[UK-CONTEST] ARRL 160m contest - G3LET

[Peter Hobbs]

This event is gradually starting to attract overseas interest.  Only a 
few years ago hardly any EU countries managed even one entrant.  2008 
was my first bash, with no idea what would be possible and, from Europe, 
I ended up behind only ON4UN, OM2VL (narrowly!) and F6CWN.  Some sort of 
brick wall effectively cut off W6/7 from Europe, so I was hoping for an 
improvement in 2009.  Planning-wise - less than ideal though, Saturday 
being the day of uni collection and visiting aged relatives and there 
had been no time to re-lay the temporary radials that I'd rolled up when 
collecting the autumn leaves.   I was hoping to maintain or improve upon 
4th unassisted place in EU, but with the increasing international 
participation I suspect this won't have happened. 

Propagation generally was down on 2008 but the West coast was in good 
shape for much of Saturday night, with a much shorter period on Sunday.  
I listened enviously to RA4LW stacking up sections from 1400 this 
afternoon in the hope of at least hearing an echo of something before 
the end, but it didn't happen.  Yesterday, which might have been better, 
I was still loading kit into the car!  One unexpected thing - a watery 
JA0 called in at 0530 this morning (Sunday).  Looking at the map it 
seemed possible, but hadn't heard them before.  Anyone know if this is 
usual?

With no radials it was impossible to get any sustained run going, but 
CQing is really the only strategy in this event, as only the big guns 
seem to run themselves.   No sleep during Saturday meant it was even 
harder than usual to keep a mental track of who I'd worked and the two 
separate sessions added to the confusion.  Before embarking on session 
2, I'd listed the unworked sections and noted down the leading lights 
from the last couple of years.  I needn't have bothered - Sunday was 
pretty much a wash-out, fighting for the last few East coast QSOs, 
without even the opportunity of chasing K7RAT and a few others who had 
been around with workable signals the day before.  Still, up from 50 to 
58 sections was relatively pleasing but let down by the QSO total, which 
fell from 350 to 339 QSOs, giving a total of 39,324 claimed points, more 
than OM2VL in 2008 but I feel sure he will have learned some new 
tricks!  Several new West Coast sections were found and altogether it 
was an enjoyable  and civilised event, with none of the frantic trauma 
of CQWW.  The best opportunity for WAS on 160 in a weekend too (I fell 
just four short this year).  ARRL might accelerate the overseas interest 
if they were to give some recognition in their results write-up to the 
international entrants.

73, Peter G3LET