[UK-CONTEST] (no subject)

[G3ZQH]

Call: G3ZQH
Class: SOAB(TS) LP
QTH: Nottingham
Operating Time (hrs): 32

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:   28
   80:  115
   40:  211
   20:  444
   15:  147
   10:    1
------------
Total:  946  Prefixes = 551  Total Score = 1,077,205

Club: Chiltern DX Club

FT1000MP 100W, Inverted L for 160/80/40m and 44' doublet for 20/15/10m.


Enjoyable contest for my low power and wire antennas and a nice contrast to
the much busier CQWW with its very standardised zone exchanges- at least you
have to send/receive a serial number ion this one! Just missed my 1000 QSOs
target but had the bonus of reaching 1m claimed points for the first time. I
found the low bands tough going and very hard to keep up a good rate with
little chance of finding a run frequency. Originally I planned to focus on
40/80m because there are more points/QSO available, but with only low rates
achievable in practice I ended up doing a lot more on 15/20m (and these
bands were much more fun...). 

On 20m I found the best technique was to tune up the band picking up S&P
QSOs and to try my luck by CQing in any gaps between the big guns that I
came upon. This worked out well and I managed several medium length runs
(10s) and even to keep one run frequency for nearly an hour with 88 QSOs-
absolutely a record for me using low power- which kept the rate up.

On 15m (great to find it wide open...) the skip made life a lot easier, with
much reduced EU QRM. Seemed to be an endless supply of Asiatic Russians
(good for 3 rather than 1 point in WPX rules) on 15/20m- pleased to note
that my doublet worked well in this direction/far east. Lots of Latin
Americans on 15 m, but only managed to work the strongest of these because
of S5 local electrical noise across the band. 20m very lively with NA/SA S9+
openings late into the evening. Only 1 QSO on 10m- a new band slot for me
JY5. But with no dx cluster I found it hard to keep checking on 10m, so
probably missed some openings.  

Now, I just need tweak my strategy to crack that 1000 QSO barrier- not as
easy as it might seem with low power and no beam. 

Dave, G3ZQH