[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW 2005 G8D

Wed Nov 30 04:05:14 EST 2005

This is a team report. G3SJJ writes :

I was relieved when Mark G4AXX and Dick GU4CHY accepted my invite to do
Multi Single from my QTH as I cannot hack 48 hour contesting, but then I was
was horrified at the thought that whilst the main station was working well,
I wasn't really set-up for multi-operator and hadn't any suitable antennas
for the multiplier station. There wasn't enough time to wire in the WX0B
Sixpak and erect monobanders for 10m & 15m so after knocking around a
few ideas I decided to put up a temporary 50ft mast to support the GU8D 40m
diamond loop which would also work on 20/15/10. LF overnight would require
a walk in the dark to manually select either the 80m or 160 antenna for the
mult station. Take it or leave it! We took it for the first night but closed
down the mult station over the 2nd night so that all of us had 6 hours off.
This never was going to be a record busting effort.

E-mail to a friend of mine: It all went quite well really, although I was a
bit worried about Yvonne. She arrived home at 1830 Friday quite stressed
after another 70 hour week, including spending time with two potentially
failing trainee teachers. It was a bit unfair to subject her to the upset
but she rallied round and even cooked breakfast and dinner for us all each
day, did some food shopping and visited her mother, as well as spending
time on the phone with tearful students. Then she was off again at 0730
Monday morning returning at 1930, quick meal & working till 2300. Some
energy, if only I could do that in contests!

My observations : Dick is a very relaxed guy (and brought some Chateauneuf
du Pape!) He was really chuffed to be able to operate from Chez JJ. Monday
morning I set his laptop up for mH Router, N1MM and Logger32. He asked to
hear the Drake R4B and was almost tearful when it burst in to life with a VK
at s8-9 on 20m SSB. First time he had heard his old radio for 18 years.

Mark setup up the N1MM network on his laptop and my desktop, it does seem
much simpler than Writelog and never once dropped out. His h/b 4CX1000 amp
worked well but is definitely engineer designed and not particularly user
friendly! It did the job though!

For myself I got a real buzz out of sharing my station and working together.
All the work on the antennas paid off, so many times we got in 1st or 2nd
call. For Mark it was listening to fast CW, relaxed by after dinner wine,
thinking about something else then finding he was copying CW faster than
ever before subconsciously, without trying.

Dick's comments: The good thing about this year's entry is that the
positives outweighed the negatives. It was interesting as a GU to operate
from G in a contest for the first time and my thanks to Chris G3SJJ for
letting me join the team at the last minute when my plans to operate MU2K
SB/20 were thwarted by RF problems in the alarm system of our neighbours and
landlords at GU3HFN, H.M. Customs. We were joined by Mark G4AXX for his
first serious CW contest effort, although he has plenty of SSB contesting
under his belt, he now he has the CW bug and wants more!

Conditions seemed reasonable given the state of the sunspots - apart from 10
metres on which we heard one solitary OK and he disappeared after about five
seconds! So our 10 metre score resembles a Norwegian Eurovision entry.
Chris's new 80m 1/4 wave vertical worked wonderfully and every pile-up was
broken either first or second call when I was operating. I've also decided
to build some phased verticals for 40 after using them for the weekend - the
joy of being virtually able to switch-off EU instantly when you wanted to
was marvellous.

We all used N1MM logging for the first time and are convinced it's now the
best out there. Simple things like wiping dupes from the entry field simply
by turning the VFO knob makes a big difference at the end of a contest when
you're tired.

We were amply fed and watered by Yvonne, Chris's XYL, which made a big
improvement on my diet of Hobnobs for 48 hours during last year's effort!
Highlights include being called by R1ANT, TZ5A and VQ9JC for double mults,
and A35 on 80m.

Strangely running pile-ups from G is slightly easier than from GU as not so
many call at once and it is easier to keep the rate up. Conversely if people
don't get you first or second call they disappear which of course they don't
when you are a rarer mult. There are more quiet moments at the end of the
contest too.  All in all though an great weekend, with far more laughter
than tears for once.

Mark's comments and photos are on the Granta website :
http://www.granta.digital-crocus.com/CQWW05.php3

Rigs: 2x FT1000MP; Acom 1000 amp; G4AXX homebrew 4CX1000A amp;
Antennas: 160m dipole, 80m 1/4 wave vertical, 40m phased 1/4 wave verticals,
A4S for20/15/10 and a diamond loop for the mult station.

Band         Qs        Pts      Cty      ZN
 1.8          270        357       52       11
 3.5          601      1004       75       19
   7           388        657     109       28
  14        1096      2521       92       30
  21          184        341       73       23
  28              0            0         0         0
Total      2539      4880      401     111       Score : 2,498,560

Chris G3SJJ