[3830] Commonwealth GW6XX Multi-Op HP

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                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest

Call: GW6XX
Operator(s): GW0GEI GW0ETF
Station: GW6XX

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: IO73WF
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  169
   40:  142
   20:   76
   15:    4
   10:    2
------------
Total:  393  Total Score = 4,945

Club: 

Comments:

It was nice to be asked to run one of the new UK Headquarter stations for Beru.
We enjoyed the experience and hope it added something extra for everyone -
certainly fun working all the UK stations but thanks to everyone for the
Qs.....

When I heard a mention of visible aurora in Scotland on the BBC radio wx
forecast at 7am on the day of the contest I knew this wasn't going to be a
weekend for wire dipoles and single element verticals and I wasn't wrong. 12
contacts in the first hour set the scene, and 3 of those were calling and being
moved by Don G3BJ. Didn't improve much until Steve GW0GEI arrived at around 1400
to inject some juju but the hf bands were a real struggle and we appreciated the
well equipped GD6XX just across the water for giving us at least a qso on 10m.
15m was almost a write off and the early hours were spent on 20 and 40 until I
moved to 80m at around 1800 and enjoyed some relief with nice runs of Gs. There
was a lot of esp copying with many signals in and out of the noise with several
abandoned Qs and a good number of decent signals ignoring, or struggling with,
our calls.

Seemed an improved turn out from Australasia this year but a dearth from the
Caribbean and Africa. Not counting 3B8XF, 9J2BO and V51YJ were our only African
qsos. Around 0530 I was called by 9 ZLs in a row on 40m and there were plenty of
VKs too so 40 was in pretty good shape on Sunday morning. I felt many of the
regular travellers stayed at home this year which just emphasises how much this
contest benefits from the endeavours of those happy to make the effort. As usual
the VEs did the contest proud too...

One amusing anecdote concerns a spot that kept appearing in red for TJ3X, a CCA
(Cameroon). But this always coincided with YT3X in the bandmap and was the only
audible signal. Despite the cw being excellent several skimmers seemed to be
having problems decoding YT as TJ. You can see it from data downloaded from the
RBN, very odd....


K3/Acom 1000
Wire dipoles for 10, 20, 40, 80m; single wire 1/4 wave verticals for 40 and 15m
N1MM/SO2V

73,

Stew, GW0ETF


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