[UK-CONTEST] SSB FD and 144MHz Trophy 2008 - G6YB/P

[g4fka at aol.com]

Having had our "big station fix" in Jersey this year and with a "virtual  
trophy" from last year to defend (we will only receive it at HFC next month!)  
the Bristol Contest Group again decided to enter the Restricted section for this 
 year's SSB extravaganza. We also decided to put on a small scale station for 
the  144MHz Trophy event to give the VHF brigade a chance to play and to 
contact the  other members of the group operating from Kent under another guise. 
The  weather forecast also had a strong bearing on the decision and we really  
didn't fancy the thought of putting up the towers and beams in what proved  to 
be extremely heavy and persistent rain on Friday.
 
So it was at a much more relaxed 09:00 on Saturday that we arrived at our  
storage farm and towed the kit the relatively short distance to our local  site. 
Fortunately the rain held off for much of the morning and we were  able to 
put things up without getting too damp. Grass was very wet though and  the rain 
came back with a vengeance in the afternoon. Our resident "white  van man" had 
to be towed by the 4X4s in both directions through the muddy  site entrance 
but apart from that there were no transport  headaches. We spent the whole 
weekend in waterproofs and  wellies!
 
Set-up went very well and we had the "theme on a long doublet" and the  
144MHz beam erected with plenty of time to spare. Very simple station for SSB  FD, 
just the horse-box for humans housing the transceiver and logging computer,  
and the auto-ATU mounted at the feed-point. 144 was housed in a gazebo style  
tent attached to the box; this was also our catering and "get out of the rain"  
tent.
 
In deference to the advances of technology we decided it was about time to  
upgrade from clipboard logs and dupe sheets to something more advanced. In  
fact the logging software gave us the only heart-stopping moment when with just  
12 minutes to the start it decided to tell us "This is a  demonstration 
version - please register to continue use". Fortunately we  had a number of spare 
PCs on site and the changeover was completed to  allow a timely start.
 
We were a bit worried at first as the QSO rate seemed low but we got into  
the swing of it and were soon back up with rate. Conditions good into Europe  
with plenty to work on 80/40/20 and the odd excursion to 15/10 to pick off a few 
 there, mainly S&P. Conditions very poor to UK and we worked very few.  It 
also looks like we in the west enjoyed less on 15/10 than those further north  
and east. However we had the usual excellent run to USA late on Saturday on  
20m.
 
So how did we get on? Our raw score having kicked out the obvious dupes  
suggests more Qs, mults and points than last year. In fact it looks something  
like this:
 
BAND       QSO       DXC      POINTS
------------------------------------------------------
80           248       24        1010
40           338       31        1270
20           423       47        1385
15            27       13         108
10             4         4          17
-----------------------------------------------------
TOTAL      1040      119        3790 
==========================
TOTAL  SCORE : 451 010
 
The rain cleared away on Sunday so we were able to take it all down in  
(relatively) dry conditions and were off site and back to the farm within a  couple 
of hours.
 
Thanks to all for the contacts and the competition and see you  for more fun 
and frolics next year.
 
 
Geoff G4FKA @ G6YB/P