[UK-CONTEST] GM0F CQ WW Comments - Long

Tue Nov 29 15:13:55 EST 2005

My score is already somwhere on this reflector, so here's a wee bit more info. This year seemed to be a 'good' CQ WW and my personal view seems to be echoed by others reporting. I got 2 hours sleep on Friday night, and ambled out to the shack at 2350. Very cool. I was QRV at 0000. I started out thinking that I might not be motivated enough to actually operate the whole weekend, but as it turned out, the LF bands were in good shape as was 20m and I seemed to be in good shape sleep-wise. I was diagnosed with sleep apnoea last year. The cure has changed my life, not just contesting! I slept 2.5 hours on Sunday morning. I still found it really difficult to read CW on Sunday - I just don't get it.

So.... my equipment all worked well apart from the 40m antenna which began to rotate by itself in the wind. I didn't know this until I happened to look at it on Saturday morning - and yes, it was 180 deg different from what I had expected to see! I don't know if that was what made my 40m score so much worse compared to the other bands though. I just couldn't get going on 40m. The 403CD is probably far from high enough - this year at only 45ft because of the gales.

My other 'problem' was simply the adapter I borrowed from my son for use with the new noise cancelling headphones I bought (on G3SWX's recommendation - well done Roger). It looks like it is a stereo adapter, but actually mixed the two channels into a single channel. Very annoying when the headphones are potentially a scoring advantage and the DX Doubler needs the left and right channels for SO2R to work properly!

Good bits:

I caught a nice run of W's on 160m on Saturday morning early and a little run of JA long path on 20m on Sunday morning. Both unusual for me.

The band scope on my new little FT897 was great for catching rare signals on 10m and I boubt if I would have worked anyone at without it. OK - 8 QSO's is 11 mults is 11 mults!

Nice run to the States in the afternoon on both days, right through to zone 3, which is also unusual from here.

There appeared to be a lot less lids around, even at the DXpedition stations. CT3EN and 9G5GJ could have sent their callsigns more often and that 5B9 really took me to the limit of my CW reading ability, then achnowledged that he was indeed a 5B9 (so what else should I log him as?). And as for 3V5A, his whole log will be busted. Name and shame, that's what I say!

On the down side, I really failed miserably to raise some mults and bust some pile ups. Mostly on 40 and 15m. I also enjoyed the technical challenge of setting up a web cam on my web site which worked perfectly (and has done for a year) up until I re-started the PC at the start of the contest! And now I can't get it to work at all.

In response to the 'Observations' thread, I believe the CQ WW series of contests are still contests - 'A struggle for superiority or victory between rivals'. Just because the requirements of the exchange don't match what is required in other contests doesn't make it 'pointless'. The skills required to do well in CQ WW I would say are an understanding of propagation (which I lack), and ability to read CW well (which I lack) and a good location (which I also lack). What defines a good location in CQ WW is another discussion.

Copying the exchange is pointless in most cases. The fact that the call is in your log is all that matters really, and that's what determines the final outcome. That's why it's important to copy it correctly of course, and why a lot of points are docked if it's wrong. Copy it wrong, and you didn't work him. That, I believe, is why so many people are active in CQ WW, which makes it a great event - there IS no requirement to copy the exchange.

There are a few stations I worked who seem to take a most dogmatic view of their end of the QSO, and spend considerable time repeating my call, his call, and annunciating every dot and dash of the full exchange, followed by all the callsigns again and a 73 and GL for good measure. Why they are QRV at all beats me because they are only getting pleasure in making me jump up and down (and I know that they know)!

Enough already.  For those that have read this far:

FT1000MP, Alpha 91b, FT897D, Collins 30S1 + DX Doubler, filters, stubs, etc.

10m - 5ele - 30ft, 15m-4ele-50ft, 20m-4ele-55ft, 40m-2ele-45ft, 80m-70ft vert, 160m-dipole-55ft, 2 beverages (NW,SE), 2 Ewes (NE, SW).

73 and tnx to all on here for all the QSOs

Stewart GM4AFF (GM0F)

www.gm4aff.net

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Andy swiffin
Sent: 29 November 2005 10:00
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] CQWW Observations

>  Everything else was great.  CQWW is!! Guess
> Vive le CQWW. Chris G3SJJ, at G8D.
>

Obviously I'm missing something - quite a few people have written great
praise for the cqww contests.  Surely its the most pointless one out -
once you've got the callsign you may as well just qsy, the rest of the
excgange is meaningless!  Oh - zone 14, 5, 11, 33 or whatever - what a
surprise.......  With serials being passed (and compared at
adjudication) there's some point in the contest exchange and some skill
in correctly copying the info.  

You old style Hfers are just far too soft, every HF contest should
exchange real reports (heaven forbid), serials and FULL LOCATOR, that
would sort out the men from the boys. 

Oh, and no automatic keyers - everything by hand, then we'd see if 3V5A
was still sending at 45wpm by sunday evening, I wonder if he realises
how many qsos he lost because the other end couldn't work out who on
earth he was - it was fun listening on his (and other hot rods)
frequencies to the number of ..--..s there were.

No serious attempt in this contest from me, about 160 qsos and some
fun.  Nice to play a bit of topband and 80. 

cheers
Andy
gm8oeg

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