[UK-CONTEST] CQWW - LX/G3VQO

[Les - G3VQO]

Callsign       : LX/G3VQO
Claimed Score  : 1024800 
 
 
                160m  80m  40m  20m  15m  10m  Total

    Valid QSOs:   45  200  232  236  336  270  1319
   Total Mults:   26   57   80   85   81   71   400
  Total Points:   45  256  403  459  753  646  2562

    Zone Mults:    4    9   19   22   21   20    95

 Country Mults:   22   48   61   63   60   51   305

This was always going to a learning experience. My usual operations from home use 100 watts to a random wire draped over the house and around the tiny garden, and I occasionally operate as F/G3VQO/P from the car with 50 watts into a random wire draped across suitable trees and bushes. This time it was going to be different. I had rented the shack of LX9SW in Wiltz with the use of a TH6DXX at 45 feet, and phased verticals for 40 and 80. It was a well-equipped location with kitchen, shower, etc, and central heating - a big plus as the temperature outside dropped well below freezing at night and, in fact, didn't rise above 0C all day on Saturday as we were in the clouds at around 400m amsl. I set off from home at 04:30 on Friday, having scraped the ice from the windsceen, and had an uneventful but foggy journey through France and Belgium, arriving in Luxembourg at about 13:30.

With the assistance of Robert LX1RQ I was able to sling a wire into the surrounding trees to give me some use of 160m with the aid of my trusty SG-237 auto-tuner. Having set up the equipment, and then eaten well at a nearby restaurant, the toll of the early departure began to tell, so it was off for an early night. It was not a good sleep with all the odd creaks and groans of an unfamiliar wooden building, so I was up ready for action at about 04:30 on the Saturday.

Immediately I noticed the benefit of the big (by my standards) antennas. Everybody I called came back first call regardless of who else was calling - I guess the LX prefix was worth a few db as well! Without the usual distractions of life at home I was able to concentrate on my search and pounce throughout the bands, managing a QSO rate of 60+ per hour at times, and finished Saturday at about 650 QSOs. I had set myself a target of 1000 QSOs for the contest, modest by your standards but unheard of by mine, and I felt to be on target.

Expecting to be awake at a similar hour on the Sunday, I neglected to set the alarm clock, and awoke from a deep sleep to see daylight filtering into the bedroom through the shutters - oops! Grabbing a quick coffee, it was back to the fray. After some more S&P, I decided to try calling CQ having found a quiet frequency high in the band. Nothing! Try again, and back came a wall of sound! The poor FT847 was struggling. It has a narrow INRAD CW filter, and DSP filtering. That combination was too narrow, with most stations being outside the passband and just loud clicks audible. Trying to use the IRT was a waste of time as it is not the most user-friendly device on the 847. Removing the DSP meant hearing a bit too much from adjacent channels, but I persevered and started to pick out calls, or parts of calls, from the pile-up. As I grew more adept at the technique I found the "last 10" rate hitting 160 at times, and eventually the "last 100" rate exceeded 100 for quite a long period on both 15m and 20m.

As the higher bands became less productive I dropped down and found I had exceeded my target of 1000 QSOs quite early in the evening. I then set myself a new target of 200+ QSOs on each of the five bands (excluding 160) and, as that came within reach, a further target of over a million points. Targets achieved with time to spare, I set off to try 160m with a bit more gusto than on the previous evening. Despite my poor signal I managed 45 QSOs in 22 countries across four zones. My aplogies to those who heard my big signal on 80m and requested a sked for 160m - I did try but most of the folks just couldn't hear me. Eventually, having worked all that I could on 160m I switched off a few minutes before the end of the contest and collapsed into bed.

After dawn on the Monday I retrieved the 160m antenna from the trees, packed up, and set off back to the tunnel, eventually arriving home at around 14:00.

Highlights - 
1. getting a small glimpse of how real contesters do things
2. starting to get the hang of running a pile-up
3. achieving my modest targets
4. being moved from band to band for multipliers by a station in Zone 2 !!! Spooky !!!

Not so good - 
1. realising that the FT847, good as it is, is not designed for this kind of operation - I should have taken the FT920
2. getting frustrated with the "no call for ten minutes" club

Sorry if this is a bit of a bore to many of you, but it was a real adventure for me, and I'm already thinking about the next trip.

73 de Les, G3VQO