[3830] ARRL 10 GM5X(GM4YXI) SO SSB HP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: GM5X
Operator(s): GM4YXI
Station: GM5X

Class: SO SSB HP
QTH: Ellon
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:    0     0
  SSB: 2349   162
-------------------
Total: 2349   162  Total Score = 761,076

Club: North of Scotland contest group

Comments:

Having spent CQWWCW on 10m I thought SSB only in this one. I spent a bit of time
the previous weekend in the snow taking down my C3E and replacing it with an old
4el monobander which had been sitting in a corner of the field for about 10
years gathering green slime and corrosion - needed a lot of TLC! 

All was up and ready by last Sunday evening, all had to be taken down and
tilted over on Wednesday evening, in readiness for the forecast storm. At least
on this occasion I was able to be around to do this job, in sub-zero
temperatures, solid ice on everything and a bright spotlamp!

Storm duly arrived. Horrible. The 10m antennas were fine, but my 80m vertical
and 40m 4-square are completely destroyed. I seem to spend more time repairing
damaged antennas than operating these days....... The survival of the antennas
for the contest was tempered by the loss of mains power at 2200 on Thursday.
Power was restored at 1530 Friday (phew!) ........but went off again at 1900
Friday evening (####!) Power was not restored until after 1100 on Saturday
morning, while I was out getting more fuel for the generator to keep our water
and heating operating.

First QSO 1140. Patchy EU and a few HS but I was really annoyed about the big
loss of prime time to the East. There was good support from NA in the afternoon
although the band did not 'peak' with me until the 1600 hour with 230 QSOs. Like
others, I also noticed the multipath echoes on my signal and some others close
in either side of 1200. The NA opening was also patchy - at the beginning I
could only work NC and FL but it did extend, although the West coast was all
but absent. I managed maybe 4 in CA and single QSOs to WY and OR. No VE west of
Winnipeg.
Band took a dive about 1730, scratched a few S&P - 1144 QSOs

I was on the band early, determined to make up for lost time but it did not
really feel very good - but I had nothing to compare. I managed about 30 in the
0700 hour with some mults and kept searching until 0818 when I finally gave in
and called CQ - 9M6YBG was the reward! A few VKs and some African stations
mixed with mostly EU. Heard DLs working JA but not a whisper here. I thought
after about 1000 the band got worse - there was no rate and QSB was deep. I was
surprised how few Russian stations were on, given the numbers out in CQWWCW -
maybe they were down the bottom of the band. Only one VU - I worked many the
fortnight before. I did not pick up as much on Sunday morning as I had hoped.

Strong echoes again around mid-day and around 1300 beaming SW (5el at 60ft) my
one and only JA - JA6WIF - was strong on LP. This path also produced BX5AA,
VR2, a BH7 and several YBs. The opening to NA was poorer than Saturday - I
worked very few Midwestern stations, a couple of W6s, one guy in WA and VE6UK.
The band took a dive even earlier and I was searching about from 1700 for about
an hour - this produced a few mults but a lot of Central and South American
stations had big NA pile ups which I could not crack.

5el monobander 60ft, 4el monobander at 40ft ICOM plus AL1500, Wintest 4.8.0


Keith GM4YXI / GM5X


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