[UK-CONTEST] G4PIQ/P EU HFC Score

[Andy Cook, G4PIQ]

    Callsign Used : G4PIQ/P

 

   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Zones
 _______________________________________________

  160CW       56          55         54        31
  160SSB      12          12         12         5
   80CW       72          71         71        32
   80SSB      42          42         42        11
   40CW      119         119        119        18
   40SSB      96          94         94        31
   20CW      222         216        216        36
   20SSB     152         150        150        19
   15CW       91          89         89        34
   15SSB      34          34         34        14
   10CW       83          82         82        40
   10SSB      14          14         14         4
 _______________________________________________

 Totals      993         978        977       275


    Final Score = 268675 points.

Usual gear - 2 x FT1kMP + PAs. 
160m - Inv - V dipole @ 23m
80m - Delta Loop @ 23m
40m - 402CD @ 24m
HF - TH5 @ 24m + KT34A @ 15m + A3 @ 26m 


A pretty poor entry from me. Was originally planning mixed mode, then
thought about SSB only since I put in a competitive but just not quite good
enough score like that last year, but then thought that SSB only maybe a bit
slow with such poor high band conditions. So I said - well - if SSB is too
slow 30 mins in I'll do mixed mode...... I made my first change to CW 5
minutes in..... maybe I didn't give SSB enough of a chance, but I really
couldn't make it run well much at all during the event and my score reflects
not enough SSB as it happens - just like my IOTA one.

Wasted about 30 mins in total during the contest trying to configure TR so
that it would show me when I needed a mult on another band - had forgotten
that this was a bug I'd found last year, but thought that I'd had it working
in the pre-contest testing. Also managed to screw up so I even lost the zone
map of what I'd worked on the band and had to delete the .RST file to get it
back. Not a good plan.

Pretty pleased with multiplier total - worked at it having not done enough
last year, but I think I overdid it and didn't focus on volume enough,
though I feel (maybe proved wrong) that we suffered particularly badly with
the poor condx this year, with 21/28 Es to the north-east. This probably
favoured the Baltic folks for working back into the population centres of
Eu. G scores so far look well down on last year. 

Noisy on the LF bands from static. Thunderstorm rolled by, but not too close
(5 miles) so carried on. I get nervous and pull the plug somewhere between 1
mile & 2 miles or when its close and the rain static gets too bad. Roger has
pointed out that I was missing lots of folks calling me on the HF bands - in
part due to my noise floor - I've whinged enough about it in the past, but
it's still clearly as bad as ever. Apologies if you called me and I CQ-ed in
your face - only a limited amount I can do from here. 

Had also planned to do ROPOCO in a low key way from home. However, when I
got home from this contest and went up to my office I saw a black scortch
mark on the wall and a few shreads of wire hanging from the window. We had
had a big storm (about 60mm of rain in the evening) and my diddly end-fed
sloping wire from 15ft agl to 3 ft agl had got hit..... Never mind the
trees, or the house, or the TV antenna etc - all at least twice as tall.
Turned on the trusty FT901 and it came to life. Then smoke appeared and the
fuse blew. Hope it's just one of the transistors in the DC-DC inverter, but
maybe the transformer insulation - however - it's done its service I guess!
Also dead printer (blown internal mains fuse), dead DECT phone base station
(maybe PSU fault which has torched the base unit), one dead low energy light
bulb and a dead RCD for the lawnmower which was plugged in, but turned off
and failed N-E short circuit.

So - who needs big towers to get a strike then!

Weekends now pretty booked up for a few weeks - hope to manage SSB WAE, but
we'll see.

73,

Andy, G4PIQ