[UK-CONTEST] AFS SSB G0DVJ/P - Harwich AR Interest Grp

[Jonathan G0DVJ]

Hi all,

Finished with 247 valid Qs - which I can't be too unhappy with, given 
various technical problems this year...
Amp blew up on switch-on so was without it for the first hour, until it 
was sorted and new fuses found etc.
Apologies to those who worked me while I was struggling with an 
intermittent in my Heil headset mic line, held it together mostly but 
was Norman Collier-like in a few Qs.  Then my logging laptop screen 
kept going into a strange sleep-like mode for 10-15 secs at a time 
during a 20 min period during the 2nd hour which made it difficult to 
operate/log with any fluency!  Hadn't had that problem before and 
didn't have it after that little spell so not sure what was going on!

Taking into account that I had no amp in the first hour, my sequence of 
rates was 46-91-54-56.
I, like most others, found the propagation changed dramatically for the 
last hour though my rate was still surprisingly good having looked at 
other reports - My number of countries was up this year (15 I think) so 
I obviously missed quite a few G's in the first hour by not running and 
only S&P, but picked up a few I should've worked earlier in the final 
hour.  Nice to be called by Andy PIQ in between his nappy-changing 
duties :)

Ran FT100 & linear amp (350W) + dipole.  [100W for the first hour]

Wasn't available for SSB AFS last year but this year's was better than 
many of my previous efforts.  Missed CW AFS last Sunday due to 
unresolvable antenna problems.    Pity - coz of either I would prefer 
to do the CW leg.

I think our small group at Harwich will struggle to get more than 2 of 
us for the SSB leg this year.  Noted the recent thread about options 
for changing the number of stations in either SSB or CW or both.  I 
tend to agree with the comments Lee made in his mail although there 
would be more impetus to bother getting a team together for CW AFS in 
future for us, if a small group like HARIG only needed 3 since 5 is no 
longer realistic unfortunately.


Highlights: Getting the linear back up and running and still managing 
nearly 250 Qs despite the tech problems.  Working so many countries in 
the AFS log for a change (incl. OH, I, HB9, EI, GJ, GU, GI).  Also more 
2E/M3's worked this year.

Lowlights: The abuse was worse this year - not just for me but most 
people I guess.  Usual jammers and spoilers etc. of course but I was 
rather saddened by the bad language I heard being used this year - 
there is no excuse for this - and I am glad I didn't have any guests in 
the shack especially younger folk.

Thanks all for the fun.
73,
Jonathan G0DVJ
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