[UK-CONTEST] 80m CC CW - 1 - G3SJJ & clunky

[Chris Burbanks]

90, at least 5 which were probably in QSO with G3WZT.        Well, that was
horrible. Settled on 3535 at 1945 and stayed there until about 2025 when I
went S&P. I might have thought the QRM was deliberate but decided that band
condx were to blame since the southern half of the country seemed to have
propagation. We were well into the contest before any stations north of me
called and most of those were very weak.  Strongest UK by a long way was
G3KLH, about same strength as in AFS!

After 10 minutes or so, M0SDX started CQing within my passband (so much for
the Inrad roofing filter, or maybe it was condx!), eventually he moved.
Shortly after G3WZT did the same but stayed there until the end. He was
obviously getting a different propagation mode to me (or the roofing filter
is crap). Stations called him and me. I decided I had shot it anyway so
remained on the freq I had been on since before the contest, I was very
tempted to switch the amp on and kept looking at it but eventually
resisted!! I couldn't do SO2V with someone sitting on my freq so just Ran,
well crawled really.

Clive NJW said the new WL module was clunky. You can say that again. Keying
stumbled occasionally, not known that recently. Sometimes when I pressed F4
to send my callsign it started half way through. Also Winkey and WL were not
communicating properly, although I have suspected this before. The speed
that Winkey is set to is not necessarily what WL thinks it is. (Apologies in
particular to G3TXF.) I will use WPX format for AFS as there is no benefit.
It produces a Cabrillo file anyway. As a further safeguard I will not have
Winkey controlled by WL. There is obviously some instability there.

FT1kMP, 100w, dipole at 17m, 80m GP. WL 10.52F, mH Keyer.

Chris G3SJJ


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