[RTTY] GU0SUP CQ/RJ SOABLP

[Phil Cooper]

Hi all,

Well, I am still hearing RTTY tones from things like the fridge, checkout
tills, and various other gadgets, so I am not sure I have fully recovered
yet!

What a great weekend for a RTTY contest! Conditions had been bad early in
the previous week, but seemed to pick up the day before, as I had a short
play on the bands to check all the kit was working happily, so I had
expected good things, but I was blown away!

I had a real ball in this one, and having set a target, I was quite pleased
to beat that.

The home-brew vertical wire really came into its' own a couple of times on
15. Having failed to get through a pileup with the G5RV, switching to the
vertical often got a response.
This was particularly noticeable with the West Coast USA.

The highlights are many, but are mainly due to working some choice DX. I
enjoyed working WW7OR on 40, which was a bonus for me, with my limited
set-up. I bagged CO, OR and Alberta on 40.
Nice ones in my log were - amongst others: TR8CA, AH0B, AL1G, 9M2TO, and
then HC8N and RW2F on 4 bands (plus many others), and many JA's on 15m all
during the day and evening, which is unusual for here.
It was also nice to bag OY4TN calling CQ! I did see the 5N and also a 9M6,
but the pileups were totally ridiculous, so I left them to it.
As you can see, 10m was best for me!

Lowlights shouldn't really be mentioned, but I wonder if others noticed that
several signals were way over the 170Hz shift? I also had many stations
calling off frequency, and during one short CQ session, I thought one
station had worked me, then started to call CQ about 5Hz away from me. I had
to see who it was so moved the dial, only to found one guy calling and
calling for me.
I couldn't resist telling him that I wasn't on that frequency, and that it
may help if he netted on me, instead of calling so far away.
There also seemed to be many a lot of folk who insist on sending my call 3
times, and their own just once or twice! Some also don't seem to appreciate
what NET & AFC can do to signals!

One thing I think I was seeing was a delay in getting a response from some
folk. I'd call, then wait, get a reply just as I was about to call again,
send my reply, and then wait for confirmation.
I now wonder if this is due to some of you guys playing SO2R, and getting
caught up in another contact? I'm not sure, but will be able to tell once
some scores are posted, and I can see who was playing in that category!
One one occasion, it caused a right pile-up, as others thought I hadn't
heard, and they started to call. That got very messy.

So, how did I do?

Here's the effort from me:
           QSOs         Points    Zones        DX:      States
80m:        1               2           1              1             0
40m:      57            136        10            28            16
20m:      131           303       16             51            17
15m:      170           430       22            59            35
10m:      201           517        23            59            34
Total:   560         1388        72           198           102
Mults: 372
Claimed Score: 516336
Station Description: IC756 abt 60 watts
Antenna(s): half-G5RV, plus a wire vertical for 15m
Operators: Me!

Many thanks to all who worked me, I had a ball!
If any of you need a QSL card, then the bureau is fine, or direct if you
need.

73 for now, and see you all in JARTS!
Phil GU0SUP