[UK-CONTEST] June 70cm UK Activity Contest

[Ray James]

The claimed scores thus far for last nights 70cm UKAC make good reading!

Call      ODX Km       Comments
G0VVE     621       Condx down but 5 GMs in the log! (Including me!)
G4DEZ     552       Terrible conditions
G4CLA     432       Conditions, what conditions? 
G8HGN     552       Poor condx tonight
G0XDI     542       Dire!
M1MHZ     419       Poor condx
GW4EVX/P  297       Only average conditions
M0ICK/P   296       Hard going
2E0XLG/P  315       Bad Conditions. Went home early. 
G8ONK     332       Poor conditions
M6AXL/P   296       R U B B I S H 
G4HYG     115       Activity seemed lower tonight, flat conditions
G4JQN      71       Terrible conditions ! 

Not very inspiring reading is it?
On the contrary:
GM4CXM    730       Great fun!

The difference is quite simple.
Operating on 70cm can be challenging to say the least with the narrow beamwidth of the avarage antenna system and very narrow beamwidths of above average arrays. One can choose to either enter the contest and stick with CC's "pissing against the wind" rules which do absolutely zilch to inspire UK participation or do as I do and have 2.5 hours of fun.
I managed to work most of the GM's who were active plus G's who were obviously beaming this way looking for contacts and not the ones who work one or perhaps two and stick the beams back south or south east the rest of the time, plus I made one schedule on ON4KST with PA5DD and had a very nice CW contact that's barred me from entering this RSGB contest despite all necessary exchange information being passed over the air.

At least I pulled the big switch having enjoyed the evening, unlike many.
Conditions may well have been dire but being able to experiment with challenging paths despite the supposed conditions is what I like to do.

73 Ray GM4CXM