[UK-CONTEST] STEW PERRY TOPBAND CONTEST - G3BJ

[Don Beattie]

Not a particularly impressive contest this year, thanks to some very
sub-average conditions. The whole contest was quite a struggle here. The
final QSO total relies heavily on European and Eastern Russia, with only a
handful of JAs, one VK6, a CE1 and W's/VE's in reasonable quantity, but
nowhere near the numbers of past years.

 

Most frustrating gotaway was BW2/KU1CW who was good copy just after dark,
but I could not attract his attention.

 

Band seemed not only poor from a propagation point of view, but quite noisy
as well, which added to the frustrations of copying the weaker stations.

 

But I still maintain that this is a  great contest - the use of just the
grid square makes for some real challenges - especially when conditions are
poor.

Some confusion from the 9A contest running at the same time, but manageable.

 

One or two terrible signals, using a lot more than their fair share of
spectrum, which is particularly sad on 160, with DX signals being generally
weak.

 

Thanks to all for the QSOs. It will be interesting to see how the scores
come out. 

 

For the record, just 2008 points from 363 scoring QSOs over 14 hours. Best
DX was VK6GX, followed by CE1/K7CA. I think my worst effort in the SP
contest ever.

 

73

 

Don, G3BJ