[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW MZ5A SOAB High Power Unassisted

[Ian G3WVG]

WARNING .. For cathartic reasons, here follows a long account of the trip.
Please don't get me wrong though, I had a fantastic time and it was superb
fun. 

I arrived at the Eshaness Lighthouse, Shetland  (65 miles North of the
airport) on Thursday afternoon. The weather was ok and I had two hours of
daylight left. This was to be a simple operation with basic antennas.  My
nearest neighbour in Shetlandwas Hans MM0XAU and lives about a mile away and
very kindly he came over to lend a hand.

Unfortunately attaching any wires to the actual lighthouse tower was
forbidden but the lighthouse grounds has a 25' flagpole and this was to be
the support for a 160m dipole.  The other antenna was a butternut HF6V.  By
the time it was dark, at around 3.30pm, the antennas were up.  Then things
started to go wrong.

The changeable weather in Shetland is, to say the least, extreme. The
weather on top of a 200' cliff overlooking the Atlantic is even more so.
The buffeting wind that blew up that night didn't break the HF6V but was so
strong that the tuning coils were changing their shape, shorting out turns,
so that the SWR on 40 and 80 was fluctuating wildly. On top of that some of
the radials were ripped away.  By Friday morning the weather had calmed down
and it was time for a rethink.  I had to put up some other antennas.

Fortunately I had taken a lot of coax, 200 metres of RG8 mini, a good
compromise between rf loss and weight for air travel. So I got up an 80m
dipole next to the 160m.  I also had a single driven element of an A3S which
I put on a 15' pole lashed to another shorter flagpole.  "Lighthouses seem
to be keen on flag poles.)  Next came what was intended to be my "best"
antenna, a full size vertical for 40m using a Spiderbeam pole.  This was
lashed to fence post on the edge of the cliffs.  By this time it was getting
dark again.  So, all that I had to do was to wait 9 hours until the contest
started. I went to bed and soon fell asleep (knackering work, does that to
me!)
But the sleep didn't last long. Soon I woke up to the sound of the wind
howling down the chimney. No antenna could survive this, I thought, but in
fact at the start of the contest only one of the antennas had failed.
Unfortunately it was my 40M "best" antenna. Going into the night, to the
edge of a gale swept cliff with a torch, to find the problem just wasn't an
option.  So I started the contest with 80 and 160.  After a couple of hours
the Alpha tripped on infinite SWR on 80M and minutes later it tripped on
160M.  So that was it, no LF antennas.  There was nothing for it but to go
outside and see what could be done.  The wind was terrific and the rain was
horizontal. What had happened was that the twine holding the ends of both
antennas had severed, I was able to make a rough repair and get the ends up
in the air again. By now I was soaked to the skin and tired, so I set the
alarm for an hour before dawn and got a couple of hours sleep.  The wind
eased by daybreak and I was able to get some mults at the grey-line and then
go outside and fix the antennas when it got light.  The first task was to
get the 40m vertical back working, then to get the ends of the other
antennas back up in the air.

That was it for antenna work, After 10 hours into the contest all the
antennas were functioning and despite more gales they all everything kept
working until the end.  Using simple antennas at 60 degrees North, I didn't
get much action on 15 or 10, but 20 was OK and so was 40M.  Propagation
certainly sounds different up there. Being a wanted Mult helps when CQing,
but when you're chasing Mults it's signal strength that counts, and I was
never able to crack any pile-ups except on 40M where I had a competitive
signal.

On the second night I was so tired, that for a few hours I was sitting at
the radio in a trance-like state!  I was not only incapable of making sense
of received Morse Code, I could send it either. (apologies to any
recipients!) In total I operated for 40 hours out of the 48.  The 8 hour
deficit was split evenly between running repairs and sleep.   By the time
the contest ended I had made just under 3300 QSOs.  I'd had a memorable and
most enjoyable time,  I certainly won't be appearing in any leader boxes
this year but for a low-key "dxpedition type" entry I was very pleased with
the result.

160M   281/13/57
80M    600/17/69
40M   1188/29/81
20M    891/26/77
15M    204/17/55
10M      63/9/23 

The antenna de-rig on Monday morning ( again assisted by Hans MM0XAU) was
made in pouring rain and strong winds.  I flew home from Shetland with 6
flight cases carrying a total of 145 kg.  Remarkably I wasn't charged a
penny for the excess baggage and the trip was made with "airmiles" so it was
quite a bargain.
  At Heathrow I was kindly met by the friendly face (and spacious Land
Rover!) of Nigel G3TXF who was still buzzing after his superb 160M single
band operation.  He had already traveled to Shetland the previous week to do
a little recce. For me and deliver some of my baggage.  Now that's what I
call a pal.

73 Ian G3WVG