[UK-CONTEST] RSGB 80m CC SSB

[Jim Martin - MM0BQI]

Another enjoyable couple of hours!
52 QSOs, running 50watts to a low loaded dipole.  Logging with N1MM.
Panic before the contest with high SWR on the 80m dipole.  The penny dropped
with five minutes to go that I had removed the antenna couplings to take
with me to the Summer Isles last week. Put everything back together again
then straight into the contest!  Great first half hour then things tailed
off with increasing noise. Quite hard to be heard by some stations in the
last half hour.  Got frustrated with CQing stations coming back with my
partial call "the MM0 again" only to find that a strong signal had called
over the top of me and they then worked them straight away!  Needless to say
I just kept on tuning. Another habit I noticed was if two stations replied
to a CQ one was asked to standby and wait for the first QSO to finish!
Works okay on VHF but not a tactic I see being successful on HF!
Great to hear the 'beacon' stations starting up, claiming their frequencies
before 20.00 and not moving for the duration, it's a great barometer of
changing conditions.
Looking forward to the summer nights when we can give it a try out portable
and see if we can improve the score.
See you next week for RTTY, my favourite!
73
Jim,  MM0BQI


** IOTA DXpedition EU108 Treshnish Isles June 2005
www.qsl.net/mm0bqi/eu108.htm **
       **IOTA Contest DXpedition  July 2005 MM0Q  Summer Isles EU092 **
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