[3830] CQWW CW G0RTN(@G3LET) SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: G0RTN
Operator(s): G0RTN
Station: G3LET

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Nr Crawley, Sussex
Operating Time (hrs): 42

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  103     8       45
   80:  518    16       72
   40:  436    23       92
   20:  396    28       82
   15:  160    20       60
   10:    2     1        1
------------------------------
Total: 1615    96      352  Total Score = 1,322,944

Club: Worldwide Young Contesters

Comments:

Rig: Ten Tec Omni VI
Power: 100W
Ants: BiggIR multiband vertical, 60m long wire sloping to W/VE.

Thanks to G3LET for allowing me to operate - I am currently QRT from home as
there are workmen on the roof where I normally have my ants putting satellite
and terrestrial digital TV into this block.  I hope, in those famous last words,
it should "all be over by Christmas" although it was originally supposed to be
over by WW *SSB* weekend!  I should really have hated to have missed this and I
had no luck trying to scrounge a place in a multi-op.  I heard EI7M were looking
for ops, but weekend flights from London to Cork can be eye-poppingly expensive
in my experience.

This was the first contest I used the rig to key rather than manually sending
with a paddle.  I spent a lot of time hitting the wrong buttons and not getting
to the auto CQer on time.  Sorry!  For a bit of a laugh and a good example of
how this went wrong, listen to K5ZD's recording for 1524Z on Sunday.

Despite arriving at G3LET's tired having spent most of Friday travelling for
work, at one point I thought I was up for 48 straight.  However, when I fell
asleep at 0400z on Sunday, in the chair, with phones on, for nearly 5 hours, I
realised this was not to be!  I even managed to work one station while fast
asleep... I have no recollection of this QSO.  If I sounded a bit strange, not
really coping, when you worked me in the wee hours of Sunday, that's because I
was feeling very stange and not coping at all.  Sleeping through the Sunday
morning greyline was not a good idea.

This contest is just so brilliant, I love every minute of it.  Thanks to the
CQWW committee.  I wonder would they consider a 100W/single element class, which
is a more realistic reflection of how many amateurs, especially here in Eu, have
to operate?  This has been a big success in BERU.

I also lost a bit under one hour due to RF getting into the laptop and banjaxing
the keyer.

Band by band:

160m: Peter's end fed gets out well here - some Zone 5, one Zone 4, a few Zone
8s for nice mults, Zone 17s and 33s and nearly every European I could hear,
including some rarities.  HC8N was heartbreaking - he could hear me, but just
not well enough to get the full call.  I bizarrely missed Zone 20 - neither LZ9W
or YO2IS could hear me despite multiple attempts and much wasted time.  A45XR
was booming in here, but I have operated Top Band from Chris' shack and I knew
better than even to try it barefoot.  No GI mult on this band - I wasn't here
when GI3OQR was on, so once again I miss my home country multiplier!

80m: This was the money band, and I had some great runs into the states
including deep Zone 4.  Sleeping through the prime USA running period on Sunday
was a bad idea with hindsight. When K7RAT called in to give me Zone 3 early on
Saturday I nearly fell out of my chair.  ZL6QH just after sunrise on Saturday
made me jump for joy!  Nice DX, but the pileups on 8Q7DV and 3B8/OM3PC were
unbreakable, and I never heard a sausage from TZ5A, or from Japan and Australia.
 From about 0130 to 0500Z on Saturday, 80 sounded like 20 metres in prime time. 
Incredible!

40m: When it's midday and you are hearing JAs and Ws both at 20 over 9, you know
it's solar minimum.  I started really running here on Sunday evening after some
abortive attempts in the first few hours and should have started earlier. 
Oodles of nice DX but only ever hear the 4W calling other people, only ever
heard B1Z buried under Eu/Zone 5 QRM, 9M2TO's pile up scared me off and I got as
far as G?TN with VU2PAI but the unruly pileup kept QRMing me.  AH2R peaked well
over S9 about midday both days but always had an unconscionably big pile on him,
only to disappear when the MUF in far Northern Siberia dropped below 7 MHz in
our late afternoon.  Good rate when I started running with a mix of USA,
Z17/18/20/21/33 and Eu so decent points per Q.  The MUF on the translatlantic
path seemed to drop *just* below 7 MHz in our early hours both nights, some W/VE
coming through but only the big guns with odd flutter.  Of course, that pushed
people down to 80 which is why I had so much fun there.

