[UK-CONTEST] More thoughts on the contest.

[brian coyne]

After a freshen up, meal and some relaxation I spent the last couple of hours poodling around 40m to give some points/mults to those guys who were still slogging away.
  Outstanding sigs from UK during that period came from GMOF, G3TXF & G4BJM. however there were other UK guys who were running stateside who were deaf to other directions likely losing valuable mults, with myself, FR1HZ and a VU2 calling them with no response. Back in uk I worked 310 countries on 40 and learned that to be successful on that band you have to deal with noise. Experts say beverages don't work on higher bands than 80m - not so, even a long wire draped around the plot no more tnan 3' or so high, or even lying on the ground are incredibly effective because the noise disappears. True that sigs are very very weak but a good cw op will read them and it is the difference in picking up these weak sigs in noise that sorts out the winners from the also rans. I write this because in that brief spell last night I could not believe the no of guys that gave up on my barefoot output. When they set up  the 80m and top band stations they go to lengths to deal with noise but rega
 rd 40 as
 another hf band.
  Another aspect I wonder about is how cqww boys deal with poor sending. A couple of times, when I was doing the 15m spell I heard a 5B9, I did puzzle it but assumed it to be something newly allocated, anyway I was busy and paid no attention and he never called me. However as it happened, I cam across him on 40m, he was going up the band searching and calling at the same rate as myself so I heard him several times sending his call 5B9AGA. The dx stns went back with the same call and he did not correct them. They should have been put on alert with the exchange 5nn 14, but not one of them queried it, and he could not tell the difference between an H or a 5 either sending or receiving it. Of course the logging progs fill in the zones and the more we are given the lazier we get. I for one now only listen out for the zone from the east side of USA and UA9/0 and very little else. That op was no novice, he was fast and also aggressive. I can see a pile of busts in his wake. There we
 re two
 other poor ops with their c/s, the HJ1/5J1 and the 3V. Do these guys get a warning from the CQ contest committee?, if not they ought to.
  Rant over, I'll get back to dx-ing.
  73 Brian 5B/G4ODV..

		
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