[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW G3LET

[Peter Hobbs]

With some unavoidable day commitments, I was thinking about SOSB 160 
(incredible last year) until a combination of rain noise early on, poor 
160m propagation and decent conditions on 80 led me towards a relaxed 
general dabble during some of the night hours, with quick peeks at the 
other bands as time allowed.  The comeback on 15 is well under way, but 
I never heard anything worth bothering with on 10.  Another (successful) 
aim was find 6Y1V on all bands, compare the operation with their 
Caribbean competitors and work the young team members who I'd had the 
pleasure of meeting on their way out last week. 

As Dave BUO has commented, casual operation can be great fun.  Almost 
all was S&P and so few of the EU mults were worked, except during a 
couple of frenzied runs while attempting to entice stuff off the side of 
a major player. Many DX stations, with pretty good signals, never seem 
to CQ themselves, probably in fear of getting spotted, which on the LF 
bands is often a recipe for disaster.  Several of those who did bite the 
bullet had to resort to split on 160 and 80, causing a great deal of 
confusion to unfortunate runners who unwittingly found themselves "in 
the way".  The pick of the action for me was HC8GR, who never resorted 
to this, had a reliable and at times huge 160m signal and was really 
easy to work on any band.  The outstanding bands were 15 and 80, which 
stayed open until at least 0900.  Around 16 very enjoyable hours.

 BAND   QSO  CQ DXC  DUP   POINTS   AVG 
---------------------------------------
  160    90  14  46    6   162     1.80 
   80   270  21  71    4   498     1.84 
   40   135  24  62    1   256     1.90 
   20    51  17  32    0   133     2.61 
   15    77  24  40    7   225     2.92 
   10     0   0   0          0     - 
---------------------------------------
TOTAL   623 100 251   18  1274     2.04 
=======================================
       TOTAL SCORE : 447,174

Section: SO HP

Only one or two G QSOs, but thanks for those!

73, Peter G3LET