[UK-CONTEST] IOTA - EJ2MT

[afh at blueyonder.co.uk]

IOTA 2006 was certainly one the EJ2MT team will never forget !

All was ready to go by the Friday evening.  Even time to go to the pub for
a few pints of the black stuff.  But the next morning a force 10 gale was
raging, and at the top of the hill this was devastating.  By 9:30am
Saturday morning two of our three towers had been bent in two by the force
of the wind.  The top section of one of them had been catapulted out of
the top and landed on the stairs to the Martello Tower we were in.  The
top of the other tower with its 40m beam and A3S was dangling with the top
touching the ground.  Overall 8 out of our 9 antennas were out of action. 
But thankfully nobody was hurt !

By 10am we had picked ourselves up from the shock and started to rebuild
what we could with just 3 hours left to the start.  The gale had subsided
so we managed to lower the remains of one tower and replace the A3S with a
spare, though only at 60ft this time.  The wire antennas were replaced and
we were ready to go on the HF bands by the start of the contest.

So you can imagine how pleased we are with these results that are only a
little short on last year ...

Section: Multi-Op, Island, Expedition, 24hr, HP
Island:  Bere Island EU121

CW                      PHONE
BAND    QSOs    Mults   QSOs    Mults
80      48      38      132     42
40      281     60      332     58
20      236     50      1111    106
15      102     23      401     58
10      25      9       240     24


17580    X      468
points          multipliers
score =	8227440

(raw, pre-checked results)


The salvage operation started right after the contest and the towers were
towed off the island for the long journey home with a few metres missing
from the tower sections.  If anyone has some reasonably priced top
sections for M24 Versatowers, please let us know.


73 de Alan G3XSV
and the Bere Island Group