[UK-CONTEST] Jubilee Contest from ZB2/G3SQX

[Ed G3SQX]

I operated from Gibraltar, as ZB2./.G3SQX (CW only) for the
Jubilee contest.  It was fun,  but there were two
frustrations:

(1)  When you're in Gibraltar, you have to operate from
either the east or west of the Rock.  I decided to be on the
west.  This meant that signals to and from Northern Europe
and all points west were strong with me, but anything to the
east was severely attenuated by the Rock looming above.  I
hadn't realised how bad this would be, but soon discovered.
I struggled with very weak Europeans and ESP-level
Japanese stations, when Gs were creating pile-ups -- I could
hear the Gs, but not the stations they were working.  Very
annoying!

(2)  About an hour before the contest, I fired up the laptop
and SDJ, which had all worked perfectly before.  I found
that I couldn't key the rig from SDJ, and no amount of
playing around with hardware and software would make it
work.  I didn't feel like sending "ZB2/G3SQX TEST" four
thousand times by hand, so pressed NA into service, in
general purpose logger mode.  It worked fine, but I still
haven't got to the bottom of things.  I suspect a hardware
setting, but am mystified as to why SDJ would work one day
and not the next.  Investigations are still in progress!

Anyway, that's one of my excuses as to why I only made 640
QSOs, and I'm not sure yet how many multipliers.  The
multiplier count is certainly low.  It didn't really matter
whether I could identify a multiplier or not, since there
were very few of them, and I worked any other Commonwealth
stations I could find.

The other excuse is that I don't seem to be able to operate
for 24 hours at a stretch any more!  I think this is a G3
syndrome, and it may be creeping into the early G4s as well!
The spirit was willing but the eyelids were weak.  Things
like coffee and occasional pacing up and down seem to help,
but they only stave off the inevitable effect of "Oh, I seem
to be dozing, and it's inexplicably half an hour since I had
a QSO!"  I'm going to lobby for 12 hour sections in all
longer contests from now on!

I'll send a separate email to the reflector as to the
possible long-term viability of this contest format.  But it
certainly was a bit different.  For example, I got the
distinct impression that many Commonwealth stations were not
actively hunting multipliers -- they certainly weren't
really seeking me out, and only two or three moved me from
band to band.  There was another ZB2 on the air, but I was
still surprised not to be asked to move more.  It seemed to
me that people were treating the affair more as a QSO party
than a contest.

Others have also commented on the paucity of multipliers.
It's been suggested that the different G countries could be
separate, and that England could be split into to "call
areas" (well, use the number in the callsign).  This doesn't
answer the real problem -- that although the contest was
advertised as an opportunity to work some juicy DX that
happens to be in the Commonwealth, that isn't what happened.
There seemed to be considerably less DX available than in
BERU, and I don't see how that is likely to change in any
future contest based on the "Commonwealth works the World"
format.  As I said, I'll expand on this in another posting.

73,

Ed, G3SQX

P.S.  I'll be in ZB2 till next weekend.  I'm going to try
and put up a top-band dipole on the hotel roof if anyone's
interested.  I also have 100w 6m capability, if anyone wants
to try a CW QSO (but I don't have 6m beam, just a vertical).