[UK-CONTEST] AFS CW report - G3NKC

[Dave Sharred]

Looks like the query for help that I put out was the kiss of death !!

My keyer lead , suddenly has developed a dislike of RF - witnessed last year
when we tried 30m at GD0EMG, and I put it down to RF locally; but anything
more than 50W latched up the TX !!  I only discovered this 20 mins before
the start !!!

In true PIQ style (Where was ANdy ??!!); I took the keyer lead apart; and
tried some bypass capacitors around the keying transistor, but no good.

So; I ended up with no frequency; 3 mins in; and had to just send CW on the
rig's keyer. I am out of practice; so apologies for some poor sending
(especially for difficult calls!!

I shoehorned in just LF of G3SJJ; didn't know Chris was 600 Hz higher (some
clicks, but manageable); but we both managed to work OK. Here I used
cascaded 500Hz filters through out; not even invoking the 250 Hz ones

Some very impressive signals from North of the border; it had to be said;
very early on !  Maybe being in Crewe make a little bit of difference, right
at he start, for you guys??  I did note a good stream of you going through
the log quickly; often beating the G's !

Some very poor manual sending was evident; some were very hard to discern
the dots from the dashes.

I too was jammed; anything from repeated asking about what contest; to
people just sending 5NN!!

Enjoyable way to 264 good QSO's I think; a bit stressful with the problems
faced!

Antenna was a dipole at 40';   FT1000MP; ETO 91B

See you next Saturday !!
Dave Sharred
G3NKC