[UK-CONTEST] IARU Contest.

[brian coyne]

>>Are conditions really this dire?...G3YMC.
 
Yes Dave, they really are and there is only one word to describe anyone attempting QRP and that is 'gutsy'
 
I was part of the H2Q team and operated  15 mtrs cw. Not a lot of dx from here either and this was from the great stn of Bob 5B4AGN. I guess we must be thankful that there were some sort of scatters but it was dire. A large proportion of the 700 odd q's were at esp levels. It could also have been a case of one way propagation because I had a sea of callers to every cq call who were drowning beneath the waves, all too weak to read, best I could get was a partial as they came up for air and then gone again. So apologies if you were frustrated by this nitwit with 'no ears'! 
What copiable propagation we did get was confined to abt 1,000km radius so thank goodness for LZ, YO UY together with Russia and FSU countries, they were the bulk of our contacts.
I can't recall working so few OK's & DL stns, UK, DL & F hq stn's were weak all of the time, very few 'G' and west eurpean stns in the log, when there were brief openings your way the GM's were the best sig's. 
 
I have no idea as to our score as the logs need to be merged. Wintest did not work out for us and our station did not have a functioning cluster because of that so it was a case of finding our own mlt's.  Despite all that it was fun and considering the team and logistics were only put together in the week before the test and we were short on operators which did mean open bands/modes were unattended at times. Whilst we are not going to trouble the likes of teams GB & DARC we have not disgraced ourselves.
 
Oh - by the way Colin (G3PSM), there were at least 2 RSGB members on our team too, it could have been 3 if Jan, G0IVZ, who is on holiday here, and  was ready and willing to operate but ineligable as he is not a CARS member, we sure could have used him on the cw side.
 
73  Brian  5B4AIZ..