[UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW - GW0ETF SO40 LP

[Stewart Rolfe]

Sorry - forgot the numbers....

Qso       1492
DXCC        92
Zones       25
Score     275,535

--- On Mon, 29/11/10, Stewart Rolfe <gw0etf at btinternet.com> wrote:

> From: Stewart Rolfe <gw0etf at btinternet.com>
> Subject: [UK-CONTEST] CQWW CW - GW0ETF SO40 LP
> To: "UK-Contest" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Date: Monday, 29 November, 2010, 19:49
> 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
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