[3830] TM5C ARRL DX SSB M/S raw score

[Richard Riley]

                 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
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Email: richard.riley at exitelecoms.com

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