[UK-CONTEST] CQWW SSB 2004

[Tony]

My first International SSB entry in 34 years of Contest operating and it was good to hear the level of activity and that 28MHz was in such brilliant order.   I only made 553 Qs due family commitments (daughter to stay until PM 30th and Sally (xyl) birthday on 31st.   The point is that I enjoyed myself and worked some good DX.  The bonus was tuning up above 7100 and trying out the new band extn. Good news - some Ws were aware that "we" had got the allocation, bad news lots of  Stateside stations on 7100 to 7200 but only QSX on freqs in bottom 100kHz of the band (oh deep joy to use that phrase !)

I'd quite forgotten the "split" frequency operation on 80 and 40 Metres - it has been about 30 years since I last did an SSB DX contest ! - didn't bother me too much as my dear old Omni D only has one VFO.

My kit was OMNI D at around 80W (she's a very aged and arthritic old girl) to either Butternut HF6V or "linear loaded" dipoles for 80 and 160 Metres (KE4UYP design).

I was delighted to get some very complimentary comments from Stateside and elsewhere on the strength of my signal on 20 and up,  just put around 3000 feet of shortish radials around the Butternut  one comment from a K4 was "hell you must have some special antenna grease you're one of the loudest signals out of Europe"  -  this is the sort of magic moment that makes being "lil pistol" worth while.

As the Gov. of California says  "I'll be back" next year hopefully to do a decent number of hours,  Sally knows that I am in isolation for the weekend of the CW leg of CQWW -  I hope I can sweet talk her into allowing two "Contest widow" weekends next year !

Good luck to all,
73  Tony G3ZRJ