Just as you think you are getting close to the leaders, Murphy strikes again.
Despite the very mediocre conditions, things were going well here until just before dawn. Then it happened. Snow started to fall heavily, and with it - snow static. So apologies to those who thought I was off my rocker this morning, endlessly CQing on LF and not replying to anyone. When the contest ended we had six inches of the stuff and are (currently) cut off from the rest of the world, transport-wise !
Anyway, snow apart, quite an enjoyable (if slow) contest - some astoundingly loud signals on LF last night and this morning. But the upper HF bands never really came up to scratch. I have the feeling that some of the "usual suspects" in VK/ZL etc were not on this year - just conditions keeping people away, or a loss of interest, I wonder ?
One interesting point for me was working VE7UZ early Saturday evening on 40 - hours after his sunrise. So much for the BERU propagation prediction charts here.
All the gear worked well - K9AY proved its worth again (but is not immune to snow static !), and WinTest logged it well.
Here's the numbers:
BAND QSO DUP DXC HQ POINTS BONUS AVG
--------------------------------------------
80 55 0 22 4 275 780 19.18
40 91 0 34 5 455 1300 19.29
20 118 3 33 8 590 1320 16.19
15 23 0 14 2 115 400 22.39
10 2 0 1 1 10 40 25.00
--------------------------------------------
TOTAL 289 3 104 20 1445 3840 18.29
============================================
TOTAL SCORE : 5 285
Gear as usual:
FT1000MP + FT1000MP MkV, two autotune linears, HRS EZMaster/WinTest in SO2R configuration (and I'm slowly getting used to this technique)
10 ele 40-10m yagi @ 80ft
A3S @ 60ft
Dipole for 80, centre @ 80ft
90ft vertical for 40/80
K9AY receiving loop
Butternut HF6V for when the beams are just all in the wrong direction.
73
Don, G3BJ