[UK-CONTEST] IOTA Contest 2004 GU8D

[Chris Burbanks]

Well, we tried our best but obviously not good enough. With mono band yagis
10 and 15m, a TH6 on 20m, a diamond loop for 40m and an 80m dipole, all
switched by a WX0B Sixpak and controlled from each of the 2 radios via a
Topten decoder, each station could access any unused antenna. We had 2
operators on the mult station for the whole 24 hours, using the G3SJJ/G4DRS
design SR2O microphone switching unit. The Acom 2000a autu-tune amp was a
dream to use. Writelog worked extremely well with no crashes, networked over
4 laptops and connected to Cluster via Telnet. We paid attention to removing
extraneous shack wiring, including the lovely coax loop around the external
shack mains light! The 10/15/20/40 antennas each had around 50m separation
from each other and the 80m dipole was strung between the 20m and 15m masts.
All this resulted in minimal inter-station interference and better still
absolutely no RFI problems with the States of Guernsey offices next door.

It is disappointing then to report just 389 mults worked. I have analysed
our EU list and extrapolated it to find the maximum number of Mults we could
have worked. If we had been top-notch on-the-ball mult chasers, if all
stations had moved band/mode when requested and most importantly, if we had
had 100% propagation on all bands throughout the 24 hour duration, at the
most we could have found another 160 multipliers. I guess our competitors
had all of those!

As widely reported, the Coronal Mass Ejection of the Sun caused major
propagation and we were only able to make a combined total of 205 Qs on
10/15 CW/SSB. Assuming that all the stations requested to move and complete
the 10 band/mode multipliers would have done so, then the remaining reason
for our poor mult total has to be lack of operator skill. I think we should
have worked another 50 to 60 mults giving an absolutely maximum available
multipliers to us of 450. Without a third transmit/receive position, there
is no way we could improve on that.

The team consisted of G3SJJ, G3SVL, G4DRS, G4IIY, M5RIC GU4CHY and GU0SUP.
We worked well together and all members brought different skills and
expertise to enhance the effort. Well done to John G4DRS for his excellent
work on the gin-pole masts and leading the Run station, Rich M5RIC for his
superb run operating, Chris G3SVL for setting up the WL network and Telnet,
Ian for his work on the rota, Dick GU4CHY for providing the ice cool beers
and Phil for organising the use of the Club premises and adjoining field.
Wx was hot and sunny throughout and despite band conditions we had a great
time. My thanks to our Guernsey friends for their hospitality. GU4YOX's
Grappa had some strange effects making the hotel corridor decidedly wonky,
but boy did I sleep well on Sunday evening. Chris G3SJJ

                                 CW
PHONE
BAND     Qs           Pts            Ms              Qs             Pts
Ms
80           233         1527            43               215           1533
40
40           258         1710            55               612           3972
59
20           386         1890            43               672
3768         71
15           131           825            29                 58
570         33
10              9             12              9                   7
93          7
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------
Total      1017         6075           179             1564            9936
210

16011 pts   x   389 mlts   =   6,223,611
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