SCARC US Islands 2020 Annual Contest

On Saturday August 29th, the Annual US Island contest was held. The goal of this 15-hour long event is for hams on US and Canadian islands to work as many other stations as possible (both island and non-islands) and for non-island stations to work as many islands as possible.

This year the W7PIG effort was mounted at the QTH of Lee - K7IOC on Camano Island. The plan was to do the same in 2020 as we had done in 2018, only better. Operations were conducted on the non-WARC bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, and 6. Modes included SSB, CW, PSK31. It was very hectic at times but everyone had a lot of fun with the contest! It also was good training experience. Glad we had some newcomers participate.

Participants at the "PIG-pen" (W7PIG) included: Sue - KK6SUE, Jim - K7AMF and Lee - K7IOC.
Supporters included rovers: Jerry - W6RKE, Nairy - KG7KCD, Steve - AC7SG, Dan - KA7GPP, Jason - KV7DX.
Others who helped us this year were: Tom - KD6TR, Jake - K7OPP, Curt - WR5J and Dave - AL2I.

Conditions were very challenging this year: marginal propagation, high noise levels for some of the rovers, some islands not accessible this year due to construction. Rover operation was improved over last time: have made notes for better coordination next time.

The SCARC results for the 2020 Contest:

	Contacts: 284	States worked: 20	Provinces worked: 3
	Territories: 1	Unique Islands: 25	Total island contacts: 56
	As in the past, Rovers were key to our Club's success.
	Final Score: 317,696 points. FIRST PLACE in Fixed Station & FIRST PLACE Over-all! In addition, Dan - KG7GPP earned Second Place in the Rover Category.

For more information about the SCARC US Island Contest efforts, contact:
Lee - K7IOC Email: K7IOC (at) ARRL.net

For more information about the US Islands program, please see US Islands.