[UK-CONTEST] IARU ponderings and GB5HQ

[Ian J Maude]

Hi all,
Quite an enjoyable contest this year.  For those of us (like me and the 
rest of the guys in Sands Contest Group G1T) that are not too 
experienced in contesting, it was good to receive our Certificate of 
Achievement from last years IARU on the morning of the contest this year :-)

We easily beat last years score, ending up with 470 QSO's.  Propagation 
was not too bad although we did not do well over the pond on the higher 
bands.  We also could not work top band.
Win-test was great and we are happy with the outcome.  Managed to work 
GB5HQ on every band apart from top band although weak due to skip length 
etc.  Just a thought on this.  The larger countries probably get better 
coverage than the smaller ones due to angles of radiation etc.  Would it 
be possible to maybe use (or receive on) a dipole of some kind to pick 
up the UK contacts?  An inverted V or similar would get the G stations 
better and maybe pump up that score.  Perhaps I am being naive on this 
one, I don't know :-)
An apology to GB5HQ for the cluster locking up at one point but I saw it 
pretty quickly and was able to restart it again.
All in all, it was great fun, especially working over the pond on 40/80 
late on using the trap dipole at 30 feet or so, amazing what you can do 
with 200W and a dipole!

73, Ian

-- 
Ian J Maude G0VGS | Sysop GB7MBC DXCluster
http://www.gb7mbc.net
K2 #4044