[UK-CONTEST] CQ WW CW GM4AFF SOSB 160 LP

[Stewart GM4AFF]

I accidentally destroyed my K3 front end a few days before the contest, so
was left to do it with my trusty old FT1000mp. I had originally planned to
do SOSB 160m QRP, but as it's so difficult to measure very low power values
on the FT1000mp I decided to do an SOSB 160m LP entry instead. I erected an
experimental 80/160m vertical which worked well, and left up my 160m dipole,
so I had a selection of two transmit antennas (vertical and horizontal), two
beverages (NW/SE) and two ewes (NE/SW). There was a lot of interaction
between the TX antennas, but I have to live with that. (That's how I blew up
the K3.)
Things went well on the first night, with exactly 500 Q's in the log. I was
disappointed to only get G? from PJ2T, but he was covered in US stations and
it's a long way for 100 watts. I also called HZ1FI to no avail. The wind
started to increase on Saturday evening, and by 2300 it was horrendous. I
had worked around 250 stations since sunset, but I knew it couldn't last,
and at 2308 the dipole broke and my 160m vertical went hi SWR around the
same time. I wasn't about to investigate, so decided to call it a night and
got some sleep. Next morning I investigated. Thankfully the wind had done
little damage, which I found hard to believe. The repair to the 160m dipole
balun required a soldering iron in the middle of the field so I'd have had
problems fixing it single-handed in the dark. I started again at sunset on
Sunday and worked through until the end. I was very pleased when A92IO asked
if my frequency was occupied, so I called him, he didn't hear me and
proceeded to call CQ in my face. I decided that I was best to continue doing
what I was doing so also called CQ. That way I might be able to stave off
the inevitable frequency fight, which he would have won, and I would have
been drowned amongst the callers. In the end he moved off quickly. 160m LP
from GM is a slow plod on day 2, and there's little to be gained from
hunting for mults, because even if you find one, he won't hear an LP GM if
he's DX, buried under layers of frenetic Eu robots. Then you've lost your
run frequency, which with 100 watts is hard enough to keep clear anyway
(isn't it 9A1A...?). In spite of this I made a few trawls up the band, and
occasionally caught something interesting. I never did work GJ, GU, HB0 or
Shetland, which was disappointing.
Operating has 'gotten worser' than what it was. I see a few comments on 3830
about stations failing to ID. I was going to mention this anyway, before I
saw this trend. It looks like the default for a QSO ending now is TU, and if
another station fails to call, then call CQ. This is not as it was, and is
not helping anyone. It probably isn't even helping the idiots doing it, even
though they may think their rate is perceived as being higher. Sadly, this
type of operating means that a station can go for minutes without an ID. I
have commented on this before, with regard to the IOTA contest, but I could
see (even on 160m) that this was a big issue, and will destroy contesting as
we know it. It's happening because most people calling the non-ID'er know,
or think they know, the station's callsign, presumably gleaned from the
cluster. I don't have a problem with the cluster myself, per se. However,
the cluster is finally impacting the way we actually communicate. So next,
we'll either have to have a rule that forces ID'ing, or we'll all have to
use the cluster. Just wait and see if I'm wrong...



Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries

------------------------------

  160:  928    11       63

   80:    0     0        0

   40:    0     0        0

   20:    0     0        0

   15:    0     0        0

   10:    0     0        0

------------------------------

Total:  928    11       63  Total Score = 76,516

 

.and 27 dupes. How is that possible?!

 

73

Stewart

GM4AFF