[UK-CONTEST] CQWW SSB 2006 GM7V

[Keith Kerr]

Hi All,
My tuppenceworth and a little Jock-enese wingeing (sorry Stewart!).
I was really keen to get back to SOAB unassisted this year after 2005 on 
80m only. 12 days before the contest I had antennas for 20m and 160m and a 
host of broken antennas, rusted this and that and low morale.
A visit for a couple of days by Chris GM3WOJ and some serious use of WD40, 
copper grease and large spanners got me going again and resurrected 10m and 
15m on my smaller tower (with thanks also to Ron, GW3YDX for a rapid 
response over a balun problem).
I also managed to install and get tuned a homebrew 40m 2 el Moxon yagi at 
80-something feet, which worked really well, and put back up my 80m full 
size vertical with elevated radials and repair and install the earth mat 
(chewed to bits by marauding rodents or similar sharp-toothed animals the 
previous winter) underneath. Up went the beverages and a C3 on a temporary 
pole to be used for a quick second direction and mults. By Wednesday 
evening before the contest I seemed to be ready, at least as far as 
antennas were concerned with inverted L on 160, quarter wave vertical on 
80m, 2el 40m moxon at 80ft, 3el 20m at 70ft, 4el 15m at 50ft, 5el 10m at 
42ft, beverages and the C3.....oh, and every outside bit of clothing I 
owned was soaked as the preceding 10 days saw a monsoon up here!
Weather forecast for late Thursday was dire with severe northerly gales 
forecast so on Thursday am I went out to wind down the big tower, sort a 
trapped side truss on the Moxon and secure all for the storm. It was 
already very windy and just as I freed the catcher palate the (well oiled 
and greased) luffing rope went, down came  the tower and my 40m and 20m 
yagis were instant scrap. If this has never happened to you.....trust me, 
it is not a nice feeling.
So, what to do. For a couple of hours I contemplated sleeping for the 
weekend but decided my investment of time so far should not be wasted. 
After removing all the remains of my 20 and 40m antennas, I managed to get 
a 20-odd foot pole into the tower head-unit, get it vertical, restring the 
lowest inverted L imaginable for 160 and put up a low 40m delta loop. All 
in the forecast storm which duly arrived and was wild.
By sunset Friday I now had the C3 at 25ft as my 20m antenna, the 40m loop 
and 160m L..................and I was still p###d off at not having things 
the way they were. I was also feeling knackered.

The Contest......first night seemed OK but nothing special, propagation on 
the low bands to NA was average and 40m was a real disappointment. I stayed 
late on 40m trying to find a run to USA but failed. 20m was horrible (maybe 
in my head but the C3 at 25ft ain't the same as a monobander at 80ft!) and 
I spent time trying to work stuff on 10m since I thought it may be closed 
on Sunday. Many stations who were s9 just CQed in my face and there were 
loads of mults whom I never raised. 15m got neglected a bit. 20m opened to 
NA and spent there then looked for an opening on 15m but there was NONE 
from here. I worked 6 USA/VE stations on 15m all weekend. And Sunday was 
worse on the higher bands, just EU for me.

High points......some nice mults around, being called by XF4DL and LU5 on 
80m, by 9N7JO, XX9C, YE1ZAT and an ST2 on 40m Sunday evening. Shack 
hardware worked well, esp GM3WOJ band-decoders...thanks Chris. Outstanding 
support of this contest from DL.

Low points.....see above!

Outcome........I seem to be able to make plenty of QSOs and get reasonable 
multiplier totals but Oh Boy, the points per QSO is still terrible.

Time on.....42 hours (3 hours sleep, CT found the rest)

BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES


       160      250      269      1.08             7      45
        80      639      832       1.30           19      78
        40      702      922       1.31           26      95
        20     1257     2013      1.60            31     104
        15      760      965       1.27           28      92
        10      245      316       1.29           13      60
      ---------------------------------------------------

      Totals   3853     5317     1.38            124     474  =>  3,179,566


Congratulations to Steve, GW4BLE on another great score.

Keith GM4YXI (GM7V)








------------