[UK-CONTEST] GM4AFF AFS CW

[Cooper, Stewart]

Didn't do as well as last year, or as well as I had hoped I would. I put up a dipole, but also had a delta loop (E/W) and full quarter wave vertical to play with. Dipole was as an inverted V with apex at 55ft. The vertical didn't really provide any advantage until after 1700, and even then I only used it until 1745, reverting to the dipole. The delta loop behaved in much the same way as the vertical and I didn't have time to mess about with it. I found the SW ewe and SE beverage were essential to be able to copy a lot of stations. Key click QRM was particularly bad this year, and a fish phone on 3526 drove me away eventually.  Swept up the band until 1510 from bottom to top, then more or less ran on four different frequencies until the end. Rate was poor this year. Fast search and pounce is more productive initially and I should have done a second trawl of the band - there was a lot more I could have harvested, which was missed. F5VHY was louder on dipole than vertical at 1526. Got quite a few deliberate jamming attempts this year (3) and one idiot who kept asking me 'What test?' again and again!
Interesting how speed does indeed produce a new layer of QSOs. I also noticed that moving from one end of the band to the other does that too. It dries up on 3525, so moving to 3569 produces a whole new run. There is indeed more to AFS than meets the eye.
Also agree with the 'QRL with 250Hz filter in' comments. Great for elbowing into a slot, but I recall it was a nightmare when I didn't have them. But it's a contest.
Total 214 Q's with one dupe, 6 less than last year.

Stewart
GM4AFF




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