[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW from Shetland ...40m SOSB un-assisted. MZ5B.

[g3wvg at btinternet.com]

Hello All.

As ever CQWW CW was great fun. I left it until the last moment before
deciding on which category to enter. The weather at Eshaness Lighthouse in
the exposed north-west of Shetland is not the kindest at the end of November
and so I wanted to be sure that any antenna I was able to erect would
survive the weekend. I had initially wanted to do 80M but in the end I
reckoned that a spiderbeam 33ft vertical would be all I could manage.  In
fact it was touch and go for other reasons too.  My K2 stopped working on
Friday afternoon but a local ham, Hans MM0XAU, saved the day by generously
lending me his trusty Orion. 
I agree with Cris,GM4FAM. 40M dx conditions during the day were superb with
the band packed with huge JA signals. However it was probably my more
northerly location but in comparison propagation to the US was very poor for
me. Nighttime wasn't too good either with all signals well down.  It was
frustrating to hear UK stations, which were only a few hundred miles to my
south running US stations which I couldn't even hear. 
I heard a couple of "easy" zones that couldn't hear me. VU2PTT was calling
CQ for a long time with no replies and a C9 station in East Africa was
another that got away and I didn't come across zone 6 all weekend.  
In the end I made just under 2400 QSOs with 35 zones and 127 countries. SOSB
HP. Unassisted.  
73 Ian G3WVG ..aka MZ5B
,
Ps ..thanks to all the UK-Contest posters that called in.!