ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: VE8EV
Operator(s): VE8EV
Station: VE8EV
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: Inuvik, NT
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
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160:
80:
40: 23
20: 160
15: 814
10: 7
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Total: 1004 Sections = 83 Total Score = 166,664
Comments:
My notes from SS last year said "try harder" so I resolved to keep my butt in the chair and work the radio hard. I got off to a good start on the high bands and then suffered through the usual Saturday night 10-per-hour doldrums (no, I still haven't got the 40m yagi up yet...) Six hours of sleep and then back in the chair at 1200z expecting to make some hay on 20m but thanks to the ongoing geomagnetic disturbance things didn't go as planned.
Forty-five minutes of CQing to put the first Q in the log, W1WMU, who sounded like someone with their head inside of a full fishbowl. The second Q didn't come for another 45 minutes and that pretty much set the tone for rest of the morning. At times there was nothing at all on any of the bands and when signals did peak out of the noise it was hard to get heard even with power and the big yagi. It reminded me of the "bad old days" a few years ago at the bottom of the cycle! Mercifully the electric overcast finally relented around 1900z and I pushed hard to at least make the sweep and get some Q's in the log.
Nice to see all the activity from NT, I think there were almost ten of us battling to get out from under the aurora this year.
73
John VE8EV
1 comment:
We in Fairbanks endured 11 hours of radio silence on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and too many other periods of 2-4 per hours rates. Thanks for working KL2R! We had GER and DAV in the log as well.
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