ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: M5E
Operator(s): G0CKV, JK3GAD, OH1VR, W6NV
Station: GB2GM
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Cornwall
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 318 43
80: 472 47
40: 1479 58
20: 1353 58
15: 1415 59
10: 831 50
-------------------
Total: 5868 315 Total Score = 5,531,085
Club: Chiltern DX Club
Comments:
We (Kazu- JK3GAD, Oliver - W6NV, Seppo - OH1VR and Olof - G0CKV) had such great
fun last year (see
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/3830/2012-02/msg02159.html) when we
built a dx-ped/field-day style setup in SW England that we decided to go back
for ARRL CW this year.
We built our antenna farm similar to last year's with a 3-el monobander for 15
at 30ft, another 3-el monobander for 20 at 40ft. An enhancement was a
2x4-element stack for 10 below the 20m yagi. We swapped our inverted-L for a
13m toploaded vertical (a T) for 160 and our 80m inverted L was scrapped in
favor of an endfire array of two 15m umbrella verticals. For 40 we built a
broadside array of two endfire cells of verticals. A 240m beverage helped us
hear well on 160/80/40. The new ten-meter antennas served us very well and the
4-element 40m array was a star performer also on receive. The 80m array was a
disappointment or the local condx were poor - we clearly underperformed on 80.
Last year we had such good help from Oliver's xyl Ann with our radials for the
verticals that we decided to do more of them. Our 4 40m verticals had 32 10m
radials each and the 80 and 160m radials had 32 20m radials each. If my
late-night math is correct this means that 224 temporary radials had to be laid
out equivalent to 6400m pretty repetitive walk. Ann is now of the view that we
don't need to add any more radials, ever. Thank you Ann for your heroic
effort.
Conditions must have been quite reasonable. We had our fair share of challenges
such as horisontal rain and strong winds on this exposed site but we survived.
WinTest and the MicroHam boxes with a couple of small contest-dedicated PCs
helped us automate the station and the setup was well behaved.
We had hoped to have a rematch with M6T but they were nowhere to be seen this
year - did they chicken out :-) ?
Dmitry's cqcontest.ru site is great fun and increases the transparency and
excitement. We were trying to chase the EF7X team but we didn't quite make it -
our 80m underperformance and the somewhat shorter openings at our more northerly
QTH held us back. But we have no complaints. This SW England location is still
better placed than locations more east and north of us. Congratulations to the
EF7X gang.
Special thanks to the Marconi Center and the Poldhu Radio Club for allowing us
to use their site. Several club members showed up to help us build up the
antennas and lay out long runs of coax and on Monday after the contest we took
it all down and packed up in a single day with their help. One XYL fed us with
freshly home-baked buns every day we were on site. We thank them for their
great support and good humour.
Our team will now switch side and mode and be QRV as W6WB for the ARRL SSB
weekend from the US West Coast. M5E will probably next be heard in RDXC and WPX
CW but then from its usual home in suburban London running LP and wet strings.
73 de Olof G0CKV (SM6CKV W6CKV M5E)
PS - We worked an astounding 123 stations on 6 bands:
NQ4I NR4M K3LR NY4A K1LZ VE3JM
K3ZO N2LBR N2MM W2RE W3LPL KB1H
W1GD W2CG N4DW N4HB N9CK W6AAN
WK1Q K2PLF NE3F N3QE N3RS W0AIH
N1EN K4MF NA3M K1AR W2FU VE9AA
N1WR N4TZ W2IRT W4GDG VE3CX KB1EFS
W5WMU AA1K W1CSM W2LK VY2TT N2WK
K3MD W1WEF KR4F N3RR K5WA N8UM
AC5K W4YE K2AX AD4EB N8PR AA3B
AA9A NE3H K8MFO W1EQ N2NT VE1RGB
AA1V W1GQ K0KX K2MK K1LT K4AB
W3EKT VE9ML WB8JUI K5ZD KF2O W1CTN
K8GL K3TC K3CT K3NK N4PSE AB2E
W5RU K2UF NA8V N4VV W2YC W0UO
W4AA N2CU K5GO K5TR WN9O N0IJ
K0AV K3WW K1ZZ WA2VYA K9CT N8BJQ
K9NW K1HI KU8E K2QMF K3EL K7BV
K8YM K1TO N5AW K4TCG K5GN K3CR
WB2ABD K9MMS N4WW N4YDU K5RX N4NX
W8MJ N0NI K0TV K2LS W3GQ VE3UTT
K3BTK NN1N W2YE
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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