[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW G3ZQH SOAB(A) LP

[G3ZQH]

Second time in CQ WW CW, so hoped to beat last year's score. Into CW only
since a couple of years ago but found this great fun.  Entirely S&P. Apart
from gremlins with installing N1MM on a new laptop and having to change the
feeder to my vertical (waterlogged), the main problem was a strange one- S7+
interference from my central heating boiler all across all bands- but mainly
affecting 20/15m!  Managed to turn the heating off for a long stretch when
the rest of family were out on Sunday afternoon- made most of my 15m QSOs
then (fan heater + warm coat required...). Nearly all QSOs were made on
Sunday apart from a couple of hours on 40m on Saturday evening. 15m v good
on Sun afternoon- great to make clean QSOs without battling against other EU
QRM (found it hard going on 20m). 40m was best, but seemed to die on Sunday
evening. On 80m my vertical seemed to get out OK but I had terrible trouble
hearing DX through the very high local noise level (S9)-  definitely time
for me to make a low noise receiving antenna.

The cluster spots seemed to have a very short half-life- quite a few were
gone even 10 min after being spotted. In the short term (say 10 min) it was
possible to make a good rate (80+/h) by clicking on spots, but I found that
the more traditional S&P scanning across the band gave a better sustained
rate. My CW is not quite good enough yet to call CQ- maybe next year...

Despite the problems on Day 1 I still managed to beat my score from last
year by over 50,000 pts, so overall I'm satisfied.  Next year I'll looking
for 1000+ QSOs but some serious work on antennas and CW speed will be needed
(as well as sorting out the problem with my boiler....).

FT1000MP, 2 x doublets @ 40 ft (at 90 deg), 45ft vertical 24 radials
(160/80/40), N1MM

Dave, G3ZQH

Call: G3ZQH
Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: NOTTINGHAM
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   26     3       20
   80:   92    12       49
   40:  150    16       61
   20:  191    15       43
   15:   81    16       21
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total:  540    62      194  Total Score = 256,000

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at:
http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/