[UK-CONTEST] 2K06 IOTA G8D

G3SJJ g3sjj at btinternet.com
Mon Jul 31 18:46:18 EDT 2006


Very Long but some useful bits I hope.

Great fun but hard work. Hosting a station is no easy option 
particularly during a heatwave. My deep appreciation has to go to my 
wife Yvonne who after months of working 70 hour weeks began a two week 
break on Friday and supported us with buying last minutes bits and 
pieces, plus shopping and preparing meals. Those who query operator 
selection would do well to consider that the choice not only covers 
operator skills but also domestic compatibility. My co-ops G4DRS and 
G4IIY slotted in nicely.

After 10 years of operating from GU, it was quite an experience setting 
up a multi-op station from home. We used the new summer house so 
everything had to be moved into there. I had planned to do this early in 
the week but the high temperatures curtailed much work. I progressed 
slowly on Thursday in between showers, (bathroom type!)  Friday morning 
I had to leave John DRS in his own whilst I was involved with local 
residents in filming for a new BBC program featuring HGVs on country 
lanes! I got a speaking part!! ('The One Show', a magazine programme 
that begins on BBC ONE next month. It will be on air from 14th August, 
every day from Monday to Friday at 6.55pm")  I wasn't surprised on my 
return to find a 40ft gin pole type mast fully assembled and the 4 ele 
yagi ready to go on top. That's John! Ian arrived later and set about 
trying to get 3 laptops from various sources talking to each other. 
Meanwhile I was rewiring some connectors to change from source to sink 
drive relay switching system. Topten 6 way box being one way and WX0B 
Sixpak being the other. What a pain. Numerous smaller things like this 
and the networking conspired to delay our start and really affected our 
moral at the start. Highlights :

- For me, being called by EJ/G3LZQ for obvious reasons, and also Mike, 
VP8NO, on 40m CW. Mike and I go back a long way to our early days in 
Nottm Radio Club so it was particularly good to have our first QSO for 
many years. So much so that I couldn't decide whether the "ones" in the 
serial number were correct or whether I was sending Js. So I sent it 
several times and tried to count the dashes!! A senior moment!!

- The RF side worked very well. Using the Sixpak enabled Mult station to 
use any of the antennas Run station wasn't using.  It worked like a 
dream. S&P got the QSO on first call and we had many Big Sig reports on 
Run which considering it was 2nd league setup was very pleasing to us 
all. Only one minor RFI problem on a Sixpak control cable cured by a 
couple of clip on ferrites.

- N1MM (apart from mults, see later) is really a smooth program to use. 
Once the wireless network was up and running it worked without a blip. 
We had two laptops in the summerhouse, one in my main shack as as 
Wireless Access Point and DX Cluster via Telnet and even Yvonne's 
desktop in her study area. We could keep a check on our progress where 
ever we were! Just didn't manage to get the third laptop up and running 
so no Run/same mode multing on 2nd rx. Enter Sends Message really makes 
running a pileup so easy and relaxed.

Lowlights for me: I hate using mouse in a contest anyway but late 
planning meant that we hadn't realised we could only use keyboard or 
mouse, not both. I opted for keyboard since I don't like laptop 
keyboards but found the lack of a real mouse really annoying. Progress eh?

Perhaps the overall worst thing was N1MM Mult handling. Having used 
K8CC's NA logger and then Writelog over the 10 years we were used to 
good mult indication. I know Jim MM0BQI has campaigned about this and I 
can now fully understand his frustration. Our passing of mults was 
severely limited this time.

Finally an observation on operating from UK mainland. Found a distinct 
disadvantage in not using the GU callsign. Rates were lower and I am 
sure many mult hunters didn't call because they already had EU5. 
Mainland UK stations only worth 3 and not 15 points so we didn't bother 
with inter G at its peak times.

and finally ! CW contesting is much easier than SSB so we often took 
that path!!

FT1000MP x2, Acom 1000 and TL922. mHam Keyer.
Excellent Chevron paddle on loan from M0AGA 
http://www.chevronmorsekeys.co.uk/
80m - 1/4w vertical and dipole at 57ft
40m - 1/4w vertical (2nd element of the phased pair has broken)
20m - A4S at 57ft when running, paralleled 20/15 dipole at 50ft on S&P
15m - as per 20m
10m - 4 el 10m monobander at 40ft.

Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts  Mlt
 3.5  CW     134    858   35
 3.5  LSB    107    933   38
   7  CW     273   1419   47
   7  LSB    149    903   35
  14  CW     462   1962   42
  14  USB    495   2289   55
  21  CW     202    810   15
  21  USB    161    831   26
  28  CW      12    168   11
  28  USB     15    213   15
Total Both  2010  10386  319    Score : 3,313,134


Chris G3SJJ


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