[UK-CONTEST] 1st 160m - G3LET

[Peter Hobbs]

Hadn't done this one for many years and thought I'd see how the new shack (now some way away from house noises) fared.  The down-side of course is that it's mighty cold at this time of year.  Apologies AGAIN for the effects of this on my keying fingers after the first hour.  Ever optimistic, I ran out a 1/4 wave counterpoise from the feed point of my sloping wire in a general northerly direction in an attempt to improve radiation in what if figured would be the most useful direction (QTH is Sussex).   However, I forgot that most of EU goes to bed several hours after us and it's therefore necessary to sweep up bonus points to the east early on.  There were loads of Ural types around at 2100 but all seemed to be working JAs or PAs.

Targetted something over 200 but everything slowed down after the first hour or so and I ended up on 196 QSOs which the dupe sheet thinks are all good. (however Paul usually finds something when I enter the log into SD).   Most of those in the last hour were Ws (all areas except 6&7), with several more too weak to copy on the wire (need a beverage for anything serious).  Shouldn't there be a bonus for out-of-continent QSOs?  

Rough count 88 bonuses, assuming W and VE call areas count.  Highlights were calls from Brian 5B4/G4ODV (probably with a less than ideal 160m antenna) and 4J5A which I have a feeling is UD6 or somewhere like that.  Conditions seemed well down on CQWW 160m, even W3LPL was nothing at all special.

However, an enjoyable evening - not TOO many people complained about being "PACC only".  This event did make it risky to call CQ in advance and either lose valuable PA QSOs during our event or popularity if you refuse to work them.

Finally, what's the point of specifying a limited operating band if there are no sanctions - I spotted quite a few taking advantage of the clearer area below 1820.  I wonder what the HFCC view is on this?

Cheers

Peter G3LET