[UK-CONTEST] P3F in CQWW CW

[Steve Wilson, G3VMW]

Call: P3F
Operator(s): 5B4AGC, 5B4AGN, 5B4AHJ, G3AB, G3VMW
Station: 5B4AGN

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Cyprus
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
   160:  535    16       65
    80: 1368    30       99
    40: 2968    36      129
    20: 2054    35      114
    15: 1922    30      106
    10:  285    10       46
------------------------------
Total: 9132   157      559  Total Score = 18,331,032

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Comments:

Having just got back home, here is a slightly belated report on the P3F 
Multi/2 effort in CQWW CW from 5B4AGN's station near Pafos in Cyprus. 
This was the first time any of us had tried Multi/2 and it proved to be 
a brilliant choice!  It was a pleasure to work with a great bunch of 
guys in what all of us agreed was probably the best CQWW event we had 
ever participated in. There were lots of laughs and a pretty relaxed 
atmosphere with no major problems.

On arriving in Cyprus on the 22nd November, Bob 5B4AGN and I set to work 
building up a small tower for a second yagi.  We had originally planned 
to rig Bob's spare TH11.  With just two of us available on the three 
days before the contest, we had problems with the size and weight of the 
TH11 so we were grateful to Alan 5B4AHJ for the loan of an A3S, which 
went up on the new temporary tower very easily.

Andy G3AB (now ZC4VJ), who now lives and works in Cyprus, joined us late 
on Friday afternoon and we were ready to roll.  The first few hours 
brought some great rates on 80 and 40 despite our distance from mainland 
EU. 160m was a bit harder, but conditions were really good on both 
nights.  It seemed slightly odd that Europeans are worth three times as 
many points as JAs since Cyprus is classed as Asia.  George 5B4AGC 
joined us on Saturday and later Alan 5B4AHJ did a stint as we gradually 
built up a decent QSO total.

Everything worked very well apart from us smoking a relay (twice) in a 
Dunestar filter with RF from 15m when the other station was on 20m. 
Luckily we had spare relays.  There was a fair bit of RF floating about 
because of the separate feedlines but common boom arrangement on the 
C31XR yagi.  We also had to keep our power well down on 160m since RF 
was getting back into the Acom 1000 and tripping the interlocks on high 
SWR.

There were many highlights for me, not least the high run rates but 
particularly the last session on 80 and 160m as we chased multipliers 
down.  QSOs with HS0ZDJ, 9M2CNC, 9V1YC and a bunch of VKs on 80m put a 
big smile on my face.  On 160m, I had to work hard to convince OY9JD 
that the call was P3F and not a variation of SP3F.  I was amazed to be 
called on 160m by ZS4TX who was S9+.  I'm sure the other guys have 
similar tales to tell.  There were very few lowlights and only a few 
minor frequency fights.  The Orion radios are awesome on RX and just 
sound cleaner than any other radio I've used.  The effort to rig the 
second tower and A3S was really vindicated when we found that the lower 
yagi was often significantly better to EU than the C31XR.

We used Writelog networked between the logging PCs and apart from one 
minor problem, involving a reboot, it all worked perfectly.  The ESM 
scheme is easy to use and makes running pile-ups easy.  It was harder to 
use when doing S&P but I think that is because of my unfamiliarity with 
the program.  I had only used Writelog once before - at G4NOK/P during 
this year's NFD.

Ian G3WVG has my greatest admiration for his "iron man" effort from MZ5A 
up in the Shetlands.  I read his report and looked at the pictures on 
Nigel's web site.  Pretty impressive and I really did try hard to work 
MZ5A on 160m but could never bust the huge EU pile-up.

It wasn't quite so difficult for us in Cyprus with sunny daytime 22C 
temperatures and Karen's great cooking. It was a whole lot better than 
our last CQWW effort in Cyprus (ZC4AKR) in 1999 when we lived on 
dehydrated army rations for three days (nasty!)  The after-contest curry 
on Monday night with all the crew was great fun so we've decided to 
enter the contest seriously next year.  We have great plans for more 
antennas, a couple more operators, a more extensive station and 
hopefully a lot more points.  This will no doubt mean the kiss of death 
and everything will go wrong!

To everyone that worked us, and there were many Gs - thanks guys.  If 
you are wondering about Multi/2, for me at least, it is a lot more fun 
than Multi/Single.

Thanks to Karen and Bob 5B4AGN (G3ZEM) for hosting the contest operation 
and to Bob for getting permission from the Cyprus PTT to allow 
multi-operator working using the P3F contest call.

If you want to read more about the P3F station take a look at

http://www.5b4agn.net


Equipment:

Station A: Ten-Tec Orion 1 and Acom 1000
Station B: Ten-Tec Orion 1 and Alpha 87A

Antennas:

Force 12 C31XR at 80ft
Cushcraft A3S at 30ft
Cushcraft XM-240 2 element at 75ft
Delta Loop for 80m
Shunt-fed tower for 160m
160m receiving loop

73

-- 
Steve Wilson, G3VMW
Bramham, Wetherby, West Yorkshire
Email: steve at g3vmw.demon.co.uk