ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 2002
Call: TM5C Country: FRANCE
Mode: SSB Category: Multi Single
BAND QSO QSO PTS STATES/PROV
160 15 45 11
80 321 963 44
40 551 1653 52
20 1558 4674 59
15 1518 4554 59
10 2302 6906 59
-----------------------------------
Totals 6265 18795 284 = 5,337,780
Operator List: F6CTT - F5MUX - F5NLY - F5VCO - F4SGU
A "different" weekend to say the least.
Since CQWW we had planned a M2 effort to try out the category at the sun
spot peak...it was not to be...
"Electricite de France's" slogan "much more than just lighting" held true
for the whole weekend.
The local distribution network (20KV) kept the 160/80 and 40 meter needles
stuck on S9 ...sometimes higher!
The source of the QRM was found at 02h00 friday morning but despite offers
of wine, money and women no one came to replace the dodgy insulators!
An emergency beverage was errected WSW to try to reduce the noise - it did
but ofcourse weakened the NA signals!
At 22h00 friday (in a local restuarant) we still hadn't decided on our
category!...
4 single band efforts? M2 for the fun ? MS ? BBQ and vino?
Arriving back at F6CTT's place it was decided...we would RUN for 4 hours and
review the situation.
If we couldn't hear on the low bands we would continue using "TM5C" as a
SOSB entry and start 10 and 15 in the morning SOSB too.
Hours 1 and 2 saw the 416 QSOs in log on 20 - wow what a start! Hours 3 and
4 took us to 40 then 80 - the rate dropped by half...on 80m we ended up
listening on the 40m beam!
at 0414 we were back on 40 but things were tough...the 80m man had no
receive so we stopped to review.
The review lasted some 35minutes! F5NLY and F6CTT were asleep!
The stats showed we were still on target for a MS record but it was painful
listening to a pile up under the noise...
We decided to stay M/S.
We cracked on and the final figures speak for themselves. Excellent HF
condx. Good LF but no RX. Hence the holes in our mult totals compared to
last year. The QSO total is also down some 100+ QSOs (we lost 35 miutes
reviewing and some 30 minutes later after my 10 m tune up wasn't appreciated
by the AL1500!..)
Apologies to all that tried and with whom we made skeds with but couldn't
hear.
Thanks to Jo for having us. The day time piles (308 qrate max hr) made up
for the cold windy weather and long noisy nights!
See you all in WPX
F5VCO on behalf of the TM5C team
Richard Riley
Business Development Manager
France, Belgium and Francophone Africa
Home Office: +33(0)3-44-49-39-82
Fax: +33(0)3-44-49-39-56
Mob: +33(0)6-74-40-99-87
Lyon Office: +33(0)4-72-81-67-20
Email: richard.riley@exitelecoms.com
www.exitelecoms.com
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