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See our photos
from the 1999 expedition! (Many images; may be slow to load)
| BAND,
CALL |
160m SSB
VA2DXE |
80m SSB
VA2BY |
40m SSB
VA2RHJ |
20m SSB
VA2KCE |
15m SSB
VA2SRE |
10m SSB
VA2VFT |
| CQ WW DX
CATEGORY |
single operator
single band low power |
single operator
single band high power |
multi operator
single transmitter (single band) |
single operator
single band high power |
single operator
single band low power |
single operator
single band low power |
| RESULTS
final |
69 QSOs
3 Zones 2 Countries 570 points |
903 QSOs
16 Zones 37 Countries 81,249 points |
367 QSOs
13 Zones 32 Countries 29,610 points |
1215 QSOs
23 Zones 77 Countries 244,800 points |
643 QSOs
25 Zones 78 Countries 159,959 points |
227 QSOs
21 Zones 64 Countries 51,255 points |
| RIG | Yaesu FT100 | Yaesu FT1000
Heathkit SB220 amplifier Honda 6.5 kw generator |
Ten-Tec Triton IV
Heathkit SB200 amplifier Coleman 5 kw generator |
Kenwood TS870S
Dentron Clipperton L amplifier Coleman 6 kw generator |
Kenwood TS690S
Honda 5 kw generator |
Kenwood TS850 or Yaesu FT990
Honda 5 kw generator |
| ANTENNA | top loaded 55 ft. vertical | two phased verticals | directional array of five sloping dipoles | Homebrew shortened 3 element monoband, up 33 feet. | 3 element monoband beam | 3 element monoband beam |
|
OPERATORS (with email) |
Kim, VE3DXE | Carl, VE3BY | Brad, VE3RHJ
Wendy, VA3RHJ |
John, VE3ZJX | Bob, VE3SRE | Rick, VE3VFT |
| ASSISTANTS | Karel, VE3KCE
Manfred, VA3RMF Vera, VA3VAM Marie, VA3MFE |
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| QSL INFO | via bureau, or direct:
Kim Styan, VE3DXE RR #1 Glencairn, Ontario L0M 1K0 Canada ve3dxe@rac.ca |
via bureau, or direct:
Carl Styan, VE3BY RR #1 Glencairn, Ontario L0M 1K0 Canada ve3by@bmts.com |
via bureau, or direct:
Brad Rodriguez, VE3RHJ Box 84 Markdale, Ontario N0C 1H0 Canada ve3rhj@rac.ca |
via bureau, or direct:
Karel Ebenstreit, VE3KCE P.O. Box 1708 Port Elgin, Ontario Canada ve3kce@rac.ca |
| 160m | |
| 80m | |
| 40m | Our team arrived a day late because our Ford Explorer blew a spark
plug on the journey up, too late to get repairs the same day. We arrived
Friday at 9:30 am, and managed with frantic effort to set up antenna, rig,
generator, and camper by 7:30 pm, half an hour before the start of the
contest. Then we discovered that our transceiver had been damaged in transit.
While reparing the main rig, we made a few low-power contacts on Day One
with a backup rig. We became fully operational about 22 hours into the
contest. After repairs, though, all our equipment performed well, and we
were particularly pleased with the performance of the K1WA five-sloper
antenna system (from the 1991 ARRL Antenna Book). Special thanks to Stan,
VA3ZON, for loaning us the antenna mast.
This was the first contest for operator Wendy, VA3RHJ, and she proved the old saying that a female voice is worth one S-unit on the ham bands. Our only regret is that lack of sleep caught up with us during the contest, and we were only able to operate a total of 17 hours. |
| 20m | Our 20 m band group arrived at Lac Ouescapis site on Oct.29,99. Half
of the group was from the Ottawa region, John VE3ZJX, Fred VA3RFM with
John's wife Vera. They drove over night, arrived around 10AM through the
snow and freezing rain. The other half from Port Elgin arrived later afternoon
- Karel VE3KCE with his wife Marie.
To our surprise, all six antenna end elements disappeared somewhere on highways on the way up from Port Elgin. We had to attach temporary rods (obtained from well equiped VE3BY) to the elements. We then cut rods and tuned the fed element with MFJ 259B then calculated the sizes of remaining elements. With Drake 3 kW tuner, antenna worked well. Then Karel, VE3KCE just before the contest began, got hit by the Great White North "cold", spending next couple of days mainly in bed. John, VE3ZJX became the operator of the VA2KCE station. With only few hours of sleep during the entire 48 hour contest, but still being able to contribute few hours to other group to put up and repair their equipment, John was able to make 1259 contacts with 80 countries in 24 zones, 292,032 points (using radio's internal speaker only). Not bad for a relatively new contester! We all arived home safe, hoping to do it again. |
| 15m | Not exactly a stellar performance given the QTH. Mr. Murphy was present
at all times! The three element monobander was not working properly until
late Saturday afternoon till Carl VE3BY and our resident tower guy Fred
VA3RMF performed some emergency surgery. Could not use the amp because
the antenna was way out of whack. After the surgery, the antenna's SWR
dropped down to 1.6:1 and was essentially performing as a dipole with very
little in the way of directional characteristics but at least was in the
ballpark. Since I started the contest low power, I figured I may as well
finish it that way. Also, every time I transmitted I totally wiped out
our 10 meter station VA2VFT so had to sort of "take turns" to allow him
some air time.
Nevertheless got in at least one good USA run on Saturday and a couple of good European runs on Sunday. We were running out of gasoline late Saturday afternoon so had to make a trip into Matagami (80 km. away) to fill some more containers so we could operate Sunday....so missed getting any sort of half-decent run into "JA". A word to "CT" users and possibly other computer logging programmes. The province of Quebec north of 50 degrees is in Zone 2, while to the south is in Zone 5. "CT" automatically defaults to Zone 5 whenever you enter a Quebec callsign. Several stations didn't even bother to listen to me give my "5902" exchange. So in addition to being rude, lost a multiplier. Remember a valid contact is a valid "two-way" contact not a one-way contact. As well, the VA2, VA3 and VA7 prefixes have been assigned to Canada for regular amateur use for quite some time in addition to VE2, VE3, and VE7. Please take the time to listen to what the callsign is and not what you think it is. In any case had a wonderful time, the company was great and plan to do it all over again next year! |
| 10m | |
| 6m | Alas, we did not have time to try for any 6 metre (non-contest) contacts. |
