[RTTY] GU0SUP - Volta 2003

[Phil Cooper]

Hi all,

Oh boy! This is getting harder, and I guess we can expect worse to come.

During the first day, 10 & 15 were totally dead, 20m was real hard going,
and even the loud stations weren't hearing much. There was no sign of any
USA stations until quite late, and then only a few were workable.
40m seemed OK, but nothing special, and very few signals around to work, but
I did bump up the country count a little.
I was almost tempted to have a lay-in on Sunday morning, but managed to get
in the shack for 0600, and immediately found Bob ZL2AMI on 40m, which was a
nice surprise. I then went to 20 and found KH6ND with an excellent signal
here. Also managed to work Bob VE6YR, which was amazing, and a nice mult for
me.
Missed out on the 4-band bonus, which didn't surprise me.
Only ONE contact on 10m, which was quite sad, but I did end up with a few on
15.

Had some fun watching someone try to "persuade" VQ9LA to give him a serial
number! And he wasn't keen on taking NO for an answer. The dialogue must
have gone on for about 10 minutes, after which I moved on, and I just hope
the VQ9 didn't relent and give him a number!

The mini-beam is certainly proving to be useful in these poor conditions, as
the G5RV wasn't hearing anywhere near as much.

My score is well down on previous years, and I guess that will apply to most
folk. Here is what I managed:
              QSOs          Points        DX:         Call Areas
80m:          0                 0              0                0
40m:         27              132            14               1
20m:        112              787           36               5
15m:          10                61             9                0
10m:            1                52             1                0
Total:     150             1032            60               6

Bonus multipliers: 0
Total multipliers: 66
Score:  10216800
Station Description:  Icom IC756 + abt 60 watts
                                Writelog 10.40j
Antenna(s):  MQ1 mini-beam

Thanks to all, especially those who had to struggle with my signal!
Very best 73
Phil GU0SUP