[UK-CONTEST] ARRL DX Contest, SSB

[Steve GW4BLE]

                 ARRL DX Contest, SSB

 

Call: GW4BLE

Operator(s): GW4BLE

Station: GW4BLE

 

Class: SOAB HP

QTH: Newport, Wales

Operating Time (hrs): 

Radios: SO2R

 

Summary:

 Band  QSOs  Mults

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

  160:   51    19

   80:  238    35

   40:  141    27

   20: 1622    58

   15:   13     9

   10:           

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

Total: 2065   148  Total Score = 916,860

 

Club: CONTEST CAMBRIA

 

Comments:

 

What a contest!  Haven't done an all-band ARRL for a while - maybe this
wasn't a good year for me to try again :-(

 

Weather played havoc to my 40m antenna - looks like something went severely
intermittent about 9pm Sunday evening as SWR went very high and must have
cost me dearly with lost Qs, just as the band started to open properly from
here! 

 

First night I made just ONE contact all night (W3LPL) on 40, only taking my
total to 99 by close-of-play Saturday. Normally I would expect several
hundred Qs on the band.

 

Speaking with an OZ station Saturday morning he said his SB40 total (with 3
ele quad @ 120') was only FIVE (!), so that was some indication of poor
propagation, at least at our latitude.  

 

 

Top-band was a surprise, well for me anyway, making 51 Qs and 19 mults.
Tower is shunt-fed and used for RX as well, so noise level is often high.
Heard a lot of other DX on the band, so conditions must have been good.  

 

Overall, given the conditions, I felt that I wasn't doing that badly - had
the 40m antenna not gone kaput Sunday evening I could perhaps have added
another few 100+ contacts to the log, probably more, who knows.....

 

Steve GW4BLE