[UK-CONTEST] GU8D IOTA Contest 2003

[G3SJJ]

An excellent weekend once again operating from Guernsey Radio Club. Many highlights and
only a few low lights, the problem being they were serious ones.

HIGHS - Good contest, good team spirit, good food/wine/beer. Writelog networked well over
4 computers, only failed once when one team member decided to try and alter things, but
no RF problems. The new licencing conditions meant loads of activity on 40m. We worked 68
Class B calls, welcoming them to the HF bands, (even though they obviously already had HF
gear!) We invited 19 year old Rich M5RIC to join us and he was good, we should have put
him on the Run station earlier than we did, but he was an asset anyway. Our new SR2O
switching unit worked well, (initial concept by G3SJJ, logic switching by G4DRS). All
aerials worked well and to plan. We enjoyed the multi-mode aspect with 40% CW and some
brilliant pile-ups.

LOWS - The worst ever RFI and inter-station interference I have ever known. Triggered
Customs buildings fire alarm AND knocked out their mains RCBs. Fire engine with Blues and
Twos turned up at 2200. Run station even keyed the Mult station amp. Some major re-design
of Club shack wiring required. Run rate was severly disrupted and Mult working was
difficult. Band conditions didn't help. Only 8 Qs on 10m.

Whilst in general we were very pleased with Writelog we did note a few oddities. The
on-screen score summary did not show mults. Whilst you could produce a summarys sheet at
any time, an instant on-screen check is really helpful. Strangely also the summary sheet
does not total the CW Qs/Points/Mults and SSB Qs/Points/Mults. A real basic omission.

Serial Numbers. Again, most weird. If each of the 4 computers together had a callsign
entered into the Entry field at any one time, then the same serial number would be
grabbed by each machine. If then all 4 calls were logged, each would be allocated the
same number. The next number would then be the next Sequence number. EG

OP A enters a call, Number 100 allocated
OP B enters a call, same nr 100 allocated
OP C enters a call, again 100 allocated
OP D enters a call, again 100 allocated

When someone then logs a QSO the next number to be allocated is 105. Hence anyone
listening to the Run station would hear a big jump in numbers, but more seriously if the
Mult station took along time to work the Mult, not only would 100 be issued twice but
would appear later in the log, say after 115. The only thing we could do was make sure
the station being worked was given the number that appeared on the screen and
acknowledged that number. We never had any of these problems with NA contest s/w.

Amusing - I was main run op with Ian G4IIY as 2nd run op when we were called by AR5E. We
needed to ask for confirmation before logging the contact and collapsing in a fit of
laughter. I guess the subtlety would be lost in States.

Equipment :
Run Station - FT1000MP,  Acom 1000 amp, A3S and 40m Delta loop
Mult Station - FT1000MP, Explorer amp, TH6, Dipoles for 80 and 40m

Band      Q     Points   M
80 CW   218   1338     30
80 SB    219   1797     46
40 CW   345   2103     49
40 SB    659   6333     60                 9.6 P/Q!!
20 CW   297   1551     44
20 SB    397   2619     74
15 CW     72     636     26
15 SB      57     639     33
10 CW       2       30       2
10 SB        6       90       6

Total     2272   17136   370   Our lowest Qs and Ms total for several years

Photos at    http://www.qsl.net/m5ric/gu8d.htm                  A Bientot Chris G3SJJ