[UK-CONTEST] M6T (G4PIQ) CQWW SSB SOABHP

[Andy Cook, G4PIQ]

This is as close to 6M as it gets.......... - just a little frustrating!
 
Great fun as usual. Propagation was really odd. At some points in the
weekend I thought that conditions were pretty good - strong JAs on 15m
on Saturday and decent runs and signals from the US on 15m and late on
Saturday on 10m. However - at other times I thought that conditions
stank - completely unable to run Ws to any extent on 40m before dawn
either Saturday or Sunday early morning; completely unable to make the
Carribean and South Americans hear me on 80m on Saturday morning; lousy
propagation to the US for much of the time when 15 / 10 weren't open.
Spent a lot of time listening to folks further south who seemed to be
able to run on the bands I couldn't. But - basically, we got away with
it - when I saw the X5 flare reported on Thursday I think, my heart sank
- thank goodness for Bz being the wrong way round for it to couple in. 
 
Had a few problems during the event. Was more or less ready to roll by
Thursday which was a first for me, but discovered that the bits for the
beverage weren't where they should be - I must have taken them to one of
the other sites I use sometime earlier in the year. A mad work week
meant that I had little spare time Friday and decided to get 90 minutes
sleep before the start of the contest and return to the contest QTH at
work an hour before the start of the contest just to make a matching
transformer and put out the Beverage. Dumbly I misjudged how long this
would take and didn't start the contest until 0030. I tried running on
40m for 10 minutes or so, but after almost no joy had to revert to 80m
where the rate was good but the pts/QSO weren't - not a great start.
Couldn't make 40m run until dawn when it went well but only for a short
period. Around this time I turned the main HF antenna to call 5Z4IC on
10m and the Alpha tripped out on high SWR - the balun had fallen off the
antenna and pulled the ground connection off at the top of the
tower..... Took some time off to consider the situation (cool down &
take a 'bio break'!). Then for 4 hours or so I ran on a much poorer
lower antenna, but sincere thanks to Darren, G0WCW for coming in and
fixing the main antenna - I only had to break for 15 minutes or so to
help him wind the tower back up and re-arrange the low band antennas. 
 
Couldn't really make 10m fly to the US until late in the opening, but it
was then hot for an hour or so. Spent most of the afternoon on 15m.
After 15 closed I ran for a short time on 20m until it closed and then
had to revert to the hell of 40m. Faffed around a lot until someone
vacated 7099.9 which was a bit noisy with broadcast sidebands, but I did
manage to run a few JAs there which was very cool. Tried 40m on and off
overnight, but just couldn't get US runs to go - we really didn't have
the propagation so it was a case of lots of mostly 1 pt/QSO things on
80/160. Started to feel really trashed and wander between bands
aimlessly so decided to take 90 mins or so sleep. Somehow it was 150
mins between last and first new QSO in the end........ However - when I
got back conditions were still grim, so maybe I didn't miss much!
 
Caught a US opening on 160 at dawn and also KP2 and VP2E which was good.
That time that I spent at the start of the contest putting out the
beverage where I should have been operating paid off a bit at least (but
probably not enough!). Somewhere in here I managed to torch the Rx
filter on one of the 1000MPs on 80m which limited my rig flexibility
later in the contest. Also developed arcing at full power on 40m which I
suspect was water somewhere in a connector.
 
High band conditions on day 2 were a bit of a repeat of day 1, but not
so good. Didn't get 10 to run well to anything except Europe for much of
the time. When 15 apparently closed suddenly (I think with a solar
flare) there seemed no good place to go. I tried 20m but it really
didn't run at all well. Shuffled around with no real progress for almost
an hour before going back to 15m and keeping up a fair run of very weak
people there - at least they sounded weak, but probably weren't that
weak - usual S7 noise problem on 15 at the site. Lots of potential stuff
lost there.
 
On 15 closing it was back to 20 for a short while and then to the
40/80/160 cycle. Nothing too remarkable this time - conditions to the
North east on the low band seemed very poor - auroral disturbance I
think - no UA9 on 160 for example. However - I did almost fall off my
chair when PT0F called me on 160!
 
In short - great fun - dumb mistakes - how did I end up with so little
time and few mults on 20 AGAIN........ I'd like a site I could hear
from, but that takes time which I haven't had, so for now I go with what
I have available! 
 
Congrats to Steve for a great result with a much smaller station.
 
See you all from 5U5Z in CW.
 
73,
 
Andy, G4PIQ