[UK-CONTEST] IOTA 2005 - EI/MM0CCC

[mm0ccc]

A family holiday, limited operating time (when XYL and 2yr old daughter were asleep), and mobile whip antennas meant I'd only be making a few QSO's in this one.  Apart from a brief 5 min run on CW, the rest were just replies to other CQ calls.  Most QSO's were fairly close-in stuff, so I made a point of trying to work as many UK/EI stations as I could.  I guess most of you will have had a clean sweep of EI anyway, with the possible exception of 10m, though the one station I did work on 10 was fairly close in as well - PA1BX/P.  Worked most of the UK/EI "regulars" that spring to mind, with the exception of GU8D (heard once but couldnt break pile-up) and M6T (never heard).  The GPRS cluster link continually disconnected (thanks Vodafone IE) despite being a rock-solid signal here.  My received serial numbers from most stations worked appeared well up on last year so here's to some good posted scores.

This was my first time in IOTA as a single op, though going by some of the post-contest threads so far, maybe the SO in SO12hrA entry stands for "safest option", hi hi!  Although the "running on two bands" cluster spot mentioned earlier did turn out to be correct in it's content, I don't believe what you read there should always be taken at face value.  For example, at a previous IOTA entry I was involved in (GM5A @ Islay), nearing the end of the contest when things were starting to get quiet, one of our ops (only partly) tounge-in-cheek said in a CQ call that he was "looking, in particular, for rare IOTA multipliers".  Of course the next station to reply was on mainland EU and didn't quite fit the bill, but it did have the effect of prompting an "I" prefix station to spot us on the cluster with a comment that were were breaking the rules/only working Island stations, which of course, was not the case.  No doubt the on-air comment was lost somewhere in translation but it can 
 easily stick, as I discovered on returning from the trip and was asked by several others about it.  

Ref another thread, although I hate the habit of last/first two, I have to confess to calling "EI" in response to a few SSB CQ'ers this weekend.  Just look at the full callsign I was using, factor in the problems I encoutered being heard (countless repeats), and the fact the XYL and daughter were sound asleep in the adjacent room.  On this occassion a quick "EI" saved me a lot of wasted time on air, and minimal grief from the station manageress!  Yes, I will be returning to full callsigns with immediate effect.

Yesterday, the family went to Blarney Castle, where we all kissed the famous stone.  I'm hoping this doesnt have the effect of adding in extra/unecessary waffle to future exchanges I make in SSB contests, hi-hi.  Just a thought, no new thread for this one please!

Call: EI/MM0CCC
Operator(s): MM0CCC
Station: EI/MM0CCC

Class: SO12Mixed LP
QTH: Killarney, Co. Kerry, ROI
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Radios: FT847

Summary:
Band  CW Qs  CW Mults  Ph Qs  Ph Mults
--------------------------------------
   80:   6       4      10        8
   40:   5       4       5        4
   20:   2       1       9        7
   15:   1       1       0        0
   10:   0       0       1        1
--------------------------------------
Total:  14      10      25       20  Total Score = 15,750


73
John (EI)/MM0CCC.