[3830] CQWW CW G5W(@G3BJ) M/S HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: G5W
Operator(s): G3BJ, G4TSH, G3SJJ, G4FNL, M0BBB
Station: G3BJ

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Nr Ludlow, England
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  460    17       71
   80: 1214    27      105
   40: 1494    37      138
   20: 1475    33      114
   15:  182    25       87
   10:   12     2       12
------------------------------
Total: 4837   141      527  Total Score = 6,331,972

Club: 

Comments:

A story of mice and ice
 
This year's CQWW CW (M/S) at G5W did not work out well !

We had a team of five (G4TSH, G3SJJ, G4FNL, M0BBB and myself) – all of whom
had operated from here before, and knew the station and its idiosyncrasies.

First, I should say that it was extremely cold here in the Shropshire hills for
the start of the contest. Now read on.

We knew that HF conditions were likely to be mediocre, and were ready for
80/40/20 to be the "banker" bands. All went well for about 30 minutes, until we
tried to bring the 160m vertical into operation, and found a 2.7:1 vswr. It had
been perfect an hour earlier. In that time, some of our little furry friends in
the garden had decided that, in the sub-zero temperatures up here, it was
preferable to eat control cable than to go foraging. They had made a good job
of it, too, as both the 160 and 40m keying lines to the Titanex control box
were dead. No option but to replace the control cable (as the affected section
was in trunking underground). So one station shut down, whilst I ran out a new
length of cable (fortunately there was a spare reel) the 130 metres to the base
of the Titanex and wired it in. It was cold and totally dark, so finding that
the rechargeable torch was only half charged was not good news !

An hour or so later we were back with a fully functional Titanex. Things then
went well through the rest of the night, although we had lost about 90 minutes
of multing. Tracking the score, we were ahead of out 2006 rates (8.2m claimed)
until about 5pm on Saturday, when something happened to the bands here. LF went
very "mushy" and rates plummeted. In the next three hours we dropped a fair way
behind the 2006 position, and LF was inexplicably slow on mults. 

Then at about 01.00 on Sunday, the next problem arose. We switched to the 160m
dipole for some close-in Eu work, and the VSWR was about 2.5. We could just
about cope, but there was clearly something seriously wrong. A party of three
donned boots and thick clothing (another very cold night, with freezing fog)
and trudged up the garden (this time with fully charged torches). The 160 metre
dipole was an amazing sight. The 14g wire had grown to about ½ inch diameter,
and was encrusted with ice. It looked more like one of the main guys on the
tower. We dropped it to the ground (getting showered with ice on the way) and
cleared as much as we could. The balun at the feedpoint was covered with thick
ice, and we cleared that, and hauled it all back up. The VSWR was now about
1.7, which was better. (By the middle of Sunday it was back to 1:1)

However, this episode seemed to have fried the main computer (we're still not
sure whether the incidents were connected or whether we had a cooling problem
on the computer) and that had failed. So it was then a case of major
reconfiguration, swapping out the failed unit, and putting in a spare. Overall
we lot nearly two hours from the second night's set of disasters.

After that. It was a clear run to the end, but we had lost significant numbers
of QSOs and mults.  The good start had turned into a 600 QSO adverse variance
compared to 2006, and the mults were similarly down.

Then, towards the end of the contest, LF signals improved significantly, and we
found some good mults on 160/80/40, but by then it was too late.

HF was mixed. We found 20m good, of course, and 15 mediocre, but 10m was very
disappointing. 160 through 40 were excellent for part of the time. 

So overall, not a good weekend. Yes we had fun, but the score is poor compared
to our expectations. The combination of equipment failures and what I think was
a sudden rise in absorption on LF for 24 hours hit us badly.


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