[UK-CONTEST] GU0SUP 80m CC

[Alex G3ZBE]

That explains it Phil, I did genuinely think "why is he so weak" at the
time, your normally pretty loud here.

I was also targeted by some continental nutter who kept shouting
repeatedly "the contest is finished"  I don't know if it was just luck
or G's were being helpful, as I got a run of G ops who were loud enough
for me to work through him without me acknowledging his presence.
Luckily for me he gave up and presumably went and attacked someone else.
It might be a good idea when we hear someone being targeted to make a
point of calling the victim and giving the impression the deliberate qrm
is ineffective.

Alex 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Member of: RSGB, ARRL, CDXC, GMDX group,
G-QRP, DeMontfort A.R.S.
Remember....It's just a hobby!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Phil Cooper
Sent: 15 July 2004 17:58
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] GU0SUP 80m CC

Hi all,

Oh boy! Some days, it would just be better to give up!
I don't enjoy SSB anyway, but I wanted to represent the Guernsey ARS
club,
so I went into the shack and fired up the radio etc.
However, I noticed the last data leg is next week, and I am away in the
UK,
and I was horrified to think I might miss this.
The clock came up to 2000, and I kept thinking about who I could
persuade to
have a go at RTTY and/or PSK, just to give the club's placing a lift.

My first QSO in the 80m CC was with G3TXF, and then I moved on. I
struggled
to get heard, and put it down to the fact that most stations were
complaining of severe QRM/QRN.
By the time I had 10 contacts in the log, most were giving out 30 to 40
and
even 50-something.
OK, I don't enjoy SSB, but there were some LOUD stations, and even they
weren't hearing me. I tried a few weaker ones, and actually made contact
with some, so I thought maybe it was conditions.
I tried hard to work G0RAF, but felt very sorry for them having to put
up
with the abuse they were getting from someone complaining about the use
of
that particular frequency. I wasn't able to get a callsign, but doubt
they
gave one anyway.

It was interesting to hear the number of stations who said "I don't
usually
use SSB, but I am doing this for the club".

Then I heard Lionel MU3GSY work someone that wasn't even hearing me, so
I
started to worry.
That is when I realised I was working with about 6 watts output.
Not sure how, why or what, but yes, I was running QRP! Life is hard
enough
without that!
By this time, I had 19 contacts in the log, so when I came across MU3GSY
calling CQ, I worked him and pulled the plug.

My final tally was a sad 20 QSO's.

Sincere apologies to all who had to struggle with my pathetic signal,
but at
least you now know why.

And after all that, I found out that I will actually be back home on
Thursday morning, so - all being well - I will be in the final RTTY leg
next
week.

Finally, a couple of thoughts for the HFCC guys.............
Thanks for all the work you have done for these contests. The log
checkers
have done a sterling job!
I have seriously enjoyed the fun, and it has been good to see some
actually
enjoying RTTY. I hope you guys stick with it, and have a go in some of
the
major RTTY contests.
I would like to suggest that you consider running them over the winter
period, say from October/November until March/April, as many miss out
due to
holidays etc. I also wonder about the start time. Would it be better to
start at 8pm local time, or maybe just run them when we are at GMT?
Since we changed to BST, the number of EU stations participating seems
to
have dropped. Is that a coincidence?
It is not easy to sit in the shack on a beautiful summers' evening at
this
time of year! (Not that there has been many such evenings!)
Also, consider dropping PSK from the data leg. From comments I have
heard,
there are very few entrants using PSK only, and I am not in favour of
using
100 watts of PSK anyway.

Thanks again to the HFCC,

73 for now
Phil GU0SUP

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