[CQ-Contest] Worst contesting location?

[John Geiger (NE0P)]

And didn't Shackelton or Byrd describe South Sandwich as the worst place on earth?  I agree that they would not be very good places to operate from in general.  However, in a contest they might be rare enough to generate their own propagation.  South Shetlands loses that rarity advantage.

73s JOhn NE0P



---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: lew <lew at dsl-only.net>
Date:  Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:20:59 -0800

>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
>
>
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