11/23/2009 | VY1RST VY1RST Soap Box

My XYL Claire, WL7MY and I made about 400 Qs in 3 days of operating before and during November SS phone contest from
Buckshot Bettys Cafand Cabins in Beaver Creek, Yukon.
Band conditions were horriblethe very worst Ive seen in two decades of hamming in the north. QRM/QRN (solid S5-S7 noise level under the Aurora Borealis) and big time QSB most of the time. We did enjoy 3 or 4 short opening on 15 and 20 meters which helped our big QSO count, hi hi! Temperatures hovered around minus 30F with day time highs of -15! To be safe, I kept our truck running the last 2 nights. In the rustic cabin we were really roughing it with all the creature comforts including satellite TV and Wi-Fi! By email we were able to stay in touch with friends (skeds!) and even order a pizza from Buckshot Betty!

Mr. Murphy stopped by on day 2 and jinxed the receive on our TS-570D but little did he know we also had a pair of TS-50s along and several wire antennas just in case! Our antenna farm consisted of a Shakespeare 2010 vertical (20-10 meters) at around 18 feet high on my old antenna raiser (1) and a homebrew 20 meter horizontal V beam (up about 10 feet) made from wave CB verticals which did quite well (2)! Antenna farm on attached photo.

Heres how we did:
15MAL, AR, CA, CT, ID, IL, MA, MI, MD, MO, MT, MS, NC,
OR, OH, NJ, NY, VA, GA, TX, WA, PA, Hawaii, Puerto Rico,
Alberta, Br. Columbia and Ontario.

17MWA, ID, OR, Japan (tons!), Alberta and Brunei.

20MWA, KS, CA, IA, IL, IN, ID, AL, SC, MN, MI, MT, ME, MO, TX, TN, UT, ND, OH, OR, PA, WI, NC, Alberta, Br. Columbia, Hawaii, Guam, Russia (several) and Japan (tons!).

40MWA and CAhey, its not supposed to work on 40!

All the thanks for a new one made it worthwhile. Icing on the cake was over 600 hits for VY1RST in 2 days on QRZ.com!
73 de Yukon John, KL7JR

(1) www.hamuniverse.com/kl7jrantennaraiser.html
(2) www.hamuniverse.com/kl7jrcbverticals.html -- KL7JR