[UK-CONTEST] IOTA Contest Logs - MM0Q

[Jim Martin]

Just back from a glorious holiday in the Hebrides, thanks for the log
reminder Don!
IOTA this year started badly for us and went down hill very quickly. One op
broke his hip a month before the trip, I was offered a job in EI and spent
the two weeks before the contest in Galway and our third op was working
until just before our departure.  Despite key planning starting in March
without bodies working on the ground it is very difficult to achieve a 
successful outcome.
Again this year we toiled to be heard and hold a run frequency. 100w to a
vertical or dipole from this far north does not cut through the noise on a
busy band.  Very few of the 'big guns' worked us on more than one band
despite the run station constantly calling CQ when we could find a clearish
slot. Slightly off topic, No, No, No to fixed stations in NFD, it would turn
out like IOTA where there is little incentive to go portable and activate a
difficult or unique island, better staying at home and racking up the Qs
than just being canon fodder to the HP boys!
This year exposed our lack of operator training, practice weekends and Club
activity in serious contests. With the contest as it is and  current
conditions a single-op could have made almost as many Qs from our location
which does not bode well for next years entry!  Not sure if it's go SO, buy
an Alpha or move location, or all three!  It would certainly be easier using 
mains
electricity and a RORO ferry rather than decanting everything to a small 
boat.
Here is a quick run down of our contest weekend, no doubt many others would
have had much more arduous trips.  Initially we had two tired but able
bodied ops and one on crutches who did much more than he should have! I was
pretty ill over the weekend so could do very little to support the guys who
did most of the operating.  All in all Murphy had a great contest and so did 
we!
Thursday
2200  Load the car with a ton of gear
Friday
0300 rise and shine
0400 Leave for the Summer Isles via Inverness, 250 miles
1000 Unload the cars into 'Patricia' for the boat trip to Tanera
1100 Unload the gear onto the jetty and carry it to our chosen site
1300-2000  Erect three tents, run out 500m of coax, move the genny and 40l
of fuel as far away from the tents as possible, build six antennas/masts,
build two stations
Saturday
0900-1300 continue building, resolving issues and setting-up
1300-1300 contest
Sunday
1100-1500 dismantle everything and carry back to the jetty
1500-1600 load boat, unload boat, load cars
1600-2200 drive back to Edinburgh, 250 miles. (stopped for a swim in a
highland loch-fantastic!)
Monday 0800 WORK!! How do you respond to someone who casually asks 'Good
weekend, do anything interesting'?
Numbers
860 Qs
570 non-IOTA Qs
110 EU5 Qs
180 other IOTA stations
145 mults
Could do better, see you next year!
My thanks to Ron, GM0NTL and David, GM4WLL or all their efforts.
73
Jim,  MM0BQI/MM0Q



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Field" <don.field at gmail.com>
To: "UK-Contest" <uk-contest at contesting.com>; "CQ-Contest MailList"
<cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 9:18 PM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] IOTA Contest Logs


> Just a few days more until the log submission deadline. Please submit your
> logs to iota.logs at rsgbhfcc.org  We still appear to be missing logs from
> the
> following participants who each made a substantial number of QSOs: