[UK-CONTEST] 21/28 Contest G3SJJ

[G3SJJ]

I would confirm Darrell's, G0HVQ, comments and thoughts. I didn't do as 
well as last year but better than I thought I would do! I had decided to 
stick with it even though I knew activity would be at Commonwealth 
Contest level.

106 Qs - 58 Mults - 18444 points. Dual band/mode plus Cluster so multi-op.

FT1kMP, Acom1k, A4S at 50ft.

Had a ropey start. Realised I had chosen the wrong contest format in 
N1MM with Commonwealth Contest. It accepted serial numbers OK but 
reckoned SSB Qs for the same call on the other mode were dupes. The 
first 1.5 hours had produced just 12 Qs including OD5, V51, 5R8, UA9, 
9J2 so it was supposedly an easy job to print the Cabrillo file and 
re-enter them, this time choosing IOTA format. Hmm, my printer decided 
to play up and I had to re-boot the computer twice before it would work! 
Then I had to do a 200m return trip to the mast to by-pass the WX0B 
Sixpak relay box. Occasionally the relay tagged to my beam goes to Open 
state, and this was one of those occasions! Didn't do anything for my 
state of non-calm! Quickly picked up 9M6DXX, VU and ZD7X to restore my 
confidence and settle the nerves! Continued with short sessions of CQing 
on all 4 band-slots, plus long sessions of searching including 8Q7AK who 
asked me to spot him which I did, and occasional swooping on DX Spots, 
such as A7. I think I would have worked more quantity had I CQed more 
but that wasn't my chosen strategy. There was no run of DLs on 10m like 
last year. Nice to work Mike VP8NO on 15 CW/SB. Late afternnon saw a 
number of nice SA mults like ZP, CX, LU, PY. One thing that helped was 
tuning across 15 SB I came across my neighbour G3ZQH working something 
and found it was a new one for me, prompting my comment to him "You find 
'em, I'll work 'em!" Really wanted 15m to open to W6 so I could work 
some W6s in the CAQP. I could see loads spotted on 20m but nothing on 15m.

I like the dual band/mode format and sure it will be much busier when we 
get more sunspots, though like Ed GW3SQX commented recently I guess UK 
works RoW format is past its sell by date now. Hopefully there will 
still be sufficient UK support and activity otherwise this contest will 
need to be scrapped. We might even get a trophy by then!!

Chris G3SJJ