The YL Contest Advantage?

A Communicator Reprise...

May 2014

When the idea of a YL only operation for a contest was suggested we considered a smaller contest like a QSO party or something like that. However when it was discussed, the YL's wanted something that would provide more activity so the CQ WW WPX SSB contest was chosen. It would be hosted at VE7IO.

Participants were six enthusiastic YL's, Marcy VE7JT, Christine VA7NLF,  Margaret VE7TJF, Pam VE7PFH, Jeannie VA7QLT and Shirley VE7SHL. We used the call sign VE7JT.

Contest weekend arrived, the schedule was in place and everyone was keen to get going.  We operated two radios in the high power category and happily everything worked well.  We had to leave the night time operation dark, no pun intended, due to family commitments but the early morning and evening operation was covered. 

By time they shut down on Friday we realized that this was going to be a good opportunity for the YLs.  Band conditions were looking very good and everyone now realized that this was going to be a fun weekend. Their best bands were 10, 15 and 20 meters with DX continuing to be heard late in the evening. They did not operate overnight and only had a very short opportunity to work 40m.

Over the past 3 years we have conducted contest training sessions here at VE7IO, VE7FO and VA7XB. The training program has been very successful and we can now proudly list a number of new very good contesters. The program has sparked interest in contesting so when the YL's asked if they could do a YL only contest entry with a training component it sounded like a great idea.  Two of the operators were skilled in the "run" mode and this served to motivate the others as they watched and heard the DX stations calling us.  With such good openings to the DX world, the "S&P" operators were able to log multipliers and  see how their contributions increased the overall score.  Between the "run" operation and the multipliers being added by the "S&P" operators, everyone had a great time and would definitely like to do this again.

Stan VA7NF dropped in on the Saturday to help with station management and plan strategy, the ladies just kept busy on the radios. Stan stayed most of the day and we both enjoyed assisting with band changes and monitoring activity.

For me this was the first time ever hosting an entirely YL group and it was great fun.  We operated Multi/Multi (M/M) which gave us lots of latitude in making band changes and operating in the assisted mode.  As a M/M entry they were nowhere near the big gun stations but the YL's were very proud of their accomplishment, having fun, learning new skills and achieving a reasonably good score.

It certainly seemed an advantage to have an all YL station. Whether it's their voice or their charm (they always added a greeting to their QSO) they always got a great response.

Operating time: 27 hrs. Score: 2,945,743

The graph clearly shows the down times but when they were on the air they did well.

~ Fred VE7IO