[UK-CONTEST] Run Freq on 40m

[Gerard Lynch]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G3SJJ" <g3sjj at btinternet.com>

>I was disappointed with our 40m QSO total at G8D in CQWW given the 
>excellent
> results that the antenna was producing. We spent a lot of time trawling 
> the
> band for a clear spot whilst S&Ping at the same time. On reflection I am 
> now
> convinced that the two standard 500Hz filters in the MP are just not up to
> it for CQWW.

I tend to find I need 250 Hz on 40 (and low in the band on 20 and 80 as 
well) in CQWW.  In contrast, even in WPX I can quite happily sit on 7.001 
with a 500Hz filter and run like the blazes.

I wouldn't consider CQing up at 7060 in CQWW excessively high in prime time 
even under normal conditions, but I can never remember stations filling the 
*entire* band the way they did on Sunday evening.  The freaky conditions of 
course led to it.  As I remember it last year 7080 was about as far as the 
test pushed up.  This year, I spent most of the last hour running on 7.098.7 
to good effect, and there were at least two stations above me and enough 
below me that when I was forced off by OTHR with 10 minutes to go, I had to 
go down to 7091 to find a hole.

I also had great runs on 7063 and 7073 earlier in the evening, and nice DX 
called as well as a steady stream of Eu plus Zones 4/5/17/18 on both QRGs. 
On the other hand I did manage to find holes in the bottom 10kHz at various 
points in the contest but they never did much for me - presumably I was just 
being obliterated in DX AGCs by big nearby stations.  I also think every 
time I heard A45XR on 40 he was somewhere between 7060-7075, which sort of 
surprised me as I worked him well down the band last year, but says 
something about how crowded the band was.

VE7SV said something about struggling to get Europeans to hear him on 40 on 
cq-contest earlier; similarly neither I nor a few other second tier 
Europeans who were calling along with me could get the notice of the Zone 3 
big guns coming in on the long path in the bottom 10 kHz.  Hence I missed a 
mult and they missed a lot of three pointers which I bet would have been 
easy had they been calling on 7070.  Lesson: crowded bands, big contest, 
spread out.

73

Gerry G0RTN
Vanity Page at http://www.gerrylynch.co.uk
"In days of old, when ops were bold, and sidebands not invented,
The word would pass, by pounding brass, and all were well contented."