[UK-CONTEST] CQ 160 - G3BJ

[Don Beattie]

I wasn't going to do this contest, but after a few hours on Friday evening, I got seduced by the conditions.  So my strategy evolved as I went along. It's the first time, I've done CQ160, and I must admit it was fun. But the first mistake was to start the contest thinking I was going to do a token effort and using my home call. I should have started with G5W, as by the time I realised I might stay the course it was impossible to change, of course !

Friday evening/overnight was a blast, with excellent conditions (although only limited openings for me to JA). But the US was great. Managed to sit on my frequency almost all night, and the rate was OK. Operated from 22.00 until about 08.15, and then hit the hay. But by the end of the first session I had some 60% of my final score in the bag.

Saturday evening didn't seem to have the same sort of propagation, and for me Saturday night was dire. It only really got going later on, in the last two hours before dawn. Operated from about 17.00 to 08.15 again (with a 45 min break in the middle of the night), leaving about five hours for Sunday evening.

Sunday was slow as well, and it seemed I had worked almost everything I could hear. Picked up a few mults on S&P, but keeping a run frequency and running S&P is tricky in this contest, I found. 

By 21.50, when I ran out of time, I was ready for bed.

A great contest, an perhaps next year I shall be better planned, with a few additional receive antennas. The K9AY did superbly, but I wonder whether a beverage to the US would also help.

Congratulations to GM3POI and M6T (G4TSH, I assume), who were both going great guns, and will make my effort seem very much like a rookie ! 

A few moans as well: I got attacked by the continuous carrier jammer on a couple of occasions, which was irritating. But more significantly, three times, I found a clear frequency, and after the necessary "QRL?" a few times, started working stuff, only to be jumped on a few minutes later by someone claiming they had been on the freq all night. Well perhaps, but they were evidently not there when I called QRL ? and were I suspect S&P-ing. I had a long discussion with an OK1 who was one of the culprits, but to no avail. This is poor operating in my opinion. If you go S&P you run the risk of losing your run frequency - you can't leave a "reserved" sign on the channel ! 

Ended up with 1.22 M points from 1487 Q's and 74 DXCC and 53 states/provinces. Didn't hear Nevada, Kentucky, DC and Kansas, but apart from that, got the full US set, and most of the Canadian ones that were likely to be active. Reading the DX spots after the contest, I see I missed quite a few DXCC, but that is the challenge of the contest. I wonder what SO(A) is like in this contest ?

Using the usual stuff here - FT100MP MkV + linear, 90ft vertical and dipole (although the tower was down, so lost about 25ft of height here), K9AY for receive + Win-Test.

Thanks to all for the QSOs

73

Don, G3BJ