ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: VP2E
Operator(s): KC5EA N5AU
Station: VP2E
Class: M/S HP
QTH: Anguilla
Operating Time (hrs): 34
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 215 50
80: 689 58
40: 754 57
20: 1526 59
15: 2596 59
10: 17 8
-------------------
Total: 5797 291 Total Score = 5,060,781
Club: North Texas Contest Club
Comments:
It was great to work all the USA guys and gals once again. Sorry 10 meters
was such a bust for us. We could hear the deeper Caribbean/SA and Central
America running and running, but it was all we could do to work a few. We're
too close for F2 propagation at this time of the cycle and have to rely on
sporadic E. We did have quite a bit of good (to great) Es during the week
prior to the test, so we might have been lucky, but no joy this time. Again
we managed to work a few of the East Coast multi's (by the hardest), but not
all. If we can't work the big stations, not many others in those areas have
much chance.
We still could not get WriteLog 10.62H to stay networked during the contest,
but not all of our computers are on the same operating system yet and have
various degrees of AV, firewalls, and some are still vintage Jurassic period
(Computa-saurus), so we are still testing and working on these problems.
Single-op and multi-single are not much problem when the network goes down, but
any higher class would be disasterous, so we need to get this one under control
rapidly before Cycle 24 gets going. We noticed a new prediction from NOAA
that cycle 23 is bottoming in (or around) March, 2007. Since cycles go up
much faster than down, 2008 looks like the first year of good returning
propagation. Special note to the VP2E team members: get ready!!
Activity levels seemed down once again as during the CW weekend. It's obvious
a lot of stations have "packed it in" for the duration of the solar minimum.
We trust they will start returning shortly. It was good to hear all the
stations signing /AG and /AE this weekend. We made a special effort to
congratulate each one during the QSO. Some of these stations may never work
us on CW, but they will be a great asset on SSB. Maybe some of them will
eventually be interested enough to learn the code once they find out what they
are missing.
Our apologies to any DX stations who heard us and could not work us. All our
antennas were beamed to the USA/Canada only, and they are large with narrow
patterns. ON the low bands we were listening only to the North American
beverage, so almost nothing but USA/Canada makes it through. We will be very
active in the CQ WW contests (and others) and will work as many DX stations as
possible at that time plus before and after. VP2E is a permanent station (not
a DX-pedition) and we should be active during the next entire solar cycle.
There are also many new VP2Exx stations appearing on the bands. Anguilla is
becoming the DX "place to be". VP2E should be an easy multiplier in the
future.
Thanks again for all the QSO's and see you in the next one.
73 from the VP2E station and crew
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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