Two Weekends Two Contests Two Calls

Back to back contesting, love it.  I had a lot of fun this month working two contests, two weekends and under two calls.

The first was the ARRL 10 Meter contest.  I ran as a Single Op Low Power Phone entrant and was aiming for 200 contacts.  That did not come to pass but, I was able to make a total of 155 contacts with 50 multipliers and a nice score, 15,500 points.  That is a record for the station.  The thrill of the contest for me was working Quebec at around 8 Sunday morning.  For those who are non hams working a local on 10 requires being very close to each other   I used to chat with a group of hams in Ontario on 10 nightly when i lived in Hamilton.  These stations were all running power and had good antennas and were relatively close.  This allowed for what is commonly known as ground wave contacts.  The band was just right to work VA2EM to get my QC multiplier.  A few minutes before or after and I might never have worked him as 10 began to lengthen out as the sun rose.

Generally speaking Europe was present on the band up to about 1700Z then the west coast kicked in.  Lots of Texas, Colorado and California along with a few other west coast states filled the frequencies after Europe faded into the noise.  I did hear one African station but, the pile up was to big to break and I had to let him get away, eh next year I will get him, I hope.

Next up RAC Winter, I made 20 contacts under my call then headed to VE2NGH's station.  George had done some work the night before giving the team a bit of a pad.  After the hey how are ya guys and a coffee with some chips George loaded the rig up on 15 and I began to run the station.  By the time I handed the mike over to Sheldon VA2SH I had brought the total QSOs up to 160 give or take.  Sheldon, Paul VE2OFH and George tried their hand at running a pile up and did a fantastic job.  Here is the cool part we worked DX of the back of the beam including a VK.

The NGH crew racked a total of 450 contacts and scored over 95K in points.  We also worked QC on 6 and 2M.  And, we got every province and territory.  Hey Geroge you can apply for that Worked All Provinces Award.  Besides the contesting the food ah that was great, pasta with meat sauce and apple pie for desert.  I don't think the other guys will mind my saying thanks George it's always a pleasure to op a contest with you.

Next month NAQP for me as VA2UTC rings in the new year and as for the NGH crew, we should be, barring any Murphy interventions, on the air during the ARRL International DX Contest.

73 to all and happy new year.

Cliff