[UK-CONTEST] Jan 2003 from G0MTN

[Lee Volante]

Hi all,

I've just realised I've not really posted any scores or discussion for a
good few months - a mixture of being very busy at work and being
disillusioned with some of the comments aired on this reflector towards the
end of last year.  Work's not calmed down, but at least uk-contest has -
good to see a bit more camaradarie this month.  Sorry for the length of this
post - pretend it's a 'digest' :-)

I started off the New Year by having a go at the New Year Snowballs
contest - mostly because I was intrigued by the name - and it was just an
hour long contest that allowed you to work the same stations again every
fifteen minutes.  Let's try *that* in AFS :-)   Anyway, I was a little out
of the way for the eastern europe centre of activity, and worked just 18
stations.

Then after a late night (and possibly a New Year celebratory drink) I
overslept a little and appeared for the end of the SARTG New Year RTTY. This
seemed to be going well, although using a ground mounted HF6V (see later)
for western europe and UK contacts was not ideal.  Just 14 QSOs here -
whoops.

Next up was the ARRL RTTY Roundup - more of a proper effort here - although
I was invited to an art gallery on Sunday to soak up some culture which did
make a pleasant change from being in the shack.  Pleasant enough operating
in the daytime on the high bands - although 40 and 80 late on were tough.
Forgot that mults were once-only and not by band - so I needn't have slogged
it out on the low bands after all.  359 QSOs total.

AFS CW - 254 QSOs for a place in the Lichfield 'B' team.  A reasonable
contest, although many quiet periods without a QSO.  My crisis decision was
whether to send fairly fast towards the end of the contest so as to be
picked up easily by those tuning a sub-rx in the few seconds between their
own CQ calls, or to wind the speed down and maximise the chance of getting
called by any stations who preferred a slower speed.  I eventually found out
that the key-click problem I was suffering from was actually from a nearby
electic fence.

AFS SSB - 233 QSOs.  An unlucky year for me - I started with lots of QRM
right at the start of the contest, and asking repeats for every QSO. As this
was not being productive for the vital first hour, I gave up, went into
S+P - not my desired strategy !  After a couple of band sweeps I did find
another slot which was relatively quiet and had some better rates.  A couple
of times someone started up very close, but when I asked if they could move
both said sorry and did QSY.  However, one guy did not, and actually QSY'd
towards me (just over 1 kHz away at the finish), and replied to the extent
of "it's a contest mate, tough" when I queried why he was so close.    As
Steve BLE said, it *is* a contest after all, so I shouldn't expect it all my
own way, but there is the tradeoff of "doing well" and "being
sportsmanlike", which with the variety of radios, filters, antennas,
heights, output powers etc. you can't tell if someone if actually oblivious
to any problems they're causing, or just being bloody minded.  This is how
these amusing AFS-arguments start off.

I had 1 QSO in the last half hour - I tried to get in to call CQ all over
the place but was unsuccessful.  (The one QSO was from a French station who
moaned at me for interfering with his net.)    I did actually manage to grab
a freq from someone else who must have been on the other VFO.... I got a 'is
the freq in use' and a CQ call in, but was then just CQ'd upon without
acknowledgement !    If I'd known several other people were being fairly
gracious in admitting a lost freq perhaps I'd have fought a bit harder.  I
must be too polite :-)  I was going up and down the band, hearing lots of
people I'd not yet worked calling others, and could not get them in the log.

I was running full power to a windom running east-west, fairly horizontal,
25 foot centre (not great but fairly "typical" of home stations I'd guess),
in the Midlands (vital bit that !), overall an above average setup
considering all of the entrants.  It was interesting to be part of a
discussion the Lichfield team operators had after the event. One of the
conclusions was that if you lose a (relatively) clear freq, especially near
the end, no matter who you are or what signal you can put out you're
completely stuffed !  A new tactic for next year will be to put all the
entrants in a band map as I go through, and if I hear any of them calling
anyone else later in the contest, I've got a pretty good idea where I can
grab a clear frequency from if I can get there fast enough !

I persuaded some of the local Wythall club members to come on and have a go.
They were all 100-watters to surban dipoles / G5RVs / windoms etc. and all
made between 50 and 80 QSOs during the four hours.  Also one of the club
guys I took through the Foundation Morse assessment came on.  He'd not got
an ideal antenna for AFS - a multi-band vertical - but he only managed 4
QSOs with his 10 watts in half an hour before he gave up.  If I was finding
it tough, he was finding it very tough !  There's probably a message in
their somewhere...

After I'd calmed down after AFS, the next foray was the CQ160 / BARTG / REF
/ UBA weekend.  Having prior engagements with a paint brush and a trip to
pick up a mobile versatower from it's holiday home meant I chose to drop
into all of them and have a bit of fun, rather than attempt anything
serious.  Good choice as it turned out - poor conditions meant the high band
contests slowed down after the first couple of hours, and I also missed out
on the usual 59+ signals from western europe on 80 in the evening.  Lots of
mults missed in lots of contests!

It seems 160 was the place to be, as long as you've got an antenna.  I only
spent a few hours each night trawling the band, and after comparing notes
with new dad Ian G4IIY, it seems "compromise" short dipoles (especially when
low) are perhaps not worth the effort.   I've also realised I've spent far
too much time with coax fed yagis and dipoles when trying to envisage some
quarter wave alternatives but I am getting some help !

Results:  UBA 238 QSOs (HP), BARTG 146 QSOs (HP), CQ160 123 QSOs (LP) (a
couple of new band countries, but still not quite the USA!), REF 18 QSOs
(LP) (whoops.)

I've also finally finished checking last year's 21/28 CW contest (hurray) so
will hopefully have a bit more free time now Mondays to Fridays.  30% of
logs had no or incorrect claimed scores, which was the reason I submitted no
claimed scores published just after the contest.

2003 RFI update... (aka the continued saga of trying to operate contests
from home.)  It's all going pear shaped.  One of my neighbours bought
themselves a new widescreen TV, which I seem to be able to penetrate it's
surround sound amplifier with about 30 watts on 7 MHz on my dipole.   Tried
the usual external filtering but I think it may be a problem internally.  I
now have a polite well balanced email currently inside Panasonic's customer
care system asking for suggestions.  I still have the HF6V which is located
at the end of the garden, but it's had to be ground mounted which is not
good for a reasonable performance, and it's not great anyway for EU working.

Even worse is at my local club station, where a wall of 59+ wideband noise
has appeared in the last few weeks from below 1.8 MHz to 50 MHz.  It's still
very noticeable in some directions on 2m, but we think we're safe for 70cms
AFS at the weekend.   We made even fewer QSOs than normal in the UKACs this
month.  We'll be sniffing this out with a borrowed FT817 as soon as we can -
we've got good odds at Ladbrokes on another TV switch mode PSU, or even an
errant flourescent lamp somewhere.

Overall - a fair bit of fun, but from previous posts there are definitely no
'top of the table' scores for me this month.

73,

Lee G0MTN