[UK-CONTEST] WPX CW, UK-Contest, (and Skimmer of course!)

[Lee Volante]

Hi all,

I'd made my usual plans for WPX CW, and spent most of early yesterday 
morning making a few hundred QSOs on the low bands, and then discovered not 
only 15m but also 10m buzzing with activity.  By lunchtime though the winds 
were looking a little too high for the various supports and props for my 
antennas, and I took them down. (I'm not able to guy everything in all 
directions due to lack of space.)  A good job too, as things got steadily 
worse.  It was fun still to work Search and Pounce with my yagi a massive 14 
feet above the ground, pointing north.  A second factor in stopping was that 
I was really exhausted before I started. Normally I can carry on for 24 
hours without too much grumbling, but I found myself going for a lunchtime 
nap on the Saturday (!)  More prior rest required I think - even for 'just' 
a 36 hours contest. So that's the bad news and excuses out of the way.

The good news, apart from the fact that the early low band scores seemed to 
indicate overall activity is still increasing, and the surprise of the 
number of 15m and 10m QSOs available, was the UK activity. A number of Short 
Contest calls, and many G3 / G4 / 2E / M0 / GW and MW, MD and GM stations 
were all enjoying the contest. I have made comments previously about a 
perceived lack of UK participation, and/or log submission, in some 
international events. The old discussions saw retorts about how large the 
worldwide contest calendar is, and even how large the RSGB one so we can't 
enter everthing. That hasn't changed.

This brings me on to UK-Contest. Go here and look at the archives from 2002 
and 2003...  http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/uk-contest/   (Ignore the 
alleged "1987" postings which were the result of my old laptop's flat 
battery!)  Some people are still around and still posting, and others are 
not.  In a lot of ways, things haven't changed.  Topics like personal vanity 
callsigns, lateness of results and certificates, why do we need / send 599 
etc. will probably always be with us. (Oh, and don't assume CQWW's stance 
applies worldwide.)  But there did seem to be more posts about on-air 
activity, and results of worldwide events. Paul EI5DI's postings for how to 
setup SD for various events act as a contest reminder even for those that 
don't use SD. But the trade off is that we don't get the "this is fun event 
from the UK" or "last year we did so and so" personal comments that might 
drive more people to take part?

We still see a flurry of reports after the most popular events, but maybe 
more focussed on the RSGB programme than ever before. (BERU, IOTA, AFS, 
NFD.)  Maybe this is more down to sunspot activity and we're about to see a 
resurgence...  Also perhaps there's not going to be much to say, or much 
variety in reporting on short single band 80m CC sessions or AFS.  I'm 
certainly guilty of not posting here like I did a few years ago. The CDXC 
reflector has undoubtedly taken away some of the "off topic" content that 
used to be posted. (12,000 messages there in under 2 years, and there's even 
some discussion there of WPX CW conditions, unlike here !)  Overall in terms 
of number of messages posted, there are more now, but in terms of quality, 
learning, and interesting discussion, I think perhaps we're lacking 
something at present. (Or it could be entirely a 'rose coloured specs' 
moment on my part.)

It's fashionable at the moment to talk about Skimmer, so I'll shoe-horn a 
mention in here. Whilst twiddling my thumbs *after* I'd concluded my WPX 
activity, I went along to http://skimmer.dxwatch.com/   Instead of just 
checking data from spotted stations, with skimmer I could more accurately 
check for the G activity.  I know who's operating, and where. There's more 
information (skimmer spots) available than just considering who was spotted 
with the conventional cluster. Who's high in the band, who's low. Who's S+P, 
and maybe even if they're tuning up or down the band.  What time did they 
leave 40m. With my own skimmer, (which is presently allowed in the rules, 
unlike the remote one I was using) I wouldn't get this advantage on bands 
where my direct competitors are inaudible because of the skip of course, but 
it was still interesting.  Would this information give me a huge advantage 
and help me win or lose the contest if I had my own skimmer and used it real 
time?  No - my flimsy antennas, mental strength, strategy and location see 
to that. But might it have given me a push to change band (and improve rate) 
earlier, or help speed up a band sweep for mults? I think so, and I might 
climb a place from 289th to 288th in the listings as a result.  One day that 
single place jump might nudge me from being outside a top-10 box to within 
one.

Anyone agree, or disagree ?

73,

Lee G0MTN