[UK-CONTEST] CW FD 2003 - G3IZD/P

[G3SJJ]

Further to Ivan's info. A very useful pre-IOTA Contest exercise with Ian G4IIY and some
humourous tales of life in the Navy from Ivan. (Certainly confirmed my thoughts that I am
happy not to have had any involvement on military service, all that formality etc).

Arrived on site just south of Carlisle at 1700 Friday after a 4 hour drive, A1/A66/M6 to
find the tent and one mast erected. We erected the second mast and then made for Ian's
local where we sampled several beers and a superb meal. After an excellent cooked
breakfast at Ian's on Saturday morning, we finalised the station only to find a high
noise level on 160 and 80. Numerous checks followed, earthing arrangements, Smart ATU,
ATU PSU... Eventually we concluded it must be from electrified fences so we re-assembled
the station as it was originally and proceeded using the MP noise blanker to reduce the
noise but not eliminate it.

After the first hour or so we had some Qs in the log but not as many as expected. Ivan's
somewhat irritated comment was actually close to the truth "Too much Hi tech and not
enough radio!" Point taken. With the MP, two computers networked using NA, which worked
perfectly, we were looking to emulate the now standard AFS practice for single ops, ie
running on one VFO and S&P on the 2nd. Ian and I agreed later that full 2 vfo S&P would
have been more productive. Of course with the MP antenna swtiching arrangements we were
limited to in-band S&P. (On second thoughts perhaps adjacent band 2nd vfo S&P and the
Smart ATU bypassed might have been achievable, food for thought). Antenna as described by
Ivan, extra section auto swtiched via ealys at top of each mast, back in to a Topten
decoder.

We didn't really find much in the way of runs until after midnight. 10m never produced
any signals until 0830-1130 on Sunday and then we had to call every station. 15m was very
sporadic. Late Sunday was hopeless with a completely dead band around midday onwards. The
hour 1100 produced just 25 Qs, 1200 got 16 and 1300 saw 15 Qs up until 1345 when we
switched off after calling GM4FAM for 15 minutes without effect.

We managed to get the gear cleared away before a terrific rain storm saturated us whilst
packing up the rest of the outside stuff. After a complete change of clothes I made my
south down the country lanes of Cumbria, filled the car up with petrol and still covered
the first 60 miles in exactly one hour. Too good, tailback for road works meant the next
11 miles took 45 minutes. Usual M6 features around Thelwall and Keele until I reached the
A50 bypassing Stoke, Uttoxeter and Derby where I could really motor. (Only a new Mini
Cooper overtook me on that stretch!) arrived home at 2130, ready to start work again at
0700 on Monday. Life gets tedious, don't it!)

Some thoughts :
- An excellent pre-IOTA Contest warm up, certainly helped to focus our thoughts
- Three mature-ish ops just about right, operating 2 on and 1 off most of the time.
Restricted Section so easy to set up.
- Cumbria did not produce the Es path that we thought
- As in SSB FD, we were too far away from the centres of activity in the UK, no other
activity within a 70 mile radius at least.
- FT1kMP wrong choice. My fault, should have taken up the offer of a Mk5. The extra 3db
from those groups using the Ft1kD/MK5 was certainly noticeable.

Hope to work you all from G3LZQ's QTH as part of the GB5HQ multi station in IARU. Chris
G3SJJ