[UK-CONTEST] IOTA 2011 - G6MC

[Chris G3SJJ]

It was a last minute decision to join the G6MC crowd but I am glad I did. Good fun and hospitality as usual. I love this contest because so many 
people go out and activate islands, and you have to be ready to receive an IOTA reference. A great format. I have many lovely memories from 10 years 
of the GU8D group, firstly on Sark and then on Guernsey.

I think our score is 1732 Qs, 381 Mults and 3.9M points, we were up on mults on previous years but down on overall Qs. The great thing is that this is 
the group's best score over the last few years, so gradually our technique is improving. Andy G3AB joined us before he went off to A45 land, and since 
we both enjoy CW there was a bias towards that mode which may have lowered the Q rate.

15m and 40m were good for us. The 2 el 40m helped to get into some nice mults ahead of others as did the 2 stack 15m yagis. We used N1MM networked 
across 4 computers. Two FT1kMPs plus amps.

I agree on Stewart's comments about operating procedure. I found more stations calling us with 2 letters than in previous years. I also found pile-ups 
were often longer to break because stations were saying / sending their callsigns 2 or 3 times rather than just once.

Apart from seeing all the G6MC again, the highlight for me was Lee's 1R2O unit. Back in the GU8D days John G4DRS and I developed the GU8D SR2O box, 
allowing 2 ops to acces rx and tx on the Mult station. In comparison to the new design ours was simply a couple of small relays and steering diodes. 
Lee's has some electronics and software. It certainly worked extremely well. As well as mult working I am sure it would perform well on Run to double 
the Q rate.

Anyway a great IOTA weekend again!!

73 Chris G3SJJ