[UK-CONTEST] P3J RSGB Commonwealth Contest 2008 - LONG

[Alan Jubb - 5B4AHJ]

 Having difficulty sending this. 3rd time lucky I hope. Apologies if it's a
dupe.


This was my first serious contest effort from my current QTH. In the
previous two years, I had operated from the QTH of Bob, 5B4AGN.



Raw Data

Year  Posn Score QSO BCA 80m     40m    20m     15m    10m      Op time QTH
2008  ?       6910  662     ?    132/36 18/10   304/66 183/45  25/23 21.5hrs
5B4AHJ
2007  4th    7560  900   102   75/19   265/55 329/62  228/24 3/2
24hrs     5B4AGN
2006  3rd    6300  759     91   50/11   284/48 282/55 139/14  4/4
24hrs     5B4AGN



Coptic wind

On Saturday morning, from about 0800-1000 local, we had a Coptic wind.
Coptic winds are winds that come every year more or less on the same date
+/- a couple of days. There is always one expected for the CC weekend. They
come from N Africa, so are usually warm, and often laden with sand. Last
year it didn't really materialise. This year, we had 2 hours of violent
turbulent swirling gusts around breakfast time. I was very concerned about
the beam, but wasn't worried about the dipoles for 40m and 80m – I should
have been more concerned!



*40m*

As this was the first serious contest effort from the current QTH, I was
keen to see how my score would stand up against those achieved from 5B4AGN's
QTH – is my station competitive? All was going fine until late Saturday
afternoon, when I switched to 40m to catch some VK/ZLs. At the end of the
first 40m QSO (with VK6BN), the Quadra went into protect mode, showing high
SWR. The antenna is an inverted vee dipole, not much to go wrong you would
think. However, it's a non-trivial task to check it out – it means going up
on the roof of the house and winding down the trolley carrying the rotator,
beam and wire antenna feed-points. I couldn't imagine a successful CC
without 40m, so I rapidly QSYd to the roof and did the necessary. An
inspection of the antenna feed-point and connectors showed nothing obviously
wrong, so I wound the trolley back to the top and returned to the shack (it
was now nearly dark, so it was too dangerous to stay on the roof). I tried
40m again, the SWR was now OK! However, the problem returned on the next
QSO. I decided to try the Quadra tuner, to attempt to get some RF into the
antenna, but the Quadra couldn't provide a match. However, the FT1000MP
tuner was able to achieve a lowish SWR, so I had to settle for that,
barefoot into a duff antenna! I don't think much RF went into the ether! It
was impossible to break pileups, but I did manage a few QSOs on 40 (only
18). I still don't know what the problem was – it was OK on Friday when I
checked everything out. I assume the thrashing about in the wind has damaged
a connection somewhere.


Conditions

Generally, I felt conditions were down on last year. Also, there didn't seem
to be as many Gs around. Last year there seemed to be unusually high numbers
of Gs. Usually I can get a large pile of Gs calling on Sunday morning on
20/15, but this year it was like pulling teeth – that's the reason my QSO
count is down on 20/15 compared with last year.



The highlight was a major opening to the East and South on 10m on Sunday
morning. I made regular visits to 10m throughout the contest. Apart from the
7Q7BP, and various other African/Indian Ocean stations that I moved to 10m,
I never heard a station on 10m until Sunday morning, so it was a real
surprise to find the bottom 25kHz buzzing with VKs, SE Asian and African
stations. I found the opening at 0815z, and it lasted another 30 minutes. I
don't know how long it had been going on for before I found it. BCAs worked
on 10m include: 5X, 7Q, 9H, 9J, 9M2, 9M6, 9V, VK2, VK4, VK6, VQ9, VU, ZC4,
ZL4, ZL6. I didn't hear a single G inspite of moving on request and also
CQing with the beam pointing at G. However, I read that G3NKC worked into
ZC4 at 0800z, so I missed a chance there!



Because of the 40m problem, the only stations I worked on 5 bands were
VK2BJ, VK6BN and ZS6AA. However, there were others that I would have made 5
bands with without the problem (eg 9H3JT, VQ9JC).


Night time

Overnight is always slow. Without a 40m antenna it was dire, so I had a 2
hour sleep from 0130z to 0330z. I also lost 30 minutes investigating the 40m
antenna, so operating time was 21.5 hours. I was surprised at the amount of
DX I could work on my low 80m inverted vee (feedpoint at about 16m AGL),
which I put up just for the contest.


Overall

I always find CC a fascinating contest, and this was no exception. It was
frustrating and disappointing not to be able to work 40m, after all, this is
usually my second most productive band, I guess that, in the circumstances,
I am satisfied with my score, but am disappointed to have let down the
DXotic team due to 40m. It was nice to increase my BCAs on every band
(except 40m). Next year I shall make sure that all my antennas are better
engineered!

I am happy that, problems aside, I now have a reasonably competitive
station, although I expect to be well down the field this year when the
results are published.


Logging

This year I used WinTest. This was the second time that I had used it in a
contest, the first being the M2 CWWWCW at P3F. I found it excellent.
However, the combination of WinTest and microKEYER II (which contains
WinKey) seemed to have a mind of their own regarding keying speed, resulting
in operating at 32wpm for most of the contest, much more than is necessary
for this contest. I can't find how to work out the total BCAs from WT.


Station

FT1000MP with Quadra

microHAM microKEYER II

Optibeam OB11-5 for 10/15/20, inverted vees for 40/80.



73

Alan 5B4AHJ-P3J