[UK-CONTEST] IOTA 2011

[mm0bqi]

Here here, hard work but great fun.

Still need to do a proper write up for the contest but a couple of things
have come out in the wash so far.
Prep time is never enough to get the whole station dismantled packed up and
transported 250 miles.
Time on the island is never enough.  Even with very simple antennas,
vertical dipoles and groundplanes on fibreglass fishing poles, the amount of
trudging about through the midge infested heather is huge! Once it is all
done and you are sitting back in your tent on your idyllic little island you
are knackered,  must be old age I could only manage 16 hours this year!
Rough timetable.
Promise yourself throughout the year you will perfect your SO2R abilities
and enter more contests........
Do all the prep work and packing  in the days before departure as there is
no where in the house to store all the gear, all whilst working 10 hour
days.
Drive 1000 miles the two days before leaving.
Leave at 0330 on the Thursday morning and drive 250 miles to catch the boat
at 0930
Move all the kit from the basement to the house, from the house to the car,
from the car to the jetty, load the boat from the jetty, unload to
the island pier, load on to the trailer, unload at the operating site. I
recon a minimum of 600lbs of kit moved seven times.
Pitch the tent
Run out 500m of cable or should that be stumble out?
Erect five aerials on uneven boggy ground
Setup the station
Enjoy yourself and call CQ contest with your 100w into a wall of high power
fixed stations hundreds of miles from the sea who run hundreds of Qs an
hour, why can't anybody hear me.............must be the location it's
rubbish!!
Yes IOTA for me is the best contest in the world by far, but need to rethink
the strategy for next year and make sure I can operate for the full 24
hours.  It's a long way to travel to fall asleep at the mic!
 Lots more to come on the contest and how the vertical dipoles performed.
For now its off to start the adjudication process, should be done by
October!
73
Jim, MM0BQI
GM1J from the Summer Isles EU92. (Already booked for next year)







On 2 August 2011 10:10, GORDON BROWN <gordonbrowns at virginmedia.com> wrote:

> Yes Bernie it is hard work with a small dipole in the loft and 10 Watts but
> it is fun - most contests are.
> As one ticks off the years on the calendar of life it gets harder and
> harder
> to keep going for even 24 hours.  In my youth I did 48 hours during CQWW
> etc. but those days have slipped away.  I did manage almost 24 hours but
> once I reached my 700 QSO target I gave up.
> Two days later I have almost recovered.
> It was FUN FUN and well worth the effort.
>
> Gordon G1N
>
>
> On 31 July 2011 19:28, Bernie McIntosh (GM4WZG) <gm4wzg at kars.org.uk>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > Operated from home this weekend. Give or take some time for meals, and an
> > overnight pause for some sleep (I know, I'll never be a proper hard core
> > contester will I ?) I tried to do the full 24 hours.  Generally poor
> condx
> > and I thought there was less participation than in recent years. Some
> more
> > distant islands were workable though from a simple station like mine and
> I
> > was pleased overall with the multiplier count considering that I was 100w
> > with a stealth wire antenna. In fact it's a good demonstration of what
> can
> > be done with CW from a suburban house with no real scope for proper
> > antennas, particularly for the lower bands.  In fact IOTA is a great
> > contest
> > for those with simple stations because its more about hunting around for
> > the
> > mults than just using a big station to run.
> >
> >
> > Grateful thanks to all those island activators who make this event
> > possible.
> > Thanks also of course to the organisers/adjudicators.
> >
> > Its great to be a fifteen point station even in the common EU-005.
> > Definitely helps in getting interest, often from other 15 point stations.
> >
> > Unchecked score for the CW 24 hour single op assisted low power section
> is
> > below.
> >
> >  Band    QSOs    Pts  IOTA
> >   3.5     100     864   42
> >     7     180    1224   51
> >    14     258    1650   65
> >    21      44     540   33
> >    28      26     210   11
> >  Total     608    4488  202
> > Score: 906,576
> >
> >
> > Bernie
> > GM4WZG
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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