VE3FU / 
CQ160CW 2006 Contest
Dave VO1AU / VO2AAA (now also VE9CB) and I were active during the 2006 CQ160 CW contest from the lighthouse at Point Amour, Labrador.
We arrived separately on the South East coast of Labrador on the Wednesday before the contest. We met up Thursday morning and went out to Point Amour to start setting up. The road was clear, so we could drive right up to the fence, but the yard was too full of ice and snow for us to drive any further.
We started setting up the station (2x TS-950SD and a TL-922) in the fog alarm building, where there was electricity and heat. We suspended the two TX antennas, a sloping vertical with three radials and an inverted vee, from the lighthouse relatively easily and quickly. The winds picked up as the day wore on.
On Friday the winds were screaming strong and they stayed that way until Saturday night. At times, when trying to set up the reversible Beverage (aimed at EU), it was all we could do to remain standing. We managed to get the Beverage strung out and a few radials at each end (good luck trying to drive a ground rod up there at this time of the year!) before we came to our senses and got out of the weather. With a lack of supports, the wind, not us, decided which way the Beverage wire would go. The wind, coupled with temperatures in the -5º to -10ºC range, wore us out and made us very cold.
Afterwards, several long-term residents told us they had never seen such winds, and never for such a long period. At Brador QC, about 50km west of us, they were clocked at 190km/h! They couldn't have been much less than that at Point Amour.
Because of the wind, we lost power at Point Amour on Friday morning. As the start of the contest approached, we were getting more nervous. We eventually learned that Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro had given up on fixing the line until Saturday, so we rented a generator in L'Anse au Loup.
So, with that generator, we had enough power to power the rigs, amp and computers, but not the heater, so we began the contest with full power, full logging, but no heat. We resolved to operate until the generator ran out of gas, and that took us to 0715Z (3:45am local) Saturday morning. Being worn down by wind and cold, the generator cutting out was welcome, even though the first night's runs were very good.
At 1430Z (11am local) Saturday, the power came back on (NL Hydro replaced three insulators), so we returned the generator, even though the winds remained very high.
At about 1730Z (2pm local), we were ready to go back at it, and Europeans were audible. They were actually workable shortly after, and the second night got off to a great start. We carried on until well after sunrise, all the while thinking we were in catch-up mode, with frayed nerves. Our score at that point would have beaten the previous year's 3rd place WW Multi-op score, so we were pretty pleased.
Late during that second night, the winds went from screaming strong to just about calm in a matter of a few minutes. It was eerie.
At times, the band sounded like 20m. There was not internet access at the operating site, so we could not access the DX clusters to help find new multipliers. We worked all States except Idaho (never heard one, despite intensive searching on the second rig) and all VE mults except VY1, VE8, and VY0. There were only two multipliers that we heard but were unable to work: ZL6QH and V51AS. One of them (I don't remember which one) copied "O2A" before starting another CQ.
We lost about five hours of good operating time due to the storm + power failure + cold and had no packet assistance.
Despite the wind and loss of power, we had a great time!
Results
Claimed Score: QSOs = 1523 State/Prov = 59 Countries = 70 Total Score = 1,479,372
Final Score: QSOs = 1506 State/Prov = 59 Countries = 71 Total Score = 1,473,290
#1 World Multi-Operator High Power
