[UK-CONTEST] Re IOTA

[geoff plucknett]

I agree with Mike.

IOTA isn't about elite stations. The teams that win the island sections put
a lot of effort into their entries. The GJ6YB effort is a week out of our
lives to get somewhere, set it all up, operate, take it all down and get
home again. Add to that the preparation and packing of trailers, towers and
caravans and it is a major logistics exercise spread over several weeks.
None of us have the home stations to be able to challenge the leader boards
so we do expeditions and put on the best show we can to give everyone a
chance of bagging those island slots.

The trick for the small station is to make best use of the available
capability. A simple doublet or other wet string and an auto ATU will bring
dividends in a small garden. Yes you have work a bit harder to make the
contacts but that is all part of the challenge. The high bands are not
currently rewarding even for a larger station so that low band capability is
ideal. S&P will bring the results and a surprisingly high score when the
mults begin to kick in.

Geoff G4FKA

On 6 August 2010 14:19, Mike Pemberton <mike.pemberton at tesco.net> wrote:

> HI,
>
> you don't need much all band capability to do well and have a good time on
> IOTA.
>
> I just have a fairly short "longwire" about 30m long at 8m and a loop of
> about 30m circumference at 6m and 100W.
>
> I got a certificate last year for being 2nd in my section. I had lots of
> fun and though the DX I worked was minimal, the EU island mults soon stack
> up across 5 bands and 2 modes. Not such a good result this year but I still
> enjoyed myself and had lots of QSOs mainly on CW.
>
> With my set-up I can only 'run' for short periods before getting squashed
> and rarely get called by island stations so I have to S & P efficiently to
> pick up the mults. It is all a matter of setting your achievable goal and
> striving to make it. I failed this year by about 50 QSOs but there is always
> next year.
>
> I like Paul's idea on scoring and would support it. It was nice to work him
> on phone this year, for the first time ever!!
>
> 73
>
> Mike G4DDL
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