[UK-CONTEST] GB7HQ Frequencies / Spots

Mon Jul 13 03:01:34 PDT 2009

Its amazing Jim the number fo stations who call in, who have no idea 
whats actually happening.   They are perhaps not members of RSGB, not on 
the Contest reflectors, perhaps dont even have email and the exchanges 
goes something like:

QRZ GB7HQ

GB7HQ THIS IS GXXXX

GXXXX YOU ARE 59 RSGB

RSGB - OH? IS IT A SPECIAL EVENT STATION?   WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED? DO 
YOU NEED A NUMBER?  YOU ARE ZERO ZERO ONE IN IO75SU, WORKED ALL BRITAIN 
NS46 IN THE COUNTY OF SOMEWHERE, JUST 5 MILES FROM ANYTHOWN - OH AND THE 
NAME IS JOHN - JAPAN OSCAR HOTEL NOVEMBER - DID YOU GET THAT?  GB7HQ 
FROM GXXXX - OVER?

and so it goes on - and on - still its only a hobby!!!!

73 de Tom
GM4FDM

G3VDB (Jim) wrote:
> Tom GM4FDM said: 
>
>   
>> .... number of stations ... who called me to 
>> ask for the frequency of other GB7HQ stations.
>>     
>
> Tom, I was surprised to note in the original announcement notice here, Dave
> G4BUO said:
>
>   
>> so when you hear us on one band/mode, you can 
>> call and find out the working frequencies 
>> on the other bands.
>>     
>
> It gave me the impression that the contest rate would be low and very
> relaxed!. 
>
> Perhaps this was bad advice. I found the frequencies from the dxwatch
> cluster by putting a filter in for GB7HQ. I was thus able to find 'you' on
> CW on all bands and on 160, 80, 40 SSB. If the spots were 'old' or different
> I added a new spot once I found 'you'.
>
> Antenna limitations and propagation restricted me to 80m and 40m both modes
> though 40m ssb was hard work this morning.
>
> Thanks to all for a superb effort.
>
> Jim
> G3VDB
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of tom wylie
> Sent: 12 July 2009 20:12
> To: UK Contest Reflector
> Subject: [UK-CONTEST] GB7HQ 40mSSB
>
>
> I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Gavin's QTH this year and would like to 
> thank Gavin and his XYL Margaret for the hospitality.....
>
> Gavin's QTH worked like a dream - did what it says on the can!
>
> I dont know if Gav had any setup problems, as I only arrived on site 
> about 30 minutes before the Contest start as I had been in Englandshire 
> for a week with my Grandchildren.
>
> Starlog worked well, except one re-boot about 1 hour before the end.   
> Gavin's K3, amp and antennas performed flawlessly for the duration of 
> the Contest and I think our raw score on 40m SSB is up on last year 
> though our QSO totals are a little down from last year's record.   We 
> did QSY to CW for the last hour doing a swap with Don and Justin.   I'm 
> not sure exactly what this achieved, but perhaps a couple of station 
> might just have made a qso whereas they could not hear the original 
> stations.
>
> You know how after 12 hours on 40m SSB, your brain goes numb - when Gav 
> went to bed for a couple of hours aroundmidnight - i started to work the 
> off Stateside station.   I had to resort to switching VFOs by button 
> push like the old days as for the life of me I couldn't remember how to 
> turn on the second RX in the K3.   D'oh.   I have been running my own K3 
> for over a year, but my mind just went totally blank.   Finally I 
> resorted to a QSY to above 7100 and ran the pileup simplex.   Up around 
> 7.165, it was a lot easier anyways.
>
> I'm not sure I liked the way Starlog inserted the Zone numbers for you 
> as more than a few USA stations zones had to be manually edited 
> anyway.   I also remember a QSO with an E77 station in which the zone 
> was indicated as 30, when the guy gave me 28 - its just a slight 
> inconvenience I know to do an edit, but just an irritation....
>
> Just a quick question for John- using the bandmap - LIST.   How do you 
> clear the list.  I had the bandmap set for mults only but it kept 
> throwing non mults up and the list page just kept on growing.   I guess 
> all these little things are preferences to the individuals and dont 
> detract from the operation of the software which worked fine.
>
> Another minor irritation especially on the sunday morning was the number 
> of staions (because I was loud) who called me to ask for the frequency 
> of other GB7HQ stations.   At one point I lost my run as I had a pileup 
> of stations asking for the 10mCW freq, then the 15m SSB freq e4tc etc.
>
> I had a laugh during the night when an american guy asked me if I was 
> Scottish as he could tell by the accent.   Then he asked me if my staion 
> was located in England.   When I said Scotland that seemed to throw him 
> into a quanrdy.   How do I log this QSO he asked.   My software thinks 
> you are in England - how do I modify it????   I politely (yes I know its 
> not really like me) to consult his software manual......
>
> A good Contest - great fun, but I think my 40m SSB days are numbered.  
> My brain is like jelly
> with the constant QRM levels.   I tried several times to hear stations 
> like JA and 9M6 etc, but due to the high QRM levels often 20db over S9, 
> I was unable to hear anything from that region.
> About 0400 i felt like a gibbering idiot..... (my wife would say - whats 
> new?)
>
>
> 73 de Tom
> GM4FDM
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