[UK-CONTEST] G3VQO in IARU Championships

[Les Allwood]

Hi Guys

I don't normally bother adding my experiences to the chatter, but I thought I'd make an exception.

If you guys with QRO and big antennas thought Saturday was hard going, then try it with 100w and a bent piece of wire draped across the roof !!! All CW naturally, is there any other way ?

Generally, here, Saturday was REALLY hard going. Nothing heard on 10m and literally a handful of weak signals on 15m. So, I stuck with 20m until the evening and then got stuck in on 40m and then 80m. Around midnight I tried on 160m, but with my antenna it was always going to be like flogging a dead horse!! Still, thanks to some excellent ears out there I did manage more than I anticipated.

After a good night's sleep I found that 15m and 10m were much improved and I set about catching up. I found little activity from North America, one VE and less than a dozen Ws. Apart from HS0AC and 9M2/G4ZFE, I found nothing from the east other than former CIS states, and Africa / Australasia was totally absent unless you count EA8.

Nevertheless, with about 12 hours of real operating time, I managed my best-ever score in this contest, so I must have been doing something right !!!

Well done to the GB5HQ guys who must have felt like they were beating their heads against a wall at times - I found you on 4 bands anyway.

Now to dream of a lottery win to build myself a station with REAL antennas !!!

Claimed Score  : 135610 
 
             160m  80m  40m  20m  15m  10m  Total

Valid QSOs:   10    53   92  113   68   35   371
Total Mults:  10    24   29   35   24   20   142
Total Points: 12   119  228  327  186   83   955

73 de Les, G3VQO
Horsham, West Sussex