[CQ-Contest] Worst contesting location?

[lew]

John Geiger wrote:

>I know that the best contest location has been discussed many times before, and I seem to remember that EA8 came out on top.  But here is a twist on this-what is the worst contesting location, based on propagation, geography, rarity, etc.
>
>One place I would propose would be the South Shetland Islands-but I could be very wrong.  It seems that the SSI are far enough south to be in the aurora zone, they aren't close to any large ham population centers except for LU and PY, and they are in a pretty common CQ zone.  >From a propagation and location standpoint Heard Is. and the FT5 islands would probably be even worse, but they are so rare that it would overcome those factors, and they are in a rarer CQ zone for the CQWW also.
>
>Anyone else have ideas on this?
>
>
>  
>
  Hi John,
        That's a very interesting question you've posed.  A few years 
ago a few Micro-lite friends and I went to South Georgia and South 
Sandwich Islands. Then this past March we hung out on Kerguelen having 
pile-ups and fun as we cruised the South Indian Ocean. These places are 
remote and generally inhospitable and don't come with very many 
amenities. We were primarily DXing and not contesting although pile-up 
control is somewhat similar. Both adventures were huge amounts of fun 
with boredom and bottomless pile-ups and multiple distractions to amaze 
and distract us.
     I'd suggest that the worst place to contest from would be South 
Sandwich Island. Several reasons would be:  the most remote location to 
get to and from, No close encampment of people,  Terrible weather, 
creatures in the water that will eat you if you fall in, zero 
infrastructure (you bring 100% of what you need), some days of zero 
propagation, and living in the poo of  hundreds of thousands of penguins 
that are extremely smelly and perversly loud at all times...not to 
mention being alert for charging bull seals when you innocently go to 
the designated spot to relieve yourself.  On top of that, South Sandwich 
Island is simply a volcano waiting to blow up again as one of its sister 
rocks, just up the chain, has been recently belching smoke and lava 
which is why the Queen didn't  allow us to go to that rock to do some radio.
   We should have an account of the 3Y0X's trip in a month or two to see 
how that rock would compare as a contesting spot. Let us wish the 3Y0X 
crew well!
    73 and I remain,
     Lew    W7EW/W7AT