[UK-CONTEST] ARRL SSB DX CONTEST GW7X

[GW4BLE]

ARRL SSB SINGLE BAND 40 @ GW7X.
(Op GW4BLE)

Two weeks' prior to the phone event, Clive Whelan GW3NJW had
aired the
Contest Cambria call from his station in the CW section of the
contest,
single band 7 MHz; now it was my turn to battle against  the
cacophony of
broadcast QRM and hopefully return a reasonable score.

Split-frequency operation on 7 MHz is a challenge at the best of
times,
during a major contest weekend even more so. There can be no
real "run"
frequency for any length of time, the combination of broadcast
station
schedules and the opposition put paid to that. The modus
operandi here is
different to the high bands, stealth is the order of the day,
and knowing
the band plans and when to change receive frequency pay
dividends.

At the end of day one there were 620 Qs in the log and a healthy
number of
multipliers. Last one in the log was a W3 at 09:59, although
many of the
big-guns were of course still audible but now concentrating on
JA and VK.

The evening session started with a VO1 at 21:00 and it was a
l-o-n-g session
through the night until again the final Qs were in the log
around the 09:00
hour (W8 at 09:55). It's worth noting here that a special UK
contest call
was heard operating out-of-band at this time, and indeed this
was a
repetition of Saturday morning -  no names, no pack-drill -  but
please be
more careful in the future guys!  As the morning progressed on
Sunday it was
increasingly difficult to find a frequency on which to CQ, I
received the
wrath of a newsreader at one point (oppps!) and eventually
turned
short-wave-listener as the sun rose ever higher in the sky. This
was a very
interesting period, at around 10:30 the strength of some W
signals actually
started to increase with me, why this should be I do not know -
it was
nearing sunrise over there of course, could there be some
enhancement or
tilting of layers concurrent with this? This is one of those
fascinating
moments that we contestors experience from time to time. There
were guys
rag-chewing at 7.2 (not contesting) and several other Ws calling
stations
(VK/JA) that hadn't got into my log - Oh, if only there weren't
so many
Sunday morning nets running on this side of the pond I could
have grabbed a
frequency and made some Qs. Drat.  Within ten minutes, maybe
less, the
propagation had changed and all but died. It was 11.00 and time
for a break.

Back on just a minute or two before 20:00, not really expecting
to hear
anyone so early, but wait a minute there's Jack VE1ZZ working a
UA3 station.
Amazing signal so early, I mistakenly call him under my own call
and
immediately rectify the situation mid sentence. Jack confirms he
has the
correct callsign logged  (GW7X) and I am off to <hopefully> work
a few more.
There are just a couple (maybe three) worked in the hour towards
21:00, all
co-channel Canadians plus a lone W1, it is of course still broad
daylight
over there. The final run-in to midnight was slow, just 70 or so
Qs and no
mults (where were the VO2s?), to set  a new European record
would have
required a few more  contacts (based purely on my net Qs) but
that  is not beyond the realms of possibility and  will most
certainly be my target for another year.


Bottom line is thus, 1,156 Qs (net) 1224 (gross), x 58 mults =
201,144.   A
clean sweep of all states, with missing Canadians - LB, MB, NT,
NU and YT.

Equipment FT1000MP, SB220 and 402-CD @ approx 15 metres.


Steve
GW4BLE

Contest Cambria - GW7X (http://www.gw7x.org)


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