[UK-CONTEST] BERU 2009 9H3JT

[Bob Whelan]

Contest         : RSGB Commonwealth Contest
Callsign        : 9H3JT
Mode            : CW
Category        : Single Operator (SO)

 BAND   QSO DUP DXC  HQ  POINTS BONUS   AVG 
--------------------------------------------
   80   123   1  11   1     615   440  8.58 
   40   266   2  22   4    1325   980  8.67 
   20   308   5  24   1    1535   760  7.45 
   15     6   0   6   0      30   120 25.00 
   10     1   0   1   0       5    20 25.00 
--------------------------------------------
TOTAL   704   8  64   6    3510  2320  8.28 
============================================
            TOTAL SCORE : 5 830

Equipment IC 7400, 400w amp, HF tribander, 40m and 80m dipoles. Logging with Win-Test and Asus EeePC microHam CW keyer. I operated from the MARL club rooms in Attard, Malta. 

10m - All I heard I worked! Thanks to Brian 9J2BO who was a good signal too!
15m - Really poor propagation with very little heard and no Gs at all - worse even than last 
year. Not helped by RF feedback which affected the keying interface and necessitated three 
reboots.
20m - Bread and butter band with a lot of activity - very difficult to break the pile ups on some of the interesting calls. No long path on Sunday even though there was on 40m. Not a single VK or ZL worked on 20, strange.
40m - Impressive signals from all over the place.
80m - Seemed very good even on a low dipole.

Overall - a large number of new stations this year, several VUs, AP2,and even a VE4 but no 
VK3,5,1(!). All VK/ZL Qs were on 40, nil on 80, really odd, and two 9Hs.
5 banders, what are those!, 4 banders, none of them either!

My amp survived the airline handlers so that was good but I think my K2 beats the IC7400 for signal handling, and I need to take more ferrites for RF problems too. Only lost power for about 30 mins at 0130 local time, while tying to work John, J79WR on 40, and fell asleep once for an hour at 0330 ish. Not too much problem wih unwanted callers though I did give in to one JA on 80 in a moment of weakness.

Biggest signal 5B4AGN. 
Gottaways 9M6XRO, 5X (40 due to keyclicks from OE),9J (40), VE8 (wrkg VE3EJ). 

Stayed at the Corinthian Palace Hotel, rather smooth, and the wx is very nice too!
 
Many thanks to the Malta Amateur Radio League (tnx Domenic 9H1M)  for the use of their club rooms and especially as they provided meals on Saturday and a full English breafast on Sunday (tnx to Joseph, (9H1AJ). I was pleased to give an impromptu talk/demo to some new local amateurs to be on Sunday including a live Q with Sid GM4SID.

73 Bob 9H3JT