ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: G6PZ
Operator(s): GI0RTN
Station: G6PZ
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Somerset,IO81ml
Operating Time (hrs): 41.25
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 131 26
80: 518 57
40: 1113 57
20: 957 59
15: 653 51
10: 36 22
-------------------
Total: 3428 282 Total Score = 2,900,088
Club: Chiltern DX Club
Comments:
I'm completely knackered but afraid to fall asleep as I am on the first Bristol
to Belfast flight this morning and I need to stay awake until the taxi comes,
so I'm doing my 3830 posting now. This may not be entirely coherent as a
comment post.
Firstly, thanks to Paul for the use of a station which has become what Paul set
out to make it 9 years ago when he started all this. Took a while, but he got
there in the end, and the journey has been fun, for Paul and for all of us who
have operated here. On 40 and 80, I think we are now as loud in the Americas as
any station actually in Europe (hey you Finns, the Azores don't count!); while
here on Europe's western edge, we'll never compete with M6T, let alone stations
further east, into Asia and the Pacific, our big advantage lies on being within
a few miles of England's south-west coast, and we're making the most of that
advantage. ARRL DX is the contest to just sit back and enjoy having a great
station in a great location and spend a week running the many great contest
operators in the US and Canada.
The last time I operated ARRL DX CW seriously was in 1992; this was before I
was licensed - I had passed the technical exam, but I was waiting for the
chance to do the morse test in Belfast so I was operating another ham's station
(since deceased) according to the 'under supervision' provision of UK radio
licensing law. Ironically, that 'preparation' for my 12 wpm morse test was my
introduction to CW contesting, and what fun I've had in the intervening 19
years! So this weekend was something of a very large wheel coming full circle.
It's always great to have Paul's station all to yourself; as anyone who has
operated with me knows, I like *long* operating stints. Still miss the gang
though - had this been a multi-op effort, I wouldn't be feeling quite so
strange just now, and would be probably quite drunk and having a laugh with a
great bunch of pals. Non-contesting hams just don't know what a great sub-hobby
this is. You just don't have any other mates like your contesting mates.
Also, massive thanks to Mark, M0DXR, who operated G5W from G3BJ's place, just
150km or so to the north of here, also in England's far west, and to Don for
laying on the station. Knowing a great operator like Mark was pushing me every
step of the way from a great station and wanted the win every bit as badly as I
did was a huge motivator for keeping my arse in the chair during the miserable
hours around sunrise on Sunday and when the ionosphere just didn't want to play
ball early on Sunday afternoon. Mark made sure I ground out every QSO and every
mult I possibly could. Mark cleaned my clock on 160 with Don's beverage, and I
cleaned his on 40 and with mults on 80 - otherwise the honours were even and
reflected the balance of operating time. Ultimately, 15 extra mults on 160
weren't enough to overcome 400 extra Qs on 40; that's the difference between a
3 ele MonstIR and a 2 ele shorty-forty.
Thanks also to all the great ops at the other end and especially those from
rare states and provinces who happily QSYed as long as they had the technical
capacity to do so, even when I asked them to try some odd skew paths on 10 or
unlikely prospects on 160. Some of those even worked sometimes. My one obvious
mult mistake was that having moved VO1SA from 15 to 20, I asked him to try a
weird skew path on 10 (which didn't work) instead of an all daylight path on
40, which given a relatively short distance all over ocean and the huge antenna
horsepower here on 40, probably would have worked. Learning point noted! And
where were all the Newfies this year, anyway? Those were my only 2 QSOs with
VO1.
Started the contest with back to back hours of 181 and 174 on 40; nothing
special for many. But from boring old England - nobody wastes too much time in
a pileup on a G station - in ARRL, with crummy conditions, this was pretty
good. It also gave be a big early lead over G5W, which despite great operating
from Mark, especially on 160, he never entirely overcame. I never came close to
this sort of rate on HF, with a few hours in the 140s on 20 and 15 being the
next best. Mark thought I might have missed the skew path opening on 10 and
given him an opportunity; apparently I wasn't spotted on the cluster when CQing
to a bag of mults up there on Saturday mid-afternoon. Well, I have many failings
as a contest operator, most notably a complete ignorance of electronics and
inability to so much as use a soldering iron; but I know my propagation and
when a proper 10 metre opening didn't materialise, given an SFI over 100, I
wasn't going to forget to go W hunting with my antenna on Brazil, was I?
Apart from that it was run, run, run some more. With a good signal, no SO2R,
and no cluster, it usually makes sense just to let mults come to you in this
one, and move them if you need to. As well as a few mults in the northwest, I
still had Arkansas missing on 15 as the band closed on Saturday, but knew K5GO
would be around somewhere and he was the second station I came across as I
tuned from my run frequency to the bottom of the band. I also waited a
strangely long time for Kentucky on 20, but once the first popped up on Sunday
afternoon, I think I worked 6 in the following half an hour. Missed various
western VE provinces on a number of bands but got the full house of US mults on
80, 40 and 20 with somme of the less populated states in northern W7 missing on
15. Mark got a VE7 on 15 from G5W, but I never heard a sniff here; even WA was
pretty tough.
W3DQ does a great job for DC in this contest, even on 80. As a city dweller I
know how tough that is.
Setting up on Friday afternoon, I was running stations in the Rockies on 10
like they were next door. Propagation looked so promising last week but in the
end it was just beyond crap for long periods. That's contesting. You deal with
what the propagation gods throw at you as best you can. At least 15 was pretty
open on Saturday and on bursts late on Sunday afternoon.
It would have been nice to have a record breaking year and I had fantasies of
200+ hours on 10 metres but it never happened especially when we came close to
the magic mark a couple of times on 15 in WW CW with a much lower solar flux.
Maybe we'll get some 300+ hours on 10 in the SSB leg. Here's hoping.
I enjoyed this a lot. See you all with the rest of the gang from G6PZ for a
multi-op effort (not sure if M/S or M/2) in the SSB leg. Better run. Taxi is
here soon.
73
Gerry Gi0RTN
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