[UK-CONTEST] IOTA G3TXF SO(A) 24CW HP

[Nigel G3TXF]

Hullo UK Contesters

This year I operated only 15 hours in IOTA - single-op (assisted) CW only. 

Thank uou to the RSGB for adding single-mode single-op "assisted" categories. 

Summary:

Band  CW Qs  CW Mults  
-----------------------
  80:   41       38                
  40:   58       50                
  20:   82       63                
  15:   38       28                
  10:    5        4                
-----------------------
Total:  224      183   
Claimed Score = 557,784 

I wonder if many of the more juicy (multi-op) IOTA-multipliers just use CW as a secondary mode, occasionally dipping in when there's a mult that they need to work, but otherwise spending the rest of the time on SSB, i.e hardly, if ever,'running stuff' on CW. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so.

Conditions were OK on LF until packing in at around 02z. Came back at 08z to find 10m and 15m completely dead and 20m somewhat thin. 

If there's now felt to be too-many-categories in the IOTA Contest, I'd suggest that the 12hr/24hr category differentiation is dropped. It's only a 24 hour contest after all. Having what is in effect a 30-hour or 36-hour single op category in major 48-hour contests makes sense, but having both 12hr and 24hr categories within a 24hr contest may just be a case of one-category-too-many.

I used WriteLog for the first time ever in a non-frenetic environment (i.e not like at GB5HQ two weeks ago!) and I must say that I enjoyed using it. It seemed to cope with all the IOTA mults nicely and produces useful pull-down mult tables. I hadn't realised before that you can change the size (i.e increase!) of the WriteLog QSO entry box/font as well as increase the font size in the log-book area. That certainly makes using WriteLog on a large 17" LCD screen much more comfortable. CT used to be a pain after IOTA because it truncated long calls, and if I remember rightly, never created a Cabrillo file properly for IOTA either. I sense that, despite his original (learning-curve related) reservations, G3TXF may eventually be becoming a WriteLog convert after all!

73 - Nigel G3TXF

PS : Importing the WriteLog generated log into TurboLog after the Contest was easy enough using TL's excellent ASCII Import feature (remembering of course to add the hyphens into the IOTA designators, eg EU-005, before importing them as TL Keywords).