[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW @ G5W (long)

[Don Beattie]

A story of mice and ice
 

This year's CQWW CW (M/S) at G5W did not work out well !

 

We had a team of five (G4TSH, G3SJJ, G4FNL, M0BBB and myself) - all of whom had operated from here before, and knew the station and its idiosyncrasies.



First, I should say that it was extremely cold here in the Shropshire hills for the start of the contest. Now read on.

 

We knew that HF conditions were likely to be mediocre, and were ready for 80/40/20 to be the "banker" bands. All went well for about 30 minutes, until we tried to bring the 160m vertical into operation, and found a 2.7:1 vswr. It had been perfect an hour earlier. In that time, some of our little furry friends in the garden had decided that, in the sub-zero temperatures up here, it was preferable to eat control cable than to go foraging. They had made a good job of it, too, as both the 160 and 40m keying lines to the Titanex control box were dead. No option but to replace the control cable (as the affected section was in trunking underground). So one station shut down, whilst I ran out a new length of cable (fortunately there was a spare reel) the 130 metres to the base of the Titanex and wired it in. It was cold and totally dark, so finding that the rechargeable torch was only half charged was not good news !

 

An hour or so later we were back with a fully functional Titanex. Things then went well through the rest of the night, although we had lost about 90 minutes of multing. Tracking the score, we were ahead of out 2006 rates (8.2m claimed) until about 5pm on Saturday, when something happened to the bands here. LF went very "mushy" and rates plummeted. In the next three hours we dropped a fair way behind the 2006 position, and LF was inexplicably slow on mults. 

 

Then at about 01.00 on Sunday, the next problem arose. We switched to the 160m dipole for some close-in Eu work, and the VSWR was about 2.5. We could just about cope, but there was clearly something seriously wrong. A party of three donned boots and thick clothing (another very cold night, with freezing fog) and trudged up the garden (this time with fully charged torches). The 160 metre dipole was an amazing sight. The 14g wire had grown to about ½ inch diameter, and was encrusted with ice. It looked more like one of the main guys on the tower. We dropped it to the ground (getting showered with ice on the way) and cleared as much as we could. The balun at the feedpoint was covered with thick ice, and we cleared that, and hauled it all back up. The VSWR was now about 1.7, which was better. (By the middle of Sunday it was back to 1:1)

 

However, this episode seemed to have fried the main computer (we're still not sure whether the incidents were connected or whether we had a cooling problem on the computer) and that had failed. So it was then a case of major reconfiguration, swapping out the failed unit, and putting in a spare. Overall we lot nearly two hours from the second night's set of disasters.

 

After that. It was a clear run to the end, but we had lost significant numbers of QSOs and mults.  The good start had turned into a 600 QSO adverse variance compared to 2006, and the mults were similarly down.

 

Then, towards the end of the contest, LF signals improved significantly, and we found some good mults on 160/80/40, but by then it was too late.

 

HF was mixed. We found 20m good, of course, and 15 mediocre, but 10m was very disappointing. 160 through 40 were excellent for part of the time. 

 

So overall, not a good weekend. Yes we had fun, but the score is poor compared to our expectations. The combination of equipment failures and what I think was a sudden rise in absorption on LF for 24 hours hit us badly.

 

Congratulations to M6T for a blistering score - some work to do here !

 

Here's the numbers for the record:



G5W - multi-single

 

BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP  POINTS   AVG 

--------------------------------------

  160   460  17  71   4     643  1.40 

   80  1214  27 105  10    2195  1.81 

   40  1494  37 138  26    2741  1.83 

   20  1475  33 114  23    3450  2.34 

   15   182  25  87   1     439  2.41 

   10    12   2  12   1      11  0.92 

--------------------------------------

TOTAL  4837 141 527  65    9479  1.96 

======================================

       TOTAL SCORE : 6 331 972    



 

Now for some serious re-engineering to get back on the air !

 

73 to all - and thanks for the QSOs

 

Don, G3BJ