[UK-CONTEST] ARRL 10m M/S GM3W

[Ian White GM3SEK]

We decided to enter the "Mr & Mrs" section, with GM3SEK mostly on CW and 
MM0WNW on SSB, and using the Wigtownshire ARC callsign GM3W. The contest 
was well timed for wind and weather - the antenna had been grounded all 
last week, and after the contest the tower is already luffed over again 
for the next big blow. Unfortunately we also had an invitation for 
Saturday afternoon that couldn't be refused, which wiped out one spell 
of US prime-time.

East is not our best direction so I started Saturday morning on CW, 
getting up to running strength by about 0900. We changed over at 1200 
with 300 in the log, and then Nadine added another 50 on SSB before we 
had to go out... and that was it for Saturday. By the time we got home 
the band was closed.

The plan for Sunday was to work mostly SSB to the east to complement the 
multipliers from the previous day's CW, and then for the two of us to 
work turn-about towards the west in the afternoon. Again I started on CW 
while signals were still building, so it wasn't until about 0900 that 
signals felt strong enough to switch to SSB. The 3el SteppIR really 
proved itself through the middle of the day with the bi-directional mode 
giving us east and west at the same time, with the option to put full 
gain in either direction within a few seconds. However, that run kept me 
so busy that I missed a number of African stations - this is where a 
second antenna would have really paid off. From 1215-1300 I switched 
back to CW, still mostly in bi-directional mode, and picked up a number 
of east-coast American multipliers as well as more Europeans, Asians, 
the occasional VK and a solitary long-path JA. It was very nice to be 
called by XU7ACY in both modes.

By the time Nadine sat down at 1300 the band was well established to the 
west. We were still short of numbers so she ran almost continuously, 
adding over 500 QSOs and hoovering up the majority of W/VE multipliers 
in the process. But then we made a tactical mistake by staying on SSB 
when the W7 multipliers were coming through around 1600. We should have 
realised that they wouldn't be there for long, and made an effort to 
catch those missing multipliers on CW before resuming the run on SSB.

Nadine's run dried up very suddenly at 1715, leaving me to pick up the 
scraps on CW for a further two hours. On a fading band that felt like 
hard work but I did scrape CA and AZ along with at least some of the 
missing mults in the midwest and SA. The panadaptor had been very useful 
throughout the contest (and the waterfall display was very revealing 
about intermod and key clicks) and in the closing couple of hours it was 
invaluable for spotting weak signals and judging which ones would be 
strong enough to call.

The band was still technically 'open' at 1900, but signals on 10m are 
also very much determined by other people's beam directions. Everyone to 
the west of us had long since given up on Europe, so our final QSOs were 
with a few weak W5s who just happened to be beaming our way. However, 
every QSO turned into a struggle to copy our serial number, and handing 
out a GM multiplier wasn't worth the damage we were doing to their 
intended runs of W1-2-3 stations. At 1915 I did the humane thing and 
pulled the switch.

We ended with 1205 QSOs, 196 multipliers and some valuable experience 
for us both. Obviously we'd have done much better if we hadn't missed 
Saturday afternoon, which put too much pressure on us to build up the 
numbers while important multipliers were passing us by. We also need a 
mult antenna! But both of us thoroughly enjoyed the contest and the "Mr 
/ Mrs, CW / SSB" format suits us very well, so we're already making 
plans for next year.


Club/Team : GM DX
Band  Mode   QSOs    Pts    Mlt
28   CW     491    1964    95
28   USB    714    1428   101
Total      1205    3392   196

Score : 664,832

Rig : K3, SPE-1K

Antennas : 3el SteppIR, 45ft



-- 

73 from Ian GM3SEK
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek