[UK-CONTEST] GB5HQ Highlights

[G3SJJ]

Having known John G3LZQ for many years, had long telephone 
conversations, exchanged numerous emails, entertained him and Trixie 
here, operated at his previous and current contest site, it was no 
surprise to be included once again in the line-up for the 10m and 80m CW 
station. Having said that, it was certainly great honour, and as well as 
contributing to the overall team effort, my contribution was also a 
Thank You to John.

I have visited and operated at a lot of good contest sites but was still 
taken aback upon my arrival at 1100 on Saturday morning. My main effort 
until then had been spending several evenings armed with a glass or few 
of red wine sat in front of the computer getting to know Starlog and 
being connected via the server to the rest of the team around the 
country, really amusing logging calls like 6V6GT, 6L6M, 5B254M !!  
Parked my car up and immediately saw the 2 x 4 ele 10m stack (and LDF 
5-50 feedline), followed by the 80m 4 Square array. Inside the station 
were two separate operating positions, 10m had an FT1kMP and Acom 2000a 
amp, mHam Keyer and computer with two monitors. 80m had Orion, Alpha 87a 
which we swopped for my MP due to comms probs, mHam Keyer and 2 
monitors. Also, a 2kW rated low pass filter on the output of the Alpha 
from WX0B. Jeez! All this had been financed by John and put together 
solely by him and Vic G4BYG (who is not retired!!) - aimed specifically 
at this weekend's activities. A really humbling feeling to walk in to 
such a well designed and engineered station not having contributed to 
the work. There was just no inter-band interference at all even though 
the 4Sq was right next to 10m stack, and ... the 80m dipole was fastened 
off just underneath the beams.  Never heard any sign of the other band, 
amazing / good engineering.

I  particularly wanted to get some quality Run time in as practice for 
IOTA (G8D from my place this year) so pushed (demanded!) a start on 10m. 
Wowee, I really did not imagine and was not prepared for what happened 
next. A wall of signals. I have to admit to taking 2 letters, eg WM 599 
RSGB to get the other guy to give his full call.Vic reckoned I hauled in 
about 130 in the first half hour and ended the hour with around 237 
QSOs. Nice one. (I guess LET would have topped the 300 Q/H and taken 
full call as well!)

I also wanted to sample the 80m 4 Sq on States as well so volunteered to 
do a stint from 0100 to 0500. I was supposed to be having 3 hour R&R but 
reckon I slept for an hour, waking up dreaming we had had a power-cut! 
The session was good also, not so hectic great to have the 4Sq switched 
to NW and get a steady stream of States. Nice to be called by the PT5 
stations and kept switching to SW for them. I kept yelling via the 
network for the other guys to pass me Dubbyas. I could see 80 SSB, 20 
and 40 stations working string of Ws. It was great when a station called 
that you could see had just been worked on another band

It was well into full daylight before the Ws stopped calling. An 
anticlimax to switch to the dipole at 60ft and work Eu. had another 3 
hour R&R but again I guess just an hour's sleep before cooking our 
traditional English breakfast. Not my normal healthy European style 
efforts but always welcome on these occasions.

Starlog software was superb, 20 or so computers in 10 stations scattered 
around the country. The moral was good with lots of Announce banter. The 
thread about owls towards the end was particularly funny, I think we 
were all on high by then.

Needed to get this down before I finally crash out for the night. 
Already seeing double and only one glass of white wine tonight and none 
over the weekend.

Chris G3SJJ