[CQ-Contest] Being a small gun ain't so bad.....

[Tim Makins, EI8IC]

I've just had a lot of fun in CQWW SSB, and would like to pass on some of my
experiences to others...

The set-up here is very modest - an old Drake TR7/R7A combination, into a
3el monobander at 34 feet, plus various wires. I decided on an entry to the
Single Op Single Band Low Power category on 20m. The Drake doesn't manage
100w output at the best of times, so I used the amplifier turned down to
that level, and actually felt less nervous about blow-ups this time as both
the transceiver and the amplifier were just cruising along at a low level,
and didn't have to try so hard.

Running Low Power meant that it was often quite difficult to hold my CQing
frequency, as other stations would sit nearby and slowly move in on me, like
two fat ladies on a bus seat. However, this wasn't such a bad thing, as it
meant that I would take breaks to wander up and down the band, finding
plenty of new multipliers that wouldn't have come to me, as well as the 'I'm
big so all I do is CQ' boys, who don't like scratching in the dirt where I
live. I was called by a few, though... Mults are quite like buses - you wait
for ages, then three arrive at once.

I had an idea that some people were using friends to keep their frequencies
clean, by tuning and blip-blipping on people who came near - I suppose all
kinds of tactics get used when the stakes get high. The SSTV boys were
camped out as usual, defending their segment without much QSOing going on -
seemed a bit of a loosing battle to me, with everyone ending up cross - I
heard a couple of bad shouting matches... I wonder if they stay in their
'box' when its an SSTV contest ?!

Americans CQing - where were you ???? There were the usual Big Guns, doing a
wonderful job at all hours, with KC1XX beating W3LPL for the EI8IC 'First
Through the  Morning Noise' Prize once more, but not by much. But what
really suprised me on 20m were how few US stations were doing any CQing,
compared to the numbers heard. I copied plenty of really strong US signals
replying to the European CQs, but not doing any CQing themselves.  Why, guys
?

Funniest event of the Contest - a certain European station who's only idea
of a phonetic for one of his letters was ZEE-OFF-ON-OH   I suppose that's
probably the correct pronunciation in his language, but I couldn't make head
or tail of it. Santiago ? No. OK, try anything. No good. Eventually he said
'...like X-Ray' and I realised he meant Xylophone. A new one on me. Still I
had the usual problems with my call... Anyone who thinks they worked HOTEL
ITALY EIGHT ITALY CHARLIE probably didn't - my ECHOs never seem to come
across too well... Its probably their wishful thinking as well - this year
had the least number of Caribbean stations I can remember - NYC stuff, I
suppose.

Other funny events were an amateur who wanted to come to Ireland and stay
with me, asked for my address rather than giving a report; and a US amateur
who, realising at last I was from Ireland, not the Dominican Republic
started into a stand-up comedy routine of Irish jokes. In the middle of a
contest too ! One station came out with the classic 'Well I better put you
in the log, in case I forget your call.'  Some stations were DXing the
contest and stopped to say hello.. I had a few '59 001's, and one who gave a
'59 029' which wasn't even his ITU zone number - hadn't the other 28
previous contacts said anything ?!!!

Nice things that happened were being called by D44TC as he needed me for a
mult; and busting quite a few pileups despite the 100watts. I'm not giving
away all my tips, but one that always works is to call VKs with a strong
Australian accent. I guess this works for other nationalities too, along the
lines of its what they're used to hearing.. Perhaps voice classes in 100
languages would help...

Whilst waiting to be heard, and hearing the big guns jump straight in and
out, it occurred to me that to them it was just another mult, whilst to me,
working the very rare DX was a real thrill, and a punch-the-air experience.
I bet few of the big guns had as big a smile on their faces as I did at
times, like getting to T88, E30, or SU.

How did I do ? 1202Qs, 108Cs, and 31 Zs. Not a winning score, but a lot of
fun. Wish I had a voice today, though ! At least the cat got fed...

73 Tim www.qsl.net/ei8ic


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>From Brian  Campbell" <vy2mgy at sympatico.ca  Tue Oct 30 15:54:47 2001
From: Brian  Campbell" <vy2mgy at sympatico.ca (Brian  Campbell)
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:54:47 -0000
Subject: [CQ-Contest] CT Software
Message-ID: <002601c1615b$35263860$5df9e2d1 at computer>


Thanks to all who replied to my initial question.

I used the CT626 shareware as everyone suggested - it=20
worked flawlessly - I will be ordering the latest version from K1EA for =
the CQWWDX CW.

But now that the contest is over what file [ or files ] do I send to CQ =
??  And how do you include summary sheets, dupe sheets etc. etc.??

Thanks in advance for your help

Brian VY2MGY/3


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