[UK-CONTEST] ARRL SSB - J88DR

[Dave Lawley]

Forwarded on behalf of Dave G3TBK/J88DR who can't access uk-contest from 
the Caribbean

-------- Original Message --------

Being ideally located for this contest in the Caribbean, I decided to
make an entry despite my aversion  to SSB.
Unlike others posting on this Reflector I was using a very simple
station - even used a fist mike, all items having been carried to J8 as
luggage over the past few years.

Rig was an Icom IC 7000 running barefoot in the Low Power section ( My
old SB200 is no match for the mega-linears being run in the QRO section).
Antennas were the A3S at 35 feet, a Cushcraft R8 for 40m. mounted above
the cottage metal roof  (about 20 ft a.g.l.), and for 80m a dipole, 35
ft up in the centre, slightly lower at the ends. I logged with N1MM. I
must confess the small tower was obtained locally - even the generous
luggage rules on Virgin Atlantic do have limits!

10m was once again a major disappointment , but at least I made a few
QSOs  after zero for the past two years.
15m is great from the Leeward Islands,  even at this time of no
sun-spots there are long openings to North America.
As remarked elsewhere the other Bands were hectic, especially 80 and 40.
For the first hour on the LF bands I had to resort to working by
numbers, which I abhor, but it was the only way to make any sense of the
pile-ups my short CQs generated. That dealt with about 100 callers on
each band, including the "big guns" and after that normal operation was
again possible.
During my mornings it is slow going for me - most of the USA stations
were beaming at Europe - I heard several UK stations running good piles.
Signals on 20m took a big dip around Noon, fortunately there were  still
some workable stations on 15m.

It never ceases to amaze how quickly the top stations, (eg W3LPL, K1ZZ),
find me when I QSY to a band for the first time - usually they are
worked within the first 5 minutes, often less.

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:  442    54
   40:  447    51
   20: 1419    59
   15: 1486    57
   10:    4     3
-------------------
Total: 3798   224  Total Score = 2,552,256

Operating time - 28.6 hours.
WAS on 20 & 15.


Now to re-tune the antennas to the CW sectors for BERU next weekend,

73 Dave J88DR / G3TBK