[UK-CONTEST] M6T CQWW CW Report

[Andy Cook, G4PIQ]

Call: M6T
Operator(s): G4BUO, G4PIQ, M0ITY, 2E0CVN, GI0RTN, G0OPB
Station: G0KPW

Class: M/S HP
QTH: JO02RF
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  583    24       86
   80: 1639    36      132
   40: 1476    39      147
   20: 1776    38      144
   15:  184    27      103
   10:   24     6       23
------------------------------
Total: 5682   170      635  Total Score = 9,312,240

Club: 

Comments:

Ants
160 - 33m tall Vertical with top loading + Inv-V @ 28m
80 - 4 square + Inv-V @ 20m
40 - 402CD @ 30m
20 - 204CD @ 28m + TH5 @ 28m
15 - Extended 155BA @ 30m + TH5 @ 28m
10 - 105CA @ 30m + 105CA @ 20m
Rx - 180m Beverage to NW, K9AY loops, verticals

The CQWW CW contest marked a return to multi-operator contesting for the M6T
team. I've been lucky enough to use the station for many single operator
entries over the past 2 years, but CQWW SSB this year was rough due to
tierdness and I could see that things at work were going to be no quieter
running up to the CW leg. Furthermore, the 'CU2X effect' on WRTC
qualification scores puts anyone competing against Toni in the Single Op
sections at a big disadvantage to folks in the multi-op sections. In any
case
it would be good to get some of the old team spirit back. So I suggested to
Bob, G4BAH, the station owner, that we do multi-single for the CW leg. This
turned out to be a great decision. Dave, G4BUO from the old team joined me
along with Jiri, M0ITY who's done a lot of work on the station over the last
few years, and we added new members Gerry, GI0RTN, Simon 2E0CVN, and Tony,
G0OPB. 

As a fairly last minute plan, there wasn't a great deal of time to work on
the station and we were never going to build a fully competitive European MS
station in the short time available, but we added a 160m vertical (thanks to
Dave, and Justin, G4TSH for coming up a couple of weekend previous to build
that) and an additional 10m yagi to improve performance and add flexibility.
Along with fixing bits and pieces, labeling all the things that I knew about
(like what antenna cable is what), setting up and getting everything
straight
still took the best part of 2 days and I was still sorting things out 5
minutes
before the start. 

Low band conditions seemed generally excellent - especially on our night #1
and night #3 - night #2 seemed somewhat poorer. 

You know things are good on 160 when you go to run there on the first night
and
your 3rd QSO on the band is N6TR in Oregon. Over the course of the weekend
we
heard (but didn't necessarily work) all sorts of stuff including KL7.  On
night #3 we were running at least a sprinkle of JAs and ZS4TX was a great
signal on the band when moved from 80. The vertical was definitely a great
upgrade to the old dipole. That said I don't think conditions on 160 were
the
best they have ever been. 

80 was also in good shape and took the brunt of the running on night #1with
many super Zone 3 signals. 

40 seemed remarkable to me. I haven't often done CQWW CW all-band from
Europe, but to be running a mix of JA and W (as far as the left coast) at
nearly midday local time is great. DF0HQ's 40m country total of 169 probably
shows just how good the band really was - that's an enormous number for any
band in the CW leg. The band was busy, but not overcrowded like in the SSB
leg
as well. 

Similarly 20 was very busy but not bursting. A real shame to miss zone 31 on
the band (as well as zone 34 on all bands). I saw several KH6s spotted, but
none were sufficiently audible to be workable. It did however close pretty
early for us.

On the other hand I've never heard 15 as bad as in this event. We only
briefly ran on there for one 10 minute period early Sunday evenig where the
band briefly opened reasonably to the US. Other than that, it was hard work.

I'd like to say that I've never seen 10m as bad - but I'd be lying -
it was just as bad in the SSB leg one month ago.

Of course we had out little challenges. Setting up on Friday was miserable
in
the pouring rain. During the contest on Saturday daytime we had to replace 2
lifting ropes on the 10m antenna tower which had failed (or were likely to
fail) on the Friday after darkness. That took about 15 person hours in total
and made about 2 QSOs.. About midnight Saturday night in the pouring rain we
also had to drop and luff the main 20m tower to fix an internittent
feed-point
problem, and we had a mechanical failure (loose screw - but with a really
obscure fitting) on the run station amplifier which needed a complete strip
down on the shack floor.

One downside to the multi-single section was that you inevitably end up in a
lot of packet pile ups. Many this weekend were just horrible - and I think
they are getting worse much over time. There was quite a lot of blind
calling
going. We saw evidence of behaviours which showed multiplier operators just
jumping onto a packet spot frequency and calling without even hearing the DX
station - sometimes the DX station wasn't even there at all - I think
others were having some fun and feeding fake spots into the system just to
watch the pile-up appear! Now - we all suffer from QRM and sometimes can't
hear the DX - especially in these big pile-ups - but there were stations
really going beyond what was acceptable this weekend and making life much
more
difficult for all concerned. 

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs, mults and moves and competition. Thanks to
Andrew, G4ADM for a great roast dinner and to Bob, G4BAH for the use of the
station. We had great fun and will be back. 

73,

Andy, G4PIQ for team M6T