[UK-CONTEST] GW8IZR WWSSB

[paul at greenrover.demon.co.uk]

Absolute newcomer to HF contesting - I finally settled on just 160m 
un-assisted single op. This would fit in really well with family 
commitments ( see later )


First my excuses for a crap performance:

Some three days before the contest I could feel the viral bugs probing 
at my system.. elbows, knees all the joints really but I was determined 
that they would not succeed. I hadn't reckoned on the bugs remembering 
my wisdom tooth! They settled on a dull nagging tooth ache and a 
spreading ache between my ear and my shoulder.

microHAM released a new router version that was supposed to be "better" 
which I decided was worth trying. It was a crap decision which I 
regretted at 03:00 on Saturday as I re installed it all. I lost quite a 
few hours fixing problems with this all weekend.

I should have made the long wire a couple of feet shorter to allow me to 
move further up the band ( its cut for 1820 ) - lost 2 x mults cos I 
couldn't couple power into the antenna.

Operating strategy:

Friday night - Light fire and open bottle of wine, sit and watch TV with 
Ellen 'till she falls asleep, sneak into shack and switch on. Work S&P 
'till about 03:00 then go to bed.

Saturday - make excuses about not telling Ellen that there was a contest 
on and promise that I wouldn't spend all day in the shack. Wait til it 
starts going dark then sneak into shack. Finish about 23:00 and go to bed.

Sunday - Get up 04:00 and run until band dies after sunrise, then in the 
afternoon just before dark find a run spot and hold on to it for as long 
as possible - ie 'til *just* before Ellen loses patience and threatens 
to leave me.

Equipment:

usual radio and amp but this time with my new high performance antenna 
system. 130 feet of 1.5mm copper in an "r" shape. Up 30 feet, along 66 
feet and then sloping down about 30 feet at 30 degrees. Fed against a 
130feet wire on the ground and the 40m radials. This dx machine was 
pointing due south for enhanced performance toward the French and South 
Wales.

Results:

Well.. couple of hundred qso's and a few mults. (about 25% of that done 
by DR1A) Good stuff was working French Guiana ( wherever it is ) for a 
new one which I'm told is rare ... and he called me and thanked me for 
the new mult :-)

Holding a run freq to W for most of the grey line was the most 
productive period for me, just a pity they were all so weak, these 
American contest stations really should make an effort :-)

Interesting that Stewart had the same type of slightly off net frequency 
fights that I experienced but I assumed this was the norm.

It was nice to work without DXcluster and I don't think it would have 
helped much anyway.

Laughed my head off at one "DX" stn who had another stn in eu telling 
him who was calling him *and* what report / zone they had sent! I could 
really do with that service :-)

Never heard anything further into the states than east coast but I 
expect that will be different in the CW event.

I did get asked to move to other bands 80m/40m for mults which I was 
happy to do but didn't spend more than a few mins doing so.

Lessons learned:

Midnight to early hours.. waste of time.

Don't mess with upgrades just before the event.

I think it would be easy to do better in this event with a directional 
rx antenna, I beat loads of the eu big guns in pile ups, that 1000Km is 
a good advantage ( makes a change from V/UHF where the opposite applies )

The G in my call sign does not propagate well with my voice. A few 
people asked me if I was W8IZR then went away miserable 'cos I wasn't.


The log has been submitted so please don't be worried about the 
embarrassment of coming last.

Hey ho! roll on the CW event

-- 
73 de Paul GW8IZR IO73TI
http://www.gw8izr.com