CANADA DAY KICKS OFF SECOND HALF OF 2007 CONTEST YEAR

By Jamie Dupree NS3T 

Unlike the RAC Winter contest, the Canada Day contest doesn't stick to a weekend, so the fact that it's on a Sunday this year should spur even more competition in 2007.

The VE-based contest helps celebrate the national holiday of Canada Day on July 1st, and as the name implies, the more Canadian stations you find on the bands, the better.

Last year's single operator high power winner will be back to defend his title in 2007 from his city lot in St. Catharine's, Ontario, as Glenn Wyant VA3DX looks for a repeat.

His strategy is quite "simple really, work as many VE's and VE sections as possible, since the scoring is weighted towards VE contacts," said Wyant.

One of his tricks: "I try to operate in the same area as the VE nets on 80 meters, says Wyant. "Quite a few of the guys will give me points this way."

It worked last year for Wyant, as he totaled over 365,000 points.

There are more categories now in the Canada Day and RAC Winter contests, which has clearly made more operators take the time to battle for some VE wood.

For example, Howard Dickson VE1DHD, who won the single operator all band SSB plaque last year.

"I have always enjoyed the RAC contests, but because I don't operate in the CW mode, I was never really competitive in the RAC contests" said Dickson. But with separate CW and Phone categories now, Dickson said it gave him more reason to operate.

"I was delighted and I must say, surprised to have taken the top spot in the 2006 Canada Day contest for SOAB Phone, and will do my best this year to keep the title."

Dickson has installed a new 160 meter sloper to give him a better chance at multipliers. "Getting a 'clean sweep' of all 10 of our provinces and the three territories is also an important objective for success," said Dickson, who admits he still hasn't done it.

"There are so few stations in the north - Yukon, Northwest Territories, and particularly Nunavut, that finding them and working them is tough."

Also in this contest, don't forget the official RAC stations, which are worth a bonus of 20 points each. They are easy to identify by their "RAC" suffix.

Canada Day is a 24 hour contest, so for operators in the US and Canada, it starts on Saturday evening local time and goes until Sunday evening. And don't think that only Canadian stations can win - K4LTA won first place last year in single op all band CW and K6LA won a plaque for highest score outside of Canada!

The Canada Day contest begins at 0000z on July 1 and ends at 2359z. For more information, check out the Canada Day rules or go to the RAC website at http://www.rac.ca .