To keep things even worldwide, the operating period starts at 00:00z July 1st (5pm PDT on Tuesday), ending at 00:00z a day later. Behind the scenes was solar flare activity that SHOT the Solar Flux Index (SFI) to over 200 (from 111 less than a week before). As I write this, the SFI seems to have leveled off @203. Unfortunately, the solar storms littered the bands with geomagnetic noise - no
band was safe from the noise.
While the RAC exchange still retains the 5-N-N opening, sending a Serial-# afterwards is where
the challenge lies. While any station can work any station, unless the station ius a VE/VA/VO/VY,
the QSO is only worth 2-points. Canadian stations are worth 10-points and Canadian RAC stations
are worth a whopping 20-points. Multipliers (Canadian call areas) can be counted once on each band. This is an incentive to spend time on 80 & 10 meters, (there is no 160-meter access in Ramona)., even
if the bands seem dead.
It turns out, a secret to higher scoring in the RAC contest is to call "CQ RAC" on a frequent basis. There are dozens of Canadians who are CALLERS not RUNNERS. It's always a delight when a new Mult or an RAC station calls in.
While I often run QRP from Ramona, when a chaotic solar backdrop occurs, running Low Power
(LP) is a bare-minimum requirement. Using a 3-el Stepp-IR and a 2-el Shorty-40 yagis is perfect
for 1st-bounce signals into most of Canada.
Predictably, geomagnetic noise
added to the already Randomness
of Ramona, behind the scenes @KN6NBT is frequent 3/4-sec internet "jitter" creating signal dropouts in the middle of morse code letters.
A station would call in with an S-9 signal and require 3-repeats when the Serial-#
got "jittered". When it was all over,
I was completely jitter-noised out - 00:00z was a "welcome relief".
A reported 29,664-point ending score surpassed my projection of 25-K points.
I consider this an overall excellent result when you consider what there was to work with.
Bottom-line: only one of each was found, and on different bands.
DiD YOU participate in the RAC Canada Day Contest?
How many VE-Mults and RAC stations were in YOUR Log?
