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

[Andy Cook, G4PIQ]

    Callsign Used : M6T

   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Countries   Zones
 ___________________________________________________________

  160SSB      83          83         87        38         5
   80SSB     607         607        879        60        13
   40SSB     569         569       1278        85        26
   20SSB     849         849       2080       101        35
   15SSB    1357        1357       3201       111        35
   10SSB    1040        1040       2656       103        34
 ___________________________________________________________

 Totals     4505        4505      10181       498       148


    Final Score = 6576926 points.

Rig : 2 x FT1000MP + PAs.
Ant :
160m - Inv-L, top @ 28m first night, leaky dummy load thereafter
80m - Delta Loop @ 23m
40m - 402CD @ 24m
HF - KT34A @ 30m + TH5 @ 24m + A3 @ 26m

140m Beverage to NW

Far better conditions than we could ever have hoped for given the position
in the sunspot cycle. From here, 10m only really opened to the bottom right
corner of the US on the Saturday, but on the Sunday, after a patchy start we
got a much more complete opening with even the odd zone 3 thrown in! Not
much in the way of short path JA heard on 15 from here though and didn't
catch zone 1 on any band. Great signals from FS/VE7SV on the low bands -
even louder than VY2ZM on 160!

Had plans to do some stuff to the station to try and improve some of its
shortcomings (mostly receive noise), but a mad few weeks at work and other
stuff really put paid to any time to do work before the Friday. Thanks to
Darren, G0WCW, for coming over and helping with the antenna work on the
Friday. In the end it took most of the day just to deck out and re-string a
tower to get the antenna to full height, re-build the KT34A (which was a
scary exercise - so many bad joints - and not just the fiddly bits at the
end), and run out of time to put up the full 6 element version.

Put up beverages on the end of an even longer run of coax this time (600m or
so of RG58) which helped a little with the noise floor to the West, but not
in other directions. Actually heard people on 160 who couldn't hear me
(FY5KE comes to mind) which makes a pleasant change in some bizarre way and
had a beverage which was quieter than the Tx antenna on 80 for the first
time from that site!

Talking of 160 - big trouble. 5 hours before the was just getting ready to
go home and finally checked all the antennas which I'd also checked not long
ago and found the 160m Inv V duff (one leg probably disconnected at the
top). For some reason the halyard wouldn't come down the tower and from
bitter experience I figured that the risk of breaking something else by
dropping the tower in the dark, luffing and re-raising was high! At the last
minute I'd thrown a bit of wire onto the KT34A tower when it went up with
the intention of putting up an Inv-L for 160, but no rope etc. to hand for
halyards..... So - backup plan - and 2 hours later I had a working inv-L and
small (9) set of radials! Couldn't see what was happening at the top of the
tower though. In the morning I saw that I'd trapped the horizontal wire
around a guy rope. This at least all worked OK on the first night, but on
night 2 (perhaps a bit more mist in the air), the moment that I applied RF
the match went off. Spent too much time trying to fix this and eventually it
all came crashing down as wire burnt through at top...... So stuck with no
antenna for 160. Again wasted time trying to sort something else up, but
more jammed halyards..... Glad that I had a few mults in the bag by then and
worked a few other close ones trying to persuade an amp to deliver a little
power into a very nasty load, but was clearly very weak!

40m was pretty good to the US and by 0101 on Sunday I was trying out 7103!
Actually - I don't think it helped my rate, but it's a great thing and
thanks to Colin, G3PSM for the hard work in making this happen. The whole
debate about frequencies on 40 is hard. I'm with Steve GW4BLE and don't call
CQ below 7040 - partly (mostly?) because of the agro that it causes and does
that reduce your rate / number of folks who will call you. actually it's
only better because few people do operate there so the QRM levels are lower.
So - I vote that 7015-7040 is designated DX only :-) and that will make life
easier for all of us to find the interesting stuff on 40! The definition of
DX is auto linked online from my logbook and a robot with a spare 500kW
transmitter at Orford Ness will automatically selectively jam any
multipliers I don't need in that segment.......

On the excuse front, who decided that my partner was going to stuff her back
so badly on CQWW weekend that she could barely move from bed, so I had to
take 90 mins out on Saturday morning to go and fix some stuff at
home....... - and some stuff Friday night as well.

The power supply in the PC died about 3 hours in - took me 25 mins to change
that out.

 I did set one new personal record though - 67 hours up and 20 minutes
sleep.... Some of the contest I really was absolutely stuffed though.

So - all in all not as committed as I'd have liked, but stuff happens.

Operating time 42.75 hours. Sleep - 20 mins, domestic God - 90 mins, PC
trouble - 30 mins, natural breaks - 15 mins, pointlessly fidding with
antennas when you're too tired to make sensible tactical decisions - 3
hours........

See you all from 5U5Z in CW.