[UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW - G0MTN

[Lee Volante]

Hi all,

I was expecting this to be a real slog, as the previous few week's contests,
including WPX RTTY, hadn't included many NA stations.  I decided to sleep
through Friday night as I'd had a bad week at work and was tired, but did
get up early Saturday morning to see if there would be anything I could hear
on 160.

I've never heard signals on 160 quite like it.  For the first time ever,
real 599 sig's from the states.  Lots of other Caribbean and Central
American contesters heard too.  I remember hearing a few UK stations calling
these guys !?  Anyway, I increased my number of all time USA 160m QSOs by
500%, and even had some replies to CQ calls.

I then moved up to 80, and then had a run on 40 which was successful.   Nice
to get CA there too.  The benefits of having a second tier station is that
there's a definite gap between when 40 stops being usable and 20 becomes
usable which is just right for breakfast.  20 and 15 ran well, and even 10
eventually, although it was more of a struggle.

It was difficult on the lower bands, so I had more sleep on Saturday night,
but was up early again on Sunday, and then did the same all over again. This
year I completely failed to get a run going on 40m on Sunday night - oops.
No DVD's this time either - I kept busy with the sub-rx.

769,986 pts - SOAB HP

Band    QSO   Mult
160    21    12
80    44    22
40    126    33
20    540    48
15    456    46
10    183    28
ALL    1370    189

FT1000MP-Field, A1000
C3SS / Windom / Inv-L - everything @ 30 feet or lower.  Bit windy too.

52 out of 63 multipliers worked.  Missing ID, MT, ND, SD, NV, LB, MB, NT,
NU, SK, YT

Messing about with Excel shows....

Most QSOs by state...  PA (131), NY (88), MA (78), FL / NJ / VA (all 72). At
the other end there 4 states I only worked once - so much for me working
out what was rare and moving them.  I moved from 40 to 80 for WA1Z.  I know
I got into trouble in the past with the people of Nunavut for wondering
where they were - but I felt that VE's in general were more scarce this
year.  No VE3EJ either ?

Multiple band QSOs:  11 x 6 band, 9 x 5 band, 26 x 4 band, 79 x 3 band, 183
x 2 band, and 552 x 1 band.  This was surprising - I would have thought that
being active over both days, and hopping about between the 'easy' 20 and 15
I would have got more casual ops on two bands.  I'll have to do the same
sums for other contests, maybe I don't move enough.

I need to improve LF (again) obviously, although it's still better than last
year.  Getting spotted on the cluster works wonders - frustrating to be
calling on all sorts of different frequencies and not getting anywhere, and
then a mini-pile can develop from a cluster spot.  But then again I can't
really compare my windom with a 2 el @ 30m for 7 MHz can I ?  :-)    IR4T
lit up all of the lights on the 'MP signal meter on 40m which was depressing
!   Go on then Dave / Andy, am I 1,000 or 2,000 QSOs short ?

73,

Lee G0MTN