[UK-CONTEST] M6T (G4PIQ) SOABHP ARRL DX SSB Report

[Andy Cook, G4PIQ]

                  ARRL DX Contest, SSB

 Call: M6T
 Operator(s): G4PIQ
 Station: G4MRS

 Class: SOAB HP
 QTH: non-North Am
 Operating Time (hrs): 43.5
 Radios: SO2R

 Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Mults
 -------------------
   160:   43    17
    80:  148    33
    40:  520    53
    20: 1243    60
    15: 1162    60
    10: 1399    60
 -------------------
 Total: 4515   283  Total Score = 3,830,688

 Club: Martlesham DX & CG

 Comments:

 Rig :   2 x FT1000MP + PAs

 Ants :  160m - Dipole @ 22m
         80m - Delta Loop @ 23m
         40m - 402CD @ 24m
         HF - TH5 @ 24m + A3 @ 26m + KT34A @ 14m (not used)
         120m Beverage

 Great fun, and good to break old Eu record set in 1992 of 3.32M. Lost
fan in one
 amplifier, and was stupid enough to spend what should have been
sleeping time on
 Saturday morning trying (and failing!) to fix it rather than just put
the spare
 amp in. Generally a bit sleep deprived and looking back this clouded
judgement
 in bits, but motor functions like making QSOs kept on going! Was dozing
off even
 on the Saturday early morning session, so knew I wasn't well prepared.
By Sunday
 morning, was standing up to operate at one point and twice woke up just
to
 recover myself from falling over! One sleep of 90 minutes in 67 hours
uptime.
 That 90 minutes made a big difference - would have struggled on Sunday
without
 it. Solid surfaces spent most of the weekend squirming and out of body
 experiences outstanding and extensive!

 I learnt a new technique for getting a run frequency this weekend. It
does need
 two people with big signals to work though. Find someone with a clear
frequency
 running well, and each of you camp out simultaneously exactly 1 kHz
either side
 of them..... Call me paranoid (and with that little sleep I may have
been), but
 I just found the likelihood of two folks stating up within 30 seconds
of one
 another each exactly 1.00 kHz either side of me a bit much to handle. I
moved
 immediately rather than waste time in a frequency fight, but at least
one of
 them had gone 15 mins later....

 Glad to grab a short opening at our sunrise on 160 to work the vast
majority of
 my 160m QSOs. Beverage still noisy with local QRM but better than
nothing.

 80 got rather neglected, but seemed poor when I was there. No quiet
receive
 antenna at all so apologies for being a bit deaf. Phasing noise
canceller can
 work, but didn't have right noise antenna in place for it. John, ON4UN
asks why
 some Eu folks both transmit about 3750 and listen split. In was one
(some of the
 time) and from my perspective it's simple - I'll generally go for the
highest
 hole in the band which I can find since I think that's generally the
direction
 from which people tune. I receive in the US window since that's where
it's
 quietest (no capability for good quiet directional Rx antennas at this
site),
 and the General class folks have access up there. I found my rates are
better by
 doing this.

 40 - also a bit squeezed by good conditions on 20. In reality, maybe I
should
 have spent even more time on 20 and less on 40 and sacrificed a mult or
2.

 Was good to have decent overnight openings on 20 this time. Unusually
my best
 hour (only  213) was at 0300 on 20 rather than in the mainstream runs
on 10.

 15 and 10 seemed in good shape though not as good as for the CW leg.
Small
 aurora was noticeable on Sunday evening closing the bands earlier. I
struggled
 to run stuff up here during what should have been the peaks of the
openings.
 Need to fix this, but not sure how.

 Thanks to everyone for the QSOs & moves.

 73,

 Andy, G4PIQ