ANARTS WW RTTY Contest
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: SOST HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts Mults
-------------------------
80: 1 2 1
40: 65 532 18
20: 308 4484 67
15: 26 262 12
10:
-------------------------
Total: 400 5280 98 Continents = 6 Total Score = 3,106,940
Club:
Comments:
(Score includes 900 VK bonus points)
FT-2000 + SB221
N1MM Logger + MMTTY
3 element SteppIR at 40'
40M rotary dipole (SteppIR)
80M twin vertical array (raised)
SFI=68 A=3 K=3 Iccckkk.
It doesn't get much worse than this. Conditions were horrendous here. To top
things off, my logging software bailed out on me seven minutes in. I got two Qs
into the ANARTS log, and things went "poof" software-wise with a data-type
mismatch error that wouldn't go away. Missed 2.5 hours of juicy DX time trying
to fix things -- ended up reinstalling N1MM Logger, starting ANARTS in a fresh
database, and went ahead assuming that I had lost the master dB for a year's
worth of logs (70 contests or so).
Well, not to worry. During a lull in the action, MS Access let me delete the
original broken ANARTS log. Data re-saved for safe-keeping. All happy now.
Back to the contest... While folks were spotting and working 15M stuff, I found
just 26 stations (er, OK, two of 'em were in Europe, but still -- only 26
stations total.) Brutal conditions.
20M was pretty good at times. Brief JA and VK openings late on Saturday night.
Not much over the pole but the big guns. Neither Friday nor Saturday evening EU
openings were tremendously strong.
Have five continents rather quickly Friday evening. Took until hour two on the
second day to land CN8 for Africa.
Domestic work on 20M to US/VE was very poor all weekend, with already thready
signals wrapped in sandpaper (power line noise courtesy of B.C. Hydro --
unfixed even after more than four years of pleading). At no time did 20M to the
U.S. sound like 20M to the U.S. should.
I knew the low rotary dipole wouldn't do much on 40M and it didn't. Have to get
the twin half-squares facing NA and JA again, instead of hanging on the ground
from a failed experiment orienting them for EU (relocated, they interact with
the 80M verticals so I've taken them down).
I sniffed around 40M in mid-evening, but it was so noisy I didn't stay long.
40M Qs same as last year but down about half of what they were in 2007.
As usual, 80M was a major disappointment. Would have thought that with call
area mults per band more guys would be on, but it was a wasteland except for
K7QQ. Summer doldrums I guess.
Stuck mostly to 20M with the new SteppIR doing good things. ZS at midnight
longpath is pretty cool from this station. Nine VKs in six states on the second
night after none the first night.
Went in with one goal: to participate in the ANARTS swan song and shoot for a
personal best -- previous was 3.08 million from 2007.
Was at 2.96 million with 300 worked on 20M, half an hour to go and no callers
from anywhere. J39BS called in for a major bump up with 19 minutes remaining.
Then I hopped up a Khz or two to land CO2GL. Was just a few points short of the
PB with eight minutes left when AE1T called and put me over the top. Added four
more before 0000z and closed with 3.1 mill.
Happy with the result, given the lack of performance on 40M this year. Ended up
with exactly the same mults as 2007, but more QSOs.
Year-over-year claimed scores:
Year Cat. Qs Mult Cont Score Hrs Call
--------------------------------------------------------
June-09 SOABHP 400 98 6 3,106,940 19 VA7ST
June-08 SOABHP 308 85 5 1,830,900 13 VA7ST
June-07 SOABHP 389 98 6 3,083,684 19 VA7ST
June-06 SOABLP 175 61 6 764,408 18 VA7ST
June-05 SOSTLP 289 84 6 1,775,384 14 VA7ST
June-04 SOABLP 158 64 5 687,120 12 VA7ST
June-03 SOABLP 120 67 5 567,530 16 VE7ASK
June-02 SOABLP 60 42 5 226,340 19 VE7ASK
Very sad to see the end of ANARTS. Always enjoyed this contest and June won't
be the same without it. A note of special thanks to ANARTS, and especially
secretary and contest manager Pat Leeper VK2JPA for a great long run of fun
years, and to John GW4SKA for holding things together for one last blast.
This one's in the history books now. Glad to have been in the final.
73 and thanks for the contacts!
-- Bud, VA7ST
http://www3.telus.net/va7st
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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