And didn't Shackelton or Byrd describe South Sandwich as the worst place on
earth? I agree that they would not be very good places to operate from in
general. However, in a contest they might be rare enough to generate their own
propagation. South Shetlands loses that rarity advantage.
73s JOhn NE0P
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: lew <lew@dsl-only.net>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:20:59 -0800
>John Geiger wrote:
>
>>I know that the best contest location has been discussed many times before,
>>and I seem to remember that EA8 came out on top. But here is a twist on
>>this-what is the worst contesting location, based on propagation, geography,
>>rarity, etc.
>>
>>One place I would propose would be the South Shetland Islands-but I could be
>>very wrong. It seems that the SSI are far enough south to be in the aurora
>>zone, they aren't close to any large ham population centers except for LU and
>>PY, and they are in a pretty common CQ zone. >From a propagation and
>>location standpoint Heard Is. and the FT5 islands would probably be even
>>worse, but they are so rare that it would overcome those factors, and they
>>are in a rarer CQ zone for the CQWW also.
>>
>>Anyone else have ideas on this?
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Hi John,
> That's a very interesting question you've posed. A few years
>ago a few Micro-lite friends and I went to South Georgia and South
>Sandwich Islands. Then this past March we hung out on Kerguelen having
>pile-ups and fun as we cruised the South Indian Ocean. These places are
>remote and generally inhospitable and don't come with very many
>amenities. We were primarily DXing and not contesting although pile-up
>control is somewhat similar. Both adventures were huge amounts of fun
>with boredom and bottomless pile-ups and multiple distractions to amaze
>and distract us.
> I'd suggest that the worst place to contest from would be South
>Sandwich Island. Several reasons would be: the most remote location to
>get to and from, No close encampment of people, Terrible weather,
>creatures in the water that will eat you if you fall in, zero
>infrastructure (you bring 100% of what you need), some days of zero
>propagation, and living in the poo of hundreds of thousands of penguins
>that are extremely smelly and perversly loud at all times...not to
>mention being alert for charging bull seals when you innocently go to
>the designated spot to relieve yourself. On top of that, South Sandwich
>Island is simply a volcano waiting to blow up again as one of its sister
>rocks, just up the chain, has been recently belching smoke and lava
>which is why the Queen didn't allow us to go to that rock to do some radio.
> We should have an account of the 3Y0X's trip in a month or two to see
>how that rock would compare as a contesting spot. Let us wish the 3Y0X
>crew well!
> 73 and I remain,
> Lew W7EW/W7AT
>
>
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