[UK-CONTEST] SSB FD - Contest Cumbria

[Ian Fugler G4IIY]

Well, Contest Cumbria will not be placed for this contest.

It all started well with a pleasant meal and a few pints in my local on the Friday night.  The station set-up went well on Saturday morning.  We even managed to dodge the downpours and stay relatively dry.  By 11am we were ready to go.

The weather deteriorated and it rained virtually non-stop from the start of the contest through well in to Sunday.  The wind also increased.  The rain static on 20m made the band virtually unusable (only 60 QSOs there throughout the contest).  We were obviously being heard on the band, one Stateside station told us that we were amongst the loudest that he had worked.  But if you can't hear 'em...

Other niggles should have forewarned us what was to come.  The 12V power supply for the Microham unit decided to give up the ghost, necessitating us to tell the logging software of each band change until we made alternative arrangements.  And RF feedback meant that we could not use the voice keying features of the Microham unit/N1MM.  By early Sunday morning, the wind had increased dramatically and the rain was torrential.  An extra strong wind squall disconnected a mast fitting holding up the doublet.  The wind was too strong for two people to attempt a repair.  (I was absent attending my niece's christening).  A low, sloping arrangement was attempted, but did not perform.  We missed the last few hours of the contest altogether.  By the time I returned just after 1pm, Ivan and Chris had dismantled all but the tent.

But it was still fun and we will be back again next year.  We did manage to gain access to the cluster by using my work laptop and a 3G connection.  You cannot imagine Chris G3SJJ going a whole weekend without his cluster fix, can you?  (But please let's not start that debate again.)  As that laptop was networked to the logging one, we shouted out the frequency of the spots to the operator, e.g. "3741, up a little" meant type 3741 in the logging window and then tune up slightly to get the spot.

Details:

FT1000MP
Microham router and N1MM software
84 foot doublet at 34 feet, fed with open wire feeder (extended to about 120' top overnight)
Operators:  G3IZD, G3SJJ, G4IIY (G3WGV - Friday evening)

Band    QSOs    Mults
80m    282        21
40m    221        20
20m    60            20
15m    3                3

Total    566 Qs, 64 Mults and 148,928 points


Ian G4IIY