[UK-CONTEST] GM4YXI in ARRLSSB 2002 SOABHP

[Keith Kerr]

Hi Folks,
Last year's debacle with the weather and antenna disasters 
left me determined to put up a better show this time. I was 
mostly prepared in the shack in the days before. A grim 
week at work finished with me not getting home until 8pm on 
Friday night. Not much preparation for an 'all 
weekender'....then I remembered I needed to resonate my 80m 
and 160m antennas for SSB!
The bands sounded in good shape at the start and I decided 
to begin on 20m. This went quite well with a 118 hour and 
the band open all the way west. I left at 0130 (?mistake) 
to go to 160/80/40, to spend 15mins struggling to work KC1XX
and W3LPL on topband, then tried 80m, which was slow. Got in
a mess with the DVK and fitted the footswitch for it, which 
I should have seen to before the start....obviously! Jumped 
between 80 and 40 until about 0830, when I went back to 
20m. The low bands seems OK, 40m in particular. All the 
usual problems with QRM and listening frequencies. It was 
often obvious someome else in Eu was using the same 
listening QRG and what can you do when a W/VE turns up 
CQing on that clear spot you have found to listen on, even 
when they ask 'Is the frequency in use?'!! I had listened 
on 160 during the night but KC1XX and W3LPL were the only 
sigs here and they were weak. I heard Andy running East 
coast at about 0600, but most of these guys were totally 
inaudible with me. Not good for morale!
I had a bit of a dilemma about what to do now. 20m seemed 
in reasonable shape but I felt very tired. A major blunder 
before the contest was failing to get some domestic/social 
arrangements coordinated! Confusion over dates meant I had 
promised to go to a dance this night (!!!) I'd miss some 
15/20m propagation so I had to try to make up for it. I 
stayed on 20m and did OK. Then my first frequency fight. I 
had a nice clear frequency and reasonable run of rather 
weak stuff on 14304, when I started being berated by a
German-accented anal retentive who refused to give me his 
call and insisted I was not allowed to have contest QSO's 
above 14300, by international agreement. My emotional state 
was such that I was not about to give in here, but, in 
retrospect, as ever, I should have swallowed the pill and 
QSYed. Basically I tried for 15min, worked 2 stations (but 
one was a mult!)then left. Interestingly, both USA and Eu 
stations pitched in, telling this guy where to go. 
Broke at 1030...slept....restart 1215
20m then 15m then 10m. Tried not to get to 10m too early 
for the reasons already mentioned, but 15m got slow about 
1430. I had decided to make the most of 10m. The QRM is 
less, rates are better and I seem to do well on that nband 
from here, when the Aurora stays away. The band didnt 
disappoint and the 15-18 hours saw 4 consecutive 200+ hours 
(best was 1800 @ 238). I even managed a few passes to 15m 
and 20m in that period. I went to 15m at 1845, leaving a 
good 10m pileup, 'cos my 15m Q score was pathetic. I stayed 
there for 45mins and put on about 100 Q's. It was warming 
up nicely, CT last 10 reading >300 and I had to pull the 
switch at 1930. VERY DIFFICULT!!!

Back at midnight, a few Q's on 15m, then a 163 hour on 20m, 
admixed with VE1JF on 160m, who was 59+......better than 
the night before. 0130 (tired, voice straining, still 
fretting about what I've missed while out doing eightsome 
reels and the like. I don't recommend this, by the way, 
which is understatement of the year, of course. Hours of 
contesting gives me a degree of hyperacusis. In the dance 
hall, all the music and conversation really rang in my 
head. Not happy!).....then disaster. The same 20m yagi, 
which was the source of grief last year, and which had 
worked perfectly in the interim, went on the blink. High 
SWR. Energy levels plummet. Have to sleep. Back 0300, 20m 
antenna still caput and the band is just jumping here. So 
it's the low bands for me. Rates were OK for the first 2 
hours but after 0500, things fell off, though 80 and 40 
were open and some good mults appeared. I went to 160 at 
0400 to find LPL, XX and VE1JF 59++. A CQ prouced a good 
run for 15 min and completed my 160 activity for the 
weekend. Further visits at 0600 and Sunday night were 
useless. Just after 0800, 40m seemed to dry up (though I 
note Steve's comments about late QSO's) and so was I. 

I elected to have a look at the 20m antenna, since there 
was no other band open and I was still very light on this 
band. This is an especial pain in the **** 'cos I really 
don't feel like doing it and I have to drop my 80m vertical 
and 160 inv-L to tilt over the tower. The Shorting bar on 
the gamma match seemed to be loose and a bit black where it 
was making contact. Without dismantling the 15m and 20m 
yagis, the 20m driven element is well off the ground and 
its a bit of a pantomime working on it but 2 hours later, 
all the antenna are back up and working. Sleep.......

Back about 1220 for 20m....15m until it slows, which was 
again 1430 so it was to 10m. Rates not remotely close to 
Saturday and lots of QSB. I could pass a few mults to 15m 
to fill in the huge gaps, and found a couple on the 2nd 
radio on 20m. 10m died quite quickly at about 1930. 15m was 
OK for a while with a 2000 hour of 180 but it too went out 
on me real fast. I had hopes (and needs!) for 20m but it 
was dire. Lots of aurora and poor rate. 80m sounded dead, 
so I finished on good old 40m which at least produced some 
QSO's. Straight to bed, 'cos I had to up at 0530z to catch 
a train!

Overall, I had a good time. I could have well done without 
the 20m antenna failure and the 'social break'! Once again, 
most stations were very willing to move, when asked, and 
KE3VV (DC) deserves special mention. We did 10-15 on 
Saturday and 80-40-80-20 (QRP + rig tuner on 20m!) early 
Sunday am. Andy and I ended up on the same run frequency on 
Sunday night (I left), and I had some grim QRM from N2NT 
and OH6RX on 10m on Sunday (the former too wide, the latter 
too close!)

I am well short of Andy's excellent score and about one QSO 
short of matching the 'old' Eu record. Had I not been 
dancing and fixing antennas, would I have made up the 610 
QSO deficit on Andy's score?.....NO WAY! Well done, 'PIQ!

GM4YXI ARRL SSB SOAB HP 2002

Time ON  34 hours

Band	QSO	Mult
160	31	13
80	203	36
40	506	53
20	713	60
15	756	60
10	1706	60

ALL	3915	282........3,312,090 pts

73
Keith GM4YXI

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