Two nice stories here.  Someone calls me about 1830 on Sunday and I can't quite
get the call - he's just above the noise level - there's a zero in there -
UR0zC?  UA0WZ?  He gives up (there goes a few points, I think).  I work another
2 stations but I hear him tuning up on frequency and eventually his signal comes
up to about an S4 - he's RA0ZD for my only Zone 19 of the contest - thanks mate!
 Just after that R1ANT calls in for a Zone 29 double mult but I can't quite work
out whether he's in 29 or 39, there's so much flutter on him.  Yowza!

20m: When it was good it was very, very good - the afternoon greyline to Zone 3
was amazing both afternoons, but the morning Asia/Pacific openings weren't as
good.  100W and a vertical didn't seem to let me run much here although I could
work prety much everything I heard, and usually quickly.  Always lots of great
DX here - VK9AA and T88AA where new ones since arriving in England.  Never heard
a sniff of KL7 for some reason.  Not as good as 40 or 80.

15m: Conditions, frankly, stank for most of the weekend.  I had much more
trouble than I usually do with African pileups, especially D44TD who took ages
on both days before bagging him just before we lost the path on Sunday
afternoon.  Phew!  When I noticed the USA stations jumping in strength on 20
about 1500Z on Sunday, I moved to 15 to be rewarded with the band end to end
with S9+ Ws and VEs for super fast high point value S&P.  The day before only a
few W4s from further North fluttery, very very big guns like KC1XX and VY2 made
it through.  No JAs heard here.  Other Northern EUs seem to have found the band
equally poor.  VK6 and VU heard, but not worked, although I did manage HS along
that path.

Then, after the band starts closing on Sunday and I go back to 20m, I start
hearing OHs and Baltic stations very strong on 20 - Scandinavian Express time! 
As I am missing most of these mults on 15 due to the apalling backscatter
conditions and long skip all weekend.  On a hunch, I check 15 and there they are
too (but not on 10, sadly).  I put OH, OH0, and a long way south, 9A in the log
for new mults.  And most bizarrely GM... MM0BSM was over S9 and pure Tone 9X,
two and a half hours after local sunset, so this was not conventional
backscatter.  I thought he must be way up north given skip distance, but
actually he's in Central Scotland, not all that far North of Edinburgh, maybe
600km away from me.  It must be really fun to be in the hot zone of that
opening.  You occasionally catch the fringe of it in GI, although it's really a
bit too far South and West, and you never seem too from down here in the South
of England.  I'd be really interested if anyone knew what causes it.  Auroral
Es? 

10m:  Two QSOs.  G3LET was operating from home with an FT817 and a few feet of
wire.  He called in on 15 to make sure I had the G multiplier and I moved him to
10.  Is 30 metres (that's the distance, not the band) a record short QSO
distance in CQ WW?  Shortly after, I worked G0ORH, about 70km or so away,
presumably he was beaming South East in a desperate attempt to scare up a QSO. 
Apart from that, diddly squat, despite repeated listening.  Not even a Zone
20.

Overall: No Zones 1, 12 or 31 heard or worked on any band - disappointing but
not hugely suprising.  A weak XE heard late on Sunday on 20 with the path
closing and a huge US pileup faintly audible - also par for the course. 
However, only two Zone 38s heard - the 3DA0 on 15m on Saturday morning (huge
pileup) and a ZS working someone else on 80 on Sunday evening - and, for the
first time in WW CW for me, none worked.  I checked 20 both days at sunset -
that's usually a gimme of a path - but no luck.  Where were all the ZSs?  The
LUs were also thin on the ground from here, but apart from that great activity
from every corner of the globe as usual.  The best contest of the year bar
none.

That's it for another year.  See you in the next one, with even fewer sunspots!


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