The club had a very good Zoom meeting Thursday evening (Feb. 27th). Seventeen members joined together to have a conversation about the club. More than half of the attendees were from locations other than Victoria. It was great to have them on the call.
Numerous ideas were discussed: some big, some small. Basically, it was “How do we keep the club fresh? How do we keep things from getting stale?”
It’s about balance. If the club gets too big with a bunch of new initiatives, we may flounder. If we stay as we are, we may wither. Fortunately we talked about ideas that are “implementable”. And three or four things seem to keep members happy: the occasional members’ emails with news; the occasional blog post; club Zoom calls; and focused emails (e.g, contesting) for members interested in… contesting.
One new thing will soon be implemented. A website page focused on portable HF operations e.g., mobile HF operations and POTA HF operations.
On February 15th Duane Sandmeyer VE7UF opened his contest station to Rado VA7OO, Nedo VA7AO, and Gabor VE7JH (an IslandHF member). They were on a mission. Read how they accomplished it. Congratulations to Duane and his team.
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Big thanks to VE7UF for hosting our motley crew at his superb contest station. This time almost everything worked as advertised, the biggest problem we had was an intermittent PTT cable that we fixed in 10 minutes. I wish every contest would be this glitch-free. Our goal was to set a new British Columbia (BC, or VE7-land) M/S record, by beating the current 1.8M points. For this purpose twin brothers Rade and Nedo took the 2 hour ferry ride from the Mainland to our Vancouver Island QTH. Their enthusiasm was contagious and we kept going in very good spirits with our heads and keying speed held high even rates were low and we couldn’t break a pileup. With the ongoing stormy solar conditions we were quite apprehensive at the start as the bands were very quiet at 2350. But then BOOM, at 0000 the switch was flipped on. This was our first “real” M/S effort. Took a while to fully take advantage of the 10QSY/hr rule and the bands being in quite good shape hard decisions had to be made to maximize the score. We learnt a lot about strategy, but I think we did very well and by the second day got into a very good rhythm. Having “butts in chair” ensured a steady stream of QSOs, the worst hour was 18 while coming very close but never actually breaking 100/hr due to a) our location on the world map, b) hunting mults. Conditions were surprisingly “okay” with the usual caveats that we are all very used to out here in the Pacific North West. This just means that with the exception of AS/OC we just have to wait our turns until the rest of NA station “work the mult” and that those EU openings are short and weak. Big thanks to our friends in the Land of the Rising Sun with 975 JA QSOs in the log. With 118 DXCC contacted, we had 30+ QSOs with the following, in decreasing order: JA, DL, UA3, PY, UA9, I, HA, EA, F, SP, OK, S5, G, YB, KH6, HL. Great activity from our DX friends and we hope we were able to colour the box next to “BC” on their multiplier table. We achieved our goal with flying colours and are very satisfied being able to cross the 3M point mark. 73 à tous and hope to see you in 2026!
Big thank-you’s to Alan VE7UBA and Roger VE7AP for introducing Peter VE7PLI and Ram VE7RPD to the engaging world of radio amateur contesting, in this instance the BC QSO Party. It was a success all the way around. Alan and Roger seen below.
Here are some comments from all four hams after the QSO party.
“Sitting with Alan VE7UBA in his shack for two hours, watching him while contesting, listening to his hints and explanations and being able to ask all the silly questions that were spinning in my head: this was a unique experience! Really the best way of learning. Thanks so much, Alan for having me in your shack and sharing your knowledge. And thanks Glenn for creating this opportunity.”
73 Peter VE7PLI
“It was really great experience for me to meet a ham veteran in person (in my case that was Roger Palmer) to learn the related aspects of contests and helpful software applications, tips and tricks etc.
I read contest documentation couple of times; however, I was not confident that I understood well enough.
Only when Roger practically walked me through and explained the details, I was able to easily follow to the extent, that I am now confident to builda HF antenna on my own and anticipating to use by tomorrow with my HF radio ( gifted by John Eyre VE7JEY).
I would like to sincerely thank you (Glenn) for arranging my meet/learn with Roger today.”
Hi Ram;
I enjoyed meeting with you on Saturday, and am glad that you found our session useful! After you left, I made a few more SSB and CW contacts, and I have posted the end result (53 contacts, 10,364 points) on the 3830 Score Summary web site:
From Alan: “Peter – it was a pleasure to have you visit my shack. A positive experience all ’round. Good luck with your contesting… 73”
And congratulations to Peter!!!! His first contest!!!
Yes, it was excellent and …. see the results attached: my first contesting ever. Not a lot yet, due to the miserable conditions (and my lack of experience), but 100% more than ever!
