[UK-CONTEST] SSB Field Day 2008

[James Hill]

Well, let me be the first to post our take on things!

Our club will always put on a good show, and I normally operate as part 
of their "gang". This year, a couple of us wanted the "full experience", 
and we decided to run a restricted section entry, warts and all, in 
addition to the main entry.

Oh, what a silly idea that was!!! Hi.

We were dogged with problems from the beginning, missing the start by 12 
mins due to improperly checked coax (had to replace the whole run). From 
then on in, we developed an intermittent antenna fault where the VSWR 
kept going barmy, lots of RF Feedback affecting logging computer & voice 
keyer, which we eventually manage to solve at the expense of running 
time, pulse noise from the generator spark plug, and some local, 
deliberate QRM, where we were continually followed, and played lots of 
SSTV, RTTY, WINDRM, as well as repeated whistles & "Hola"'s, on just 
about every band we tried to use. It finally packed up around midnight 
local. Didnt affect things too much, but was a nuisance, to say the 
least!! Oh, and it threw it down whilst setting up, and immediately 
dried up at the start of the contest! Same went for packing up.... 
luckily we had an old style Land Rover on hand to remove the caravan 
from the field!

Anyway, this is what/how we did:

G8NED/P, Multi Single -  Restricted.

FT-897, LDG AT897 Auto ATU, 20m double zepp at 20 feet strung between 
trees around perimeter of field.

Band          Total            Mult        
3.5           344                 21           
7             16                    6            
14            96                   20           
21            10                   5            
28            3                     1   
---------------------------------        
Total         469                53

Claimed Score 96460.

Again, as in previous years, we noticed that the propagation seemed to 
favour those on the Western side of the country, as they were giving out 
higher numbers than us on the East!

Would we do it all again next year? you bet!

James G0FHM