[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW - GW0ETF SO40 LP

[Stewart Rolfe]

Hi cqww-ers,

Thought I'd share my 3830 comments here in the hope of catalysing same from other Gs; always good to pass a few minutes with a cup of coffee reading them...

>>>>> Excellent weekend!

The first reasonably serious operation as single op from my home location. Decided on 40m LP because there was a beatable GW record, my amp's not working at the moment and I was interested to know how long I could go without sleep and still function. 

Put up a single full sized 1/4 wave vertical on a 12m fibreglass Spiderpole with 2 elevated radials at about 2m (above sheep height!) in the neighbouring field. Got off to a promising start and was pleased that my fears of not being able to run using 100w and a simple antenna were unfounded, spending the whole contest S&Ping would have driven me nuts; I was always able to find a spot to get a successful run going the whole time and it was great fun.

Disaster very nearly struck 3 hours in when I lost output power on the K3. In desperation I checked the Elecraft reflector archives and that led me to  discover a faulty internal interconnecting cable; very luckily I had a spare (tmp) cable and fixed the problem else I would have been gutted to say the least!

Conditions seemed good throughout, though on Saturday I, and other Eu, were calling S9 JAs that just continued CQing in my face while on Sunday they, and some other desirable zones eg 1,21,26,39, called *me* while running; pile-ups were a definite struggle with 100w and simple antenna and were rarely broken. Sunday afternoon here went very quiet but then really picked up in the final 5 or 6 hours to a hectic finale; makes you realise just how many contesters inhabit this planet! For sleep, I had an hour nap on Saturday and two and a half hours in bed on Sunday from about 0100 with just the customary nodding off at the dial once. I'd made sure of getting plenty of sleep through the week to build up some 'credit' (not sure if that works..) and don't have kids around now to upset that. Pleasantly surprised how well I did though I do feel like c**p today.  <<<<<<<<<<

Last but not least thanks to all the Gs who worked me.

73,

Stewart, GW0ETF