[UK-CONTEST] WPX scores

[Ian Maude]

Hi all,
Firstly I should say that I am probably not as driven a contester as some on
here.  Our little group (Sands Contest Group) aim to improve our scores with
each contest and to beat our previous attempts at the same contests.  We
normally operate Mutli-Single.
We still have to hit a million points for a contest and hopefully we will
achieve that this year.  We have a good contest site, open, about 600ft ASL
but with a good damp ground.  We use a Spiderbeam at 50ft and verticals.  We
also have backup dipoles.  We run my K3 and 400W where allowed but some of
the scores on here I confess to being in awe of!
We run where we can but this weekend we had to fall back on the verticals
(and make a couple as the Spiderbeam balun decided to give up the ghost!)
 We found it hard to run at that point.  However, everyone we shouted we
worked including Chile on 40m and China on 15m.  I also worked Senegal on
15m and then noticed the SWR was way out.  Looking outside, the 15m vertical
on a fishing pole had been nerfed by a sheep and concertina'd down.  I
basically was using a short helical :)
So, I guess my question is, what are we doing wrong.  How can we improve
what we have.  It was hard without a beam to lower the signals from the back
but we were obviously a good signal.

I would welcome a debate on good contesting practices although I appreciate
there may be a certain amount of 'trade secrets' that people will not wish
to share :)

73 Ian

-- 
Ian J Maude, G0VGS
SysOp GB7MBC & HB9DRV-9 DX Clusters
Member RSGB, GQRP 9838, FISTS 14077 | K3 #455
http://www.amateurradiotraining.org