[UK-CONTEST] pile ups

[Colin Wilson]

On the subject of pileups, having just completed two weeks as J38CW and J38SW Sharon and we also found ourselves at the target end of  constant huge pile ups the worst I remember being on 15m on our last day.  Generally we found that the Americans were very good and behaved like Gentlemen 99% of the time, the Japanese were very good listeners and only called at the right times, the noise out of Europe however was unbelievable and I found that not all Italians have receivers or at least not tuned to my TX frequency! I lost count of the amount of times we had to tell them to listen and stop calling when we were QRZ a specific call or area.
I found that Northern Europe was the best and to be honest the stronger signals too, LA,OZ,OH,GM,GI, EI, PA, DJ and SM were consistently the stronger signals on all bands but it was the UK stations who generally managed to break the pile ups even the weak ones managed to get through the wall on occasions more by technique than power! I was amazed how often 2E0's got in the log and even one M3! I made one other observation on SSB which was a little weird and maybe the result of the AGC operation? Signals when in the pileup seemed to be weak and sucked into each other and although there maybe hundreds calling at anyone time (and there was), once you could pull out a callsign the signal would be 5/9 or stronger, any explanations? 

Pulling callsigns out of huge pileups can be difficult with out a good RX, we were using an FT857 and at times this was very difficult especially on CW. We have over 3200 Q's in the log so I guess we didn't do too badly for a small holiday (honeymoon)  operation. We had a bit of trouble with the online log which I think due to a very bad internet connection got corrupted a few times when I tried uploading the data files. The hotel next door was the stronger signal and we eventually hooked into it and got onto the internet with a useable signal. The log is now updated on our website if anyone wants to check if their in, this does not include the BERU operation. I will put it up after the closing date for logs.  I will also try to put the logs up on LOTW at some point in the near future but now were packing for Portugal. 

We did manage to work 160m,80,40,20,15,17,and although we could work 24 and 28mhz little to nothing was heard. The LF bands were extremely noisy after dark and very difficult to work anyone who was less than a 5/9 signal and all Q's on those bands were CW. I tried a little PSK but with little luck and only a handful of Q's unfortunately. The best performing antenna was the vertically polorised Delta loop for 40m/15m it left everything standing, very low cost but an amazing antenna and outstanding results for a bit of wire!

Our Q's were 48%EU, 40% NA, 4%SA, 1% AF, 8% AS and 1%OC.

Thanks to everyone who helped us out this time and for all your Q's we much appreciate them. Until our next exciting adventure .....

73 es 88

Colin J38CW es Sharon J38SW
www.sheffield-live.co.uk



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tim Beaumont M0URX 
  To: CDXC at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 10:24 AM
  Subject: [CDXC] KH0UA handling the pile ups


    
  Hi guys,
  I have been listening to KH0UA Yoshiki the young 9 year old boy on 15m
  21.243 at 0830z today in contest.
  This lad is an excellent young operator. He has a pile up that is way beyond
  some people of much senior age and is handling it all like a professional. 

  Took me a while to work him the pile up! I will send him $10 pocket money he
  deserves every cent!

  Kindest Regards, Tim Beaumont MØURX 
  P.O. Box 17 Kenilworth Warwickshire CV8 1SF ENGLAND
  United Radio QSL Management Bureau
  http://www.m0urx.com
  Cell No +44 7976 292980



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