North American QSO Party, RTTY
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 8.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
80: 39 20
40: 120 42
20: 160 43
15: 38 16
10:
-------------------
Total: 357 121 Total Score = 43,197
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Team: Aurora Busters
Comments:
Who ever would have guessed solar flux would be 66 on the same weekend, three
years in a row?
2009: Flux: 66 | Ap: 0 | Kp: 0
2008: Flux: 66 | Ap: 2 | Kp: 1
2007: Flux: 66 | Ap: 16 | Kp: 3
Whew. Tough contest. Took more time off than I should have, but 20M was rotten
around noon Pacific, and 15M wasn't very open, so I took 2.5 hours off. Got
back on for most of the remainder.
When I was done at 11 p.m. local I learned from the local news that a major
forest fire is burning in and around the city across the lake... 10,000 people
evacuated. Yikes. Shades of the notorious 2003 wildfire in the Okanagan. It's 2
a.m. local and things are flaring away, fire spreading fast. Smoke getting
really thick in the air, and strong smell of the fire even here in the shack.
This year's NAQP was better than the previous two years, but only marginally.
Nothing on 10M, and 15M was weak. The SteppIr 3-element played well on 20M once
the band tightened up a bit in late afternoon, but the drop in activity was
noticeable when folks fled for 40M while the sun was still high in the sky out
west here.
The 40M dipole did a great job -- better than the half-squares did last year,
and close to my best-ever 40M performance in 2007, despite the dipole being
only 27' in the air (tower left cranked down due to 50km/h gusts today... not
good for big wildfires or little towers).
80M was really bad until the final hour, so I spent more time on 40M than
planned. Last half hour of the contest saw 80M a bit stronger, but it never did
behave as well as it has recently. QSO count down but mults were good enough.
Get kinda spoiled running high power on 80M, and I was surprised at who heard
me with 100W tonight. Gotta love those twin 67' wire verticals and Christman
phasing.
Real-time scoring was fun to watch with Ed VE4EAR sticking close -- and leaping
ahead when I took my extended break. I know Ed wasn't running a KW on 40M but he
was one of the loudest stations I heard on that band tonight. Was secretly
hoping for massive openings on 6M for him, but am glad he got to play RTTY for
more hours instead. The Aurora Busters (VE4EAR, VY2SS, VA1CHP, VE6YR and VA7ST)
benefitted from the scarce VHF openings.
Lots of new-to-me calls in this one -- great stuff! A few 'really' new ops will
soon learn not to send an exchange before being acknowledged. Happened many
times and almost every time the errant caller drowned out other stations under
him who were trying to get through. I told a few guys "please wait for ack
before sending your exchange." I felt better, anyway.
Final few minutes were great fun, with K5CM in OK, KD7MSC in OR and then WA7YAZ
in UT back-to-back for new mults on 80M before the bell rang.
73 and thanks for the contacts!
-- Bud.
http://www3.telus.net/va7st
Year-over-year stats...
July 2006 July 2007 July 2008 July 2009
---------- ---------- --------- ---------
Band QSOs Sec QSOs Sec QSOs Sec QSOs Sec
3.5 65 27 50 12 50 19 39 20
7 110 38 113 41 104 41 120 42
14 115 38 172 44 133 43 160 43
21 74 30 14 6 24 10 38 16
28 54 20 1 1 1 1 0 0
Total 418 153 350 104 312 114 357 121
Score : 63,954 36,400 35,568 43,197
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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