[UK-CONTEST] CQWW at GM4YXI / GM7V

[Keith Kerr]

Hi all,

I never did get round to adding my bit about the SSB leg so here it is 
first of all..

September arrived and I had no functioning HF antennas to speak of 
(weather, corrosion and lack of maintenance over the last 12 months to 
blame). My 80m vertical was ok 'cos it sits in storage over the summer so 
my CQWW options this year were rather limited! I threw up another vertical 
for a second receiver. All this and the beverages were just about sorted by 
9pm Friday and I was thinking about sleeping when I realised the bevs were 
all really noisy and essentially useless.

So I started SB80 feeling deaf. The first night saw reasonable QSO rates 
and the big stations in zone 5 were loud but there didn't seem to be the 
weaker layers of stations. Maybe I was deaf. I picked up a few Carib mults 
around sunrise (FY5KE by far the loudest) after basically running all 
night. I had noticed a problem on the PROIII: the output closed off 
dramatically periodically! When the band closed I eventually discovered 
that this was only a problem when the Rx antenna option was selected (the 
bevs were almost usable on some frequencies) so decided to swap to my old 
IC775 and put the PROIII on the rx vertical after discovering that the 
PROIII saw a very high SWR only when the Rx antenna option was selected. 
This all ate into my planned sleep.

My return at 1500 was depressing, hearing SMs rattle off amazing DX to the 
east which was inaudible to me. Must have got to me since I 
uncharacteristically took a couple of hours off from the bedlam in the 
early evening but came back and stuck the rest of the night out bar 90mins 
of kip around 0200.

The lack of bevs was really annoying me and I decided daylight Sunday to 
try to fix it. I check all the feeders, the relay switching, changed the 
feedpoint balun&.no effect. Then the penny dropped&..the shack PC. To cut a 
long story, the bevs seemed to pick up terrible hash from the PC power 
supply. Ditch PC, fire up old faithfull 25MHz 486 and restart with a proper 
Rx capability. Amazing difference and helped me do something about my 
dreadful multiplier total thanks to 9M2CNC, YB2DX, VK6DXI booming at his SR 
and 5U7JB near the end.

Finished with a good QSO total but rubbish mults and got creamed by the 
opposition. Still it was great to get back in the shack after a long 
absence. Shame that the old PC corrupted the cabrillo file!

       Call:      GM7V      On about about 31 hours

       BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES

              80     2027    2427       1.20           19          89 
      = 262,116

       Plan had been to try 40m in the CW leg but the antennas never 
materialised. Stewart GM4AFF came to my rescue on the PC front and after a 
bit of a wrestle with Ctwin I was sort of ready. I was mindful that I had 
really messed up on the mult front on SSB. The first night on 80m CW was 
pretty good. Plenty of NA, carib mults and JW1CCA and OY3QN to finish. I 
got some sleep and was ready at 1500 to start again. The first hour saw 
JT1CO, HS0ZBS, ZM1A and JA3YBK for four double mults in a row, then 9M2CNC, 
9V1YC and YC2MXV called me.

Now the bad bit......I had to QRT at 1800 to go out (XYL and I did not 
discuss the fact that last weekend in November is booked!). Bummer.....back 
at 0100 Sunday. That hurt.

Cat nap 20mins at 0445 to stop falling asleep while Cqing! At 0750ish I am 
called by NP2L, ZL2AZ and LU6QI shortly followed by VE7ZL. Looking forward 
to an interesting next hour ar SR, I lose all drive to amp and conclude Tx 
is bust. Transpired that an outboard coax relay for my antenna switching 
was at fault. Reconnected with one antenna and worked LU2F then stopped. 
Decided to take the relay apart and discovered that the copper arm on the 
Tx side had snapped.......bad timing. Reconfigure my messy shack and try to 
get about 90mins sleep.

Sunday evening was amazing. I felt happier about my mult situation but was 
way short of QSOs after my Saturday pm closedown. QSO rates were slow but 
some great DX called in. In 15mins around 1615z VK2NU, YC2WWW, T88AA and 
A52CDX, later VR2BG, BA4RF and VU2PAI and I even had a run of 16 JAs around 
their sunset.......never done that before on 80m. VQ9JC, 9N7JO and with 58 
mins to go, VK9AA all called to cheer me up.

My score is still rubbish when I see some of the posted stuff on 3830 ( 
obviously still missed loads of mults as well as being very short on QSOs) 
but I had a really great time. Love or hate the format, CQWW is just 
brilliant, period!

Call:      GM4YXI            29hrs on

       BAND 80m

                   QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/   ZN COUNTRIES

      Totals   1789     2747     1.54     29     102      =>  359,857

Now it's antenna building in the snow.....

73
Keith GM4YXI (GM7V)