The evening of November 11th saw an IslandHF SSB contest team work the NA SSB Sprint Contest. The team members were Ron Richter VE7IRR, Curt Smecher VE7CAS, John Erskine VE7MHI and Glenn Lindsey VA7HC. Ron was located in Langford, Curt in Bamfield, and John and Glenn in Victoria.

The contest was four hours long (4pm – 8pm local) but most members worked less than that. Personally I worked contacts for 2 hours. Since I was mobile working from the Oak Bay Marina, I finished in the dark and cold.

I found the contest invigorating. Unlike many contests, an operator can not sit on a frequency. Once a contact is complete, the originating operator must QSY. I worked 20 meters which was open for 2 hours. I made contacts from New York, to Florida, to California and up into Alaska. Operators were chock-a-block.

Two other bands were part of the contest: 80 meters and 40 meters.

All in all, it was a great team contest. Thanks to Ron, Curt and John.