[3830] CQWW CW MZ5A(G3WVG) SOSB/40 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: MZ5A
Operator(s): G3WVG
Station: MZ5A

Class: SOSB/40 HP
QTH: Eshaness
Operating Time (hrs): 37

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40: 2751    39      135
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 2751    39      135  Total Score = 783,000

Club: Three A's Contest Group

Comments:

Drove from London to Aberdeen and took the overnight ferry to Shetland. Operated
(together with Nigel G3TXF who was doing 20m SOSB as MZ5B) from the Eshaness
Lighthouse on the west coast of Shetland. Shetland is a welcome Multiplier in
CQWW.

I had initially planned to do MZ5A as SOSB 160m, however the storms and high
winds had other ideas. A 160m vertical was built on the Thursday before the
contest. As a storm raged on Friday morning, the 160m antenna was smashed by
the winds. The fibreglass pole snapped in three places. The remains of the 160m
antenna was then replaced by a 40m vertical, which enabled me to do SOSB 40m. 

At 60 degrees North, Shetland is well into the Aurora zone. Conditions on 40m
were impacted by the coming and going of an Aurora "damp blanket"
effect across the band. 

The one Zone that got away was 23. 

The 40m antenna was a simple 10m vertical wire on a fibreglass pole. However
the 40m vertical used the same ground-plane what had been carefully put down
with the 160m operation in mind. There were some 40 radials each about one
wavelength long on 40m, which (as a result of losing the 160 antenna) is
certainly a lot more than would be put down for a more usual 40m vertical.

The Eshaness Lighthouse is at a highly exposed and remote site on the edge of
the North Atlantic. It's an excellent location for radio (provided you can keep
the antennas up in the winds!) which has (for us noise-swamped town-dwellers) an
unbelievably low background noise level.

73 - Ian G3WVG
Op at MZ5A : 40m SOSB


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