[UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW - 20m SOSB

[Andy swiffin]

> Sat down at the rig just before 1100 and with 150 q's in the log at 
> 1330 it
> did not seem to be going anywhere. Had a lunch break and watched
some
> Olympics got back to the rig at 1515. What a difference operated
until 
> 2145
> and ended the day with 960 qso and 58 mults. Sunday was good but I 
> appeared
> to be running out of people to work. Ended the contest at 2215 ish 
> having
> ben called at 2201 by W3DQ to give me DC - last W state and only 
> multiplier
> on Sunday

I kept looking for w3dq each time he was spotted but he never hung
around long enough...

The gm8oeg "shack at the end of the garden" joined the 20th century
this weekend with the installation of a wireless network in the house so
I was able to see for the first time the difference that having the
cluster makes, and the answer was "quite a lot"!  I never intended to do
very much in this contest and so just operated sporadically while
messing around with the pc, so I only made 139 total qsos but I was
pretty amazed to manage 48 out of the 63 states and provinces, this is
with the old ts830 and a wire Inv V at 25 ft apex.  Largely, I must say,
with the help of the "assisting tool".  Condx seemed very good on 20,
particularly sunday afternoon with some nice states, UT, OR, KS, AZ, NV,
ND ID etc - easy stuff for you big boys with beams and amps but not done
so often from my end.  I intended to do a bit more on 160 and 80 on
saturday evening and conditions there seemed very good too with some
good signals appearing on 160.  

Unfortunately at about 00:15 I noticed the SWR going up on 160, went
outside and the SCAM 40 (still in regular use, Ian :-)  which I use to
hold up the aerial had decided to start shrinking back down.  I ran the
compressor and it went up again and promptly telescoped right down,
after which it didn't want to know.  I checked it all out sunday morning
thinking I must have bust a seal and it was perfectly OK, so it was a
bit of mystery, someone must have been telling me 00:30 was time for
bed!  Perhaps Ice had formed round a seal letting air through - maybe I
shouldn't fly a SCAM 40 in "known icing conditions"?  (Are aviation
jokes OK now?  Shame the radcom article had so many mistakes in it)

Anyway, 48/63 was a nice surprise and I may actually do this properly
next year.  I even missed some easy ones like KY, OK, and DC despite
chasing w3dq round the band.  I wouldn't have give up on the MT pileup
either if I'd known he'd go away so soon.

> M7Z Score = 1629/59 = 287k. in 19.75 hours.

Heard you quite strongly on sunday late afternoon.

73

Andy
gm8oeg
CAA CPL 324900k