[UK-CONTEST] CQWW SSB - Some thoughts

[James Hill]

Hi Guys,

Well, this year turned out differently, we ended up doing a single band 
20m entry, due to various constraints such as the field out the back 
being newly planted with winter wheat, so the K9AY array and verticals 
etc had to go west, as well as a shortage of ops - 1x full time, 1x part 
time & myself 75% time. Not enough.

One strange, notable thing from our part of the world (JO02), was the 
distinct lack of OZ on 20m! We only heard one, and that was weak, and 
was an even bigger struggle to be heard by them! Add working ON & PA 
"off the back" and being called by an MM6 station, it made for some 
interesting propagation, but only 102 DXCC.

One thing, however, is that I have noticed and increase in over the last 
few contests, is the alarming rise in "bully boy" tactics, among the 
Eastern European "Big Gun" stations. On more than one occasion, we had 
one open up about 400Hz from us, and just let rip. No QRL? or similar, 
just straight in with the CQ Contest. We were running a K3, and could 
hear them, so whatever they were running, they would have been able to 
hear us too, Even when beaming at them. This year, we decided to stand 
our ground, and actively chase them away from our QRG, and in 4/5 
occasions, it worked after a short while. Mentioning no callsigns, but 
one of them was disqual'ed last year for a different offence.

Sure, CQWW is always a tight squeeze on the bands and a certain amount 
of give & take is called for, as well as tolerating "splatter monkeys" 
of all nationalities. Even with the stonking RX on the K3 it was a 
headache still, but with behaviour such as this, it made it all the much 
harder, and we dropped a hell of a lot of Q's because of it, as we 
simply couldnt hear the stations calling us.

Do the people at CQ Magazine actually give a monkeys about what goes on? 
as I'm considering lodging a formal protest. One thing that was 
suggested, was having a few SDR setups around the globe monitoring 
things, and a team of volunteers going through the resultant recordings. 
Sure, it's a lot of work, but surely if a couple were to fall foul, it 
would bring the others into line eventually? is this already in place?

Apart from that, it was an enjoyable weekend, and a big pity we couldnt 
go multi band... I was mult hunting on Sunday, and had one eye on the 
cluster, and 15 & 10 looked to be in great shape!

James G0FHM