[UK-CONTEST] WPX - G8D

[G3SJJ]

Posted to UK Contest and FOC Reflectors, so apologies for any duplicity.

Planned for a big M/S effort, then went to SOAB and finally back to an easy going M/S with G4DRS and myself at the last minute.

Objectives : Have fun, run some pile-ups, practice S&P, simulate the GU8D IOTA Contest set-up as much possible, try out some new operating techniques, have a few beers and a chat. All objectives achieved! Lots of R&R interspersed with lasagne, salad and wine on Saturday evening, roast chicken for lunch on Sunday, (John had his on a tray in the lounge so that he could watch the Grand Prix on TV! The full multi-single station wasn't actually assembled until Saturday afternoon.  Must say thanks to Yvonne, my wife, for putting up with us and provided some great food.

Still haven't got the new A4S up so a selection of antennas were used:
1st mast (temporary), about 30m from the house supported the GU8D 40m diamond loop, worked well on 20 and 15m also.
2nd mast, a further 60m meters away has the 10m 4el yagi at 14m with an 80m dipole (AFS winner) 3m above that.
3rd mast, another 26m away has an R7000 on it. This was a good 2 s-points down on the loop, but is fed with some 120m of RG213 ! (any donations of LDF4-40 or 50 would be welcome!!)

Run  station - FT1000MP, Topten Decoder, Dunestar 600 bandpass filter, Acom 1000 amp
Mult station - FT1000MP, Topten Decoder, Dunestar 600 bandpass filter, no amp but worked mults ok
Used NA contest logger with DX Cluster but only 2 networked computers.

The only mutual interference encountered was 2nd harmonic when txing on 14MHz and rxing on 28MHz, and even then the unwanted signal was only apparent about 10KHz either side. I guess a stub, as per MM0BQI's recent posting would have reduced this considerably.

Bnd   Qs
160    000   (couldn't be bothered to stay up)
  80   162
  40   170
  20   346
  15   166
  10   256  (a good Es opening to Eu on Sunday)

1100 QSOs, 502 mults, 1,005,506 points

A most enjoyable weekend of radio fun. An excellent way to replace NFD, now looking forward to the IOTA Contest.

Chris G3SJJ


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