[UK-CONTEST] CQWW SB G8D

[G3SJJ]

Hosting a multi-op effort isn't easy. This was initially going to be a 
semi-serious M2 effort with myself, G3ZQH, G4AXX and 17 year old 2E0CNG 
operating from our summer house down the garden. Luckily for me, young 
Mark had to cancel due to 'flu as I had already decided that I had 
misjudged the effort required in relocating all the station, doing 
various rewiring of connectors as well assembling a 3 el 15m mono on a 
temporary 40ft gin pole mast plus a new 80m delta loop. In the end it 
was a scaled down effort based indoors in my usual room. I still managed 
to get the 15m antenna up and running but ran out of time for the delta 
loop. Operating was curtailed during the night anyway in pursuit of 
domestic harmony!  Some pix here  http://granta.g4axx.com/CQWW07.php3

As already noted on some of the other lower key operations, much of the 
time was spent S&P. N1MM is a dream for that, clicking firstly on Green 
(Double) mults, then Red (Single) and finally Blue for a new station 
only. I also liked the idea of clicking on US spots on 80 and 40 which 
puts the radio in split mode and on the two correct QRGs. Cool.

20m - With so much high angle Es European signals were loud and 
omni-directional. Beaming States, Ws were weaker than Eu off the back of 
the beam. We always felt we would get a run going if we could find a 
small slot, but that was the problem. On Saturday there was never a slot 
even with 2kHz Inrad filters. Sunday morning I did find a slot and had a 
superb hour of around 150 Qs. In the afternoon we again looked for a 
good W run but with little success. As in the CW leg, KC1XX sat right on 
the lower US band edge, 14150, I forget now who was at the top end, 
K3OO? Just no space in between. I am getting a strong feeling that some 
Eu stations deliberately opt for over-driven transmitters (or clix on 
CW) specifically to maintain a clear adjacent area.

15m - Really good to hear so much activity. The G4AXX mono bander worked 
very well, main disappointment was that we hadn't got a second amp to 
add the required umph, so most QSOs had to be s&p.

10m - fantastic on Saturday. Had a few runs, but because we are so far 
west we just didn't command the attention.

80m - was good but we didn't spend enough time on the band. Had a 
relaxing couple of hours after Mark and Dave had left just clicking on 
spots. It was interesting to hear the same stations calling so they were 
doing the same thing!

40m - Sooo disappointing. The 2 el phased gp array works really well 
with excellent f/b but I had forgotten about rf feedback problems on SSB 
which I was convinced was due to the close proximity of the ends of the 
elements to my 80m dipole. Ian G4IIY suggested it was pickup on the Heil 
headset, and sure enough after the contest fitting of ferrites cured it. 
Great shame I didn't take up Ian's suggestion earlier as we would have 
really motored with the amp.

Yvonne, as usual, looked after us with food supplies, even though she 
had just completed yet another 60+ hour working week. What a gal! So for 
me, it's back to making her breakfast, packing her lunch, making sure 
the front door is unlocked for her to rush out and having a nice dinner 
ready in the evening! Minimal hardship for the hours of radio time I enjoy!

2 x FT1kMP, (2nd MP thanks to Dave who had just purchased it!) Acom 1000 
Amp, N1MM networked, (must be the easiest and most reliable networking I 
have ever used,) mHam voice keyer, Topten decoders, WX0B Sixpak relay 
switch, Dunestar 600 bandpass filters, Heil headsets. Antennas - A4S, 
3el 15m monobander, 2 el 40m phased gp array, 80m 1/4w, 160m dipole and 
here's the embarassing stats forall that effort -

Band    QSOs    Pts   Cty   ZN
   1.8         1         1      1      1
   3.5     162     211     59   13
      7       37       63     21     8
    14     457     705     77   20
    21     421     708     85   21
    28     235     258     44     9
 Total    1313   1946  287   72   Score : 698,614

Chris G3SJJ