[UK-CONTEST] GW0GEI SOHP All band CQWW CW assisted (fun)category

[Steve Jones]

Hi All,
Still catching up on the reports but thought I would throw my quick
comments in.   First time play for me in cqww cw  having just chased
countries in previous years. Like Keith, CW is not my strong point but I
always enjoy cw contests more than ssb . A full on week at work, no cw
practice for weeks, and no time to work out a strategy always meant that
this was going to be a semi serious effort. I contemplated doing single
band to ease the pain, and had the choice of 10m or 15m with TH7 or 160m
with inverted v at 100ft. In the end I started playing with N1MM logger
software again a few days before the contest and was so impressed with
the bandmaps feature after interfacing with ft1000 and telnet access, I
decided to turn the weekend into a learning exercise in N!MM basics and
a country cw chasing exercise.  
 
So I went into relax mode and slept for 2 hours (well ok it was actually
5 and I missed the sunrise! ) on Saturday morning, I stopped for meals
with the family, and I guess I spent too much time mult hopping rather
than running - am I correct in assuming that the best tactic in this
contest is to run as fast as possible as long as possible most of the
time. I slept for five hours on Sunday am too and just caught the
sunrise on 80m. I think the total hours was probably around 25 hours. I
stuck to 24wpm for the first few hours and the upped it to 26wpm when I
felt braver ;-)
 
Anyway, I enjoyed myself and felt better going to work on Monday morning
than I would have been if I had attempted to try the full 48 hours
without the necessary preparation.  Respect to those guys that can stay
in the chair nearer to the 48 hrs, and even more respect to those that
can do SO2R in this one!  I still cannot get my head around using the
second rx on the ft1000 for cw, and I still need the protection features
of the acom 1000 pa to save the amp from my 1 am attempts to load up
into a non existent 80m dipole or 40/80 vertical on 160m band ;-)
Maybe I should stick to short 6m contests!
 
73   
 
Steve
 
 
CQWWCW Score Summary Sheet
 
      Start Date : 2003-11-28
 
   CallSign Used : GW0GEI
     Operator(s) : GW0GEI
 
            Band : ALL (Assisted)
           Power : HIGH
            Mode : CW
Default Exchange : 14
      Gridsquare : IO73tg
 
    ARRL Section :  
       Club/Team : Contest Cymru group / Dragon ARC
         Software: N1MM Logger V3.0.124
 
 
      Band  Contacts      Zone      DXCC     Score
      ----  --------     ----- ---------     -----
       1.8       149         8        45      9328
       3.5       346        17        53     39900
         7       375        17        69     55212
        14       552        26        81    115025
        21       406        23        83     97732
        28       341        18        46     54976
     Total      2172       111       380   2086259
 
 
     Final Score : 2086259
 
             Rig : Yaesu FT1000 plus Acom 1000 pa 400w
 
        Antennas : TH7 tribander, HF2V vertical, 160m inv V