[UK-CONTEST] SSB Field Day 2008 - G3TBK/P

[David Cree]

The East Notts Contest Group, G3TBK/P, entered SSB FD this weekend 
despite the hostile WX.

Station erection was on Friday afternoon, when the rain was at its 
heaviest. Nevertheless we put the 7-element tri-band beam up at 60+ ft, 
with dipoles for 80m and 40m at about 75 ft. We also had a low 40m 
dipole, around 35 ft. We operated from a slightly porous tent with poles 
that had seen better days. The site is on the edge of the Lincoln Ridge, 
with a very steep slope to the Trent Valley, towards N. America. Rig was 
the old FT1000D, with even older Tokyo Amp. I did not wish to take the 
'MP out in the wet WX.  Antenna switching fully automatic.

Conditions were variable, with some surprising activity on 21 MHz, and 
even a few QSOs on 28 MHz. 20m was the main DX Band, but the LF bands 
were also in good shape most of the time. However, in the small hours 
there was almost a blackout, and for four hours our QSO rate was below 
20/hour. We also suffered from S9 QRN during rain storms.

Our final score was around 0.75 million points, a 50K increase on last 
year. This was despite a reduction in QSOs  to 1280.  Country 
multipliers increased however from  131 to 165.  We again used our VHF 
packet link from my home QTH to the FD Site,  so we had live internet 
access to  the DX Cluster throughout.
This year Alistair networked the logging lap-top to that running the 
packet, so we could make full use of the Band-map facilities in the N1MM 
logging programme.

Interesting DX included Bolivia (on 80m), Hawaii, Indonesia, Thailand, 
China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Japan, Oman, Bahrein, Chile, Ecuador, 
Argentina (also on 80m), Ascencion, Namibia (4 bands), Swaziland, 
Malawi, Liberia, S. Africa, Aruba, Martinique, Puerto Rico, various 
Aussies and New Zealanders, and of course lots of N. Americans - 
although the State-side opening was not as prolonged or intense as in 
past years which was the main reason for a substantial drop in 20m QSO's.

There did seem to be fewer UK stations than last year, with several 
familiar calls missing. Probably due to flooded fields.

The best hour yielded 97 QSO's, when the Operator was Edward, M3TBK, (he 
of the acute hearing!). We concluded condx favoured the South - we have 
to have an excuse for being soundly out-run by Dave 'BUO and his Cray 
Valley team! Nothing broke or fell down, no generator, s/w, computer or 
radio equipment problems, so nothing to blame for not winning.

Operators were myself, John G0GDU and M3TBK, with Engineering support 
from Richard G4LPD and Alistair M3DVQ, and my XYL Moira responsible for 
sustenance, and general logistics - plus pulling on ropes whenever required.

Now we just need to wash the mud off the cars and caravan, and dry out 
everything that went to the Site!

Summary:-

Band      QSOs      Pts       Cty
   3.5      353         1315     32
     7       349         1295     40
    14      475         1541     65
    21        93           340     23
    28        10             50       5
 Total    1280        4541    165

 Score: 749,265

Now packing my bags again for a swift return to St. Vincent and J88DR. 
Is there a trophy for the FD entrant who made the longest journey to Site?

73's de Dave G3TBK