 31 117
15: 161 18 53
10: 49 8 16
------------------------------
Total: 3160 97 317 Total Score = 3,143,916
Club: Contest Club Ontario
Comments:
Finally, have some time for write-up after returning from Zone 2 and sorting
things outâ?¦
First of all, Iâ??d like to congratulate John, VE3EJ with an outstanding score
achieved from Zone 4! I really admire his dedication and effort put in
building his super station.
Anyway, this was my 8th year of going to Sept-Iles, QC doing a semi-Field Day
style operations in CQ Contests. Already done 5 CQ WW SSB Contests, 4 CQ WW CW
and 1 CQ WW 160 CW and this was so far my WORST effort ever.
Surely, driving 1500 km one way and then installing antennas and equipment
does not make you feel rested enough before the contest, but this time it
combined with Murphy visits, poor conditions and weather, and computer and
equipment failures.
Conditions were pretty good on Wednesday and Thursday, at least VE2XAA could
work a lot of JAâ??s on 20 and 30 m CW way after our sunrise, and morning 15
m opening to EU was promising with last Europeans worked after 1700 UTC both
mornings.
With the help of VE2XAA and VE2NN we put up a TA33jr tribander on a 30â??
push-up mast and AP8A vertical with 6 radials for each of the 40 and 80 m
bands. These antennas were intended to be used with 2nd radio. The Mosley
Classic 37 and dipoles for 40/80/160 was the antenna system for main radio.
Murphy stroke first on Friday afternoon when I started to set-up computers and
software for the contest. After almost 4 hours of troubleshooting it turned
out that network card on one of the computers was not working. Then, for some
reasons N1MM which performed flawlessly in the previous days, started to glitch
(probably, something wrong with the computer set-up after replacing a network
card), so just an hour and a half before the contest I decided to go with old
trusty CTWIN interfacing it with my laptop (which has no other ports, but USB)
through the RigExpert USB interface and REAUDIO driver.
Contests started as usual with attempts to find a CQ frequency among Big Guns
and slow rate. First hour resulted only in 70 QSO combined 20 and 40 m bands.
Then rate went up a bit after QSYing to 75m and reached 150/hr in the 2nd and
3rd hour.
Right in the middle of the morning EU run on 20 m the main amplifier blew upâ?¦
It took long half of an hour to replace it with a smaller 500 watts one from the
2nd radio setup. I think I was so disappointed that almost missed EU run on 15 m
which was very short on Saturday. Didnâ??t even work Zone 20 on 15â?¦
Alex, VE2XAA managed to fix amplifier later in the day on the spot, but it
never gave me a full power again.
The weather changed dramatically by the end of Saturday. The wind was blowing
like crazy all night long, rain and thunderstorm were so strong at the moments
that I had to shut down for awhile, because the static level was way over
S9+20! I was watching through the window how poor TA33 tribander was swinging
on the tiny 30â?? mast back and fourth, and I have no idea how it survived. I
was so darn lucky not getting a direct lightning strike and not losing any
antenna.
Later, when we were driving back home just about 80 km south of Sept-Iles we
saw a lot of fallen trees at the both sides of the highway, and road workers
were cutting them in pieces pretty fastâ?¦ A state of emergency was declared in
two towns in Northern Quebec which lost electicity, not very far from the place
we were staying.
Anyway, on Sunday conditions changed to the worse too, there was no EU on 20
and 15 in the morning, and I had stay on 40 up until 1300 UTC. Then it was a
struggle all day trying to work weak Europeans on 20 and occasional South
Americans and Carribeans on 15 and 10.
However, I enjoyed a couple of hours of 180+/hr U.S. pile-ups at the end of the
Contest.
The highlight of the contest wasâ?¦ a meeting after the contest. I got a phone
call from K3FMQ and KD3TB, who were a part of 3-men VE2DXY M/2 station that
operated from the Motel at the opposite edge of the town and he invited me to
join â??Zone 2 meetingâ?? at â??Mikeâ??sâ?? restaurant in downtown Sept-Iles.
When I arrived there I found also 3 members of VA2ZM crew, and they told me how
one of their vertical was â??stolenâ?? by flood of St. Lawrence riverâ?¦ so we
had a good time and a lots of fun sharing contest stories. Itâ??s amazing the
guys from the U.S. are driving 1500 miles one way from Pennsylvania for the 3rd
year in a row, just to give people Zone 2 in the Contest and have some
funâ?¦Same with VA2ZM crew â?? 3 guys are coming to Sept-Iles from Montreal for
3 years now. Thatâ??s what I call real dedication. I hope the picture of 7
â??Zone 2â?? guys celebrating at â??Mikeâ??sâ?? will be in the CQ Magazine
shortly.
Thanks to Alex, VE2XAA and Rodrigue, VE2NN for their usual help with set-up and
antenna installation, and to Igor VA3YDX, who lent me a bunch of coax for this
trip.
Special thanks to Doug, VA3DF and Peter, VE3SUN of Contest Club Ontario for
donating tribanders for â??Zone2 projectâ??. One of them is already there and
the other one goes to Sept-Iles next time. Me and Alex also left some other
antennas and computer stuff there for future trips.
Thank you to all who moved for me and to everybody who called.
See you all in CW.
Yuri VE3DZ / VE2IM / VO1AAM
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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