[UK-CONTEST] GM4YXI CQWW CW 2008

Tue Dec 2 18:51:12 EST 2008

I only got back home from an overseas business trip about 2300 on Friday night, my HF antennas were not in a useable state and I was in no fit state to start the contest, being completely exhausted. While travelling earlier in the week I had already come to terms with the fact that a full-on SOAB effort was not going to be physically possible so I decided to ‘invent’ my own category……Single Op Low bands! I thought it would be better to enjoy some good low band openings without chasing all over the shop. As I was missing a lot of countries on 160 I decided to give the GM7V call a rest this year and use the home call to improve my DXCC score a little.

I slept until 0400, then got started. As this was to be a non-competitive effort I did not really worry too much about ‘tactics’, at the start at least; that does not mean I was not trying to maximize my score, I just ran most of the time, did very little S&P and did not necessarily worry about being on the best band for 3-pointers. I also changed bands a lot less often than I would have, had I being doing a proper SOAB.

As 160 was my main focus (at least when I started) I stayed on there from 0400 to well after my sunrise, then did one hour on 80m which was well open even to zone 3 up to 0930. Then did an hour on 40m after which I collapsed in a heap, despite JAs booming in 40m short path. I got back on around 1300 and stayed on 40m until 1600 when I just had to stop and sleep an hour, then managed an hour on 80m but had to sleep again. Got back about 1900 and struggled on until 0200 mostly on 160 and 80. Slept 0200 to 0430. Judging by what others have written I may have missed some good 80 on the first night but it was quite good on the second night I thought. 160m was OK too, and I was pleased to be called by KH6 about an hour before my SR on 160m on Sunday morning. JAs and zone 3 were quite easy on 80m too. I managed to keep going most of Sunday. As others have commented, it was a revelation to be running Zones 3, 4 & 5 as well as JAs on 40m between 11-1300, indeed I think W/VE was probably available throughout the 24 hours on 40m, if not necessarily in volume. I also noticed that even while some W6s were coming in long path on 40m on Sunday afternoon, most W7s were worked short path throughout. Usually I’d be on 20 or 15m at this time! I was quite chuffed to work a few JA on Sunday evening (JA sunrise) on 160m. Never heard KL7 on any band.

My one non-LF QSO was 3X5A on 10m…..I needed that for a new one; they were the only signal I could hear on 10m and were true S9!

Sorry to hear of the WX antenna problems at G5W and G4IIY. So it’s not just me that has these woes! After a stormy SSB event, it was flat calm and freezing up here too but it was only Sunday evening rain/ice which caused my 80m inv Vee to develop a high SWR.

I noted the points made by several folks regarding frenzied calling and not enough listening. I do not buy the reasoning of some that this is a ‘perceived’ problem and function of poor CW skills on the part of the station being called by the pile-up. Yes, my CW is mediocre for sure, it can therefore be difficult to control the pile-up and it is a bit depressing when my requests for ‘lsn lsn’ and repeats of a partial call were greeted by strings of ‘hi hi hi’…I could just hear the irony. It is just plain bad operating and rudeness when guys just call regardless of who you go back to. I do not see what gives them the right to think they are a special case that does need to wait their turn. As Andy said, we cut some slack on the basis of mis-copying and QRM but I thought the impatience was worse this year. Some of the well know EU multi-ops seemed to think they did not have to wait and I am afraid to say that many of the offenders in general had calls beginning with R or U. Compared to the super-controlled JAs and generally well-behaved North Americans, some European operators, particularly from the eastern end of this continent behave like a bunch of ignorant madmen. And don’t get me started on key clicks and attempts at frequency stealing……

But still, good fun. And a few new ones on 160m.

Keith GM4YXI

AL1500 plus ICOM

160m: Inv L and inv vee

80m: 70ft vertical (elev radials plus gnd screen) and inv vee

40m: four square, delta loop and quarter vertical

Five 130-170 m beverages

Managed about 35hrs

BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP  POINTS   AVG

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

  160   793  20  69  29    1240  1.56

   80  1070  27  83  12    1609  1.50

   40  1283  28  84  20    2095  1.63

   20     0   0   0   0       0  0.00

   15     0   0   0   0       0  0.00

   10     1   1   1   0       3  3.00

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

TOTAL  3147  76 237  61    4954  1.57

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       TOTAL SCORE : 1 541 316

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