[UK-CONTEST] Don't Forget - GB5HQ

[Dave Lawley]

Hi Douglas

When planning the first full-scale GB5HQ in 2003, an invitation was put 
in Radcom (and as far as I remember, on this reflector) asking for both 
operators and station hosts. Chris, GM3WOJ was already on board but no 
other offers were received from any British stations outside of England.

A leading operator in Wales was approached to help operate and host a 
station this year but had to decline due to other commitments. Last year 
the 160m CW station was located in Guernsey. As to Northern Ireland, as 
I said no offer was forthcoming in 2003. There are several large 
stations in GI which have posted big scores in the CQWW contests but 
they're noticeable by their absence from all RSGB contests so they're 
not very visible on the UK contesting radar. Nevertheless I'd be very 
interested if a serious team from GI was interested in taking part next 
year.

There have been several posts on here about the distance problem, and it 
would be no good having the 10 or 15m stations in GI because even with 
their monster antennas they wouldn't hear all but the strongest callers 
from Great Britain. G3WGV's Starlog software which we're using now would 
help us to swap roles around the country but if taken too far it breaks 
down the feeling of band ownership by each team which I feel acts as a 
major motivator.

As to the method of selecting the stations, it was a mixture of 
volunteers and pressed men but remembering that to compete with the 
major HQ stations like TM0HQ SN0HQ DA0HQ, the stations on 10-40m have to 
be equipped with monobanders, preferably more than one, and operators at 
all stations need to be capable of rates in excess of 150 on CW and 250 
on phone.

73, Dave G4BUO
GB5HQ Coordinator