[UK-CONTEST] AFS CW 2003 - GM0CLN

[colin.r.smith at baesystems.com]

Hi There,

Not the best preparation ever but I got there in the end amid house decorating
duties which became more urgent on Friday when the deadline for completion had
to be brought forward by over a week to today - Tuesday 14th (it's finished
now!)

Finished initial outdoor preparations at 11pm on Saturday night and left
antenna/supports ready to raise.   At 1.30pm Sunday I finished sanding walls
and rushed outside to erect the antenna.  Finished at 1.50pm and checked it to
find SWR well over 3 which got worse the further up 80m I went.   Another rush
outside to shorten antenna and at 2.05pm with the SWR still too high I resorted
to pushing the "TUNE" button on my TS850SAT.

Stuck to S&P early on until G-GM condx improved but even then only limited RUN
operation as there was little response to my 100W.   Split was approx 30% RUN
and 70% S&P which was just about right given the noisy band conditions, my
northerly location and my limited O/P power.

Raw hourly rates were 40/45/38/40 with 1 dupe which gave a final valid QSO
count of 162 - 5 less than last year.

Equipment : TS850SAT @ 100W and Dipole @ 20-30ft agl running NW-SE
Logging   : NA10.54 with CQWPX CW settings

Well done to those GM's who managed over 200 Q's and to the 250+ brigade
further South.   Thanks to all for the QSOs.   I'll see you all in SSB AFS by
which time I'll hopefully have a resonant dipole again!

73 Colin (GM0CLN)