[UK-CONTEST] WPX SSB G0HVQ

[Darrell G0HVQ]

A very last-minute effort by me - decided to enter on the day. Having done 
the BARTG RTTY the weekend before, I hadn't planned to do anything other 
than give a few points away but, with the weather scuppering family outdoor 
activities,  a few QSOs turned into 475. I didn't even put anything up for 
80m until dusk on Sun.

 Band    QSOs    Pts  WPX
   3.5      23      43   11
     7     161     438  100
    14     231     393  169
    21      56     138   41
    28       4      8    3
 Total     475    1020  324

Score: 330,480

Icom 7400 - 100W - 4BTV vertical (40/20/15/10) ground mounted and low 
longwire for 80m (put up Sun evening!).

Single-op, about 27 hrs active (some of which were just a few QSOs popping 
into the shack for the odd 10 mins).

Highlights:

* C91R and ZD7X on 10m - heard a few sigs on 10m Sat but ZD7X was the only 
signal heard Sun afternoon, got him first call (wow - 10m, 100W, vertical 
and no sunspots!).

* 15m was in much better shape on Sun than Sat, great condx to the 
Caribbean/Central America late afternoon, surprised how many QSOs I managed 
on 15m over the weekend given the poor condx the week before.

Lowlights

* A couple of power cuts due to the storm on Sat, fortunately didn't affect 
the log

* I really must get a proper 80m aerial, I could hear plenty of sigs inc DX 
but they couldn't hear me.

Re-long calls, in addition to LZ130LO and YO22NATO, there was one really 
long one (an ON or an OE?) that few were working inc me, I think it had over 
12 characters but could the length of the call was putting people off.

All in all good fun, though 3 HF contests this month was a bit much, the 
family don't think I live here anymore.

73
Darrell