[UK-CONTEST] CQWW - CW 2011

[brian coyne]

Below is my 3830 report. From a  perspective of hearing and working UK I really struggled. 
I can say I didn't hear a single strong signal from there.. GD, GJ not heard at all, only 1 GW & GU, 2 from GI,  3 GM's and no Nigel!.  Maybe those strong gales were blowing your signals away to the north east!
 
Call: C4Z
Operator(s): 5B4AIZ
Station: 5B4AIZ

Class: SOSB/10 LP
QTH: Mazotos
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10: 1767    36      119
------------------------------
Total: 1767    36      119  Total Score = 702,150

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Comments:

After 2 previous  years of being trampled into the dust on 15 mtrs by big
hitters it was pure joy to get space on 10mtrs and being able to run. That sure
reflected in the performance, in fact I was able to hold my qrg for hours at a
time (at the bottom end too) and leave at a time of my own choosing rather than
being 'bumped' off it. Given room little pistols can rule OK. 

This contest was fun, fun, fun, all the way. I had noticed the SFI index
falling during the previous days and feared the worst but there was still
enough left in it to give us a thrilling time with worldwide coverage. Some of
the paths I wkd a week previously on the band were not there but there were
some oddities where guys popped up in the middle of their nightime, a JA at
1350z, a 9M6 at 1430z. Saturday evening at 1700z, a couple of hours after band
closure, east coast  NA coming in over south pole whilst being inaudible on the
short path, they were weak sigs but q5 and  would have been workable by an HP
stn here. Both mornings the band opened up around 0400z and PY & LU were among
the first callers. These lp sigs are often heard but this year the duration was
remarkeable as I was getting calls all day long only they switched to sp around
noon. Those guys must get 24 hour propagation, little wonder they consistantly
top the 10/15m listings. 

Few complaints, still some poor quality over driven eqp't and the non ID'ers
irritation (mainly Carrib and African travellers,) but they didn't spoil my
party, I had a ball.

There was some kind of disturbance on Sunday morning. At one moment there would
be a crowd of callers and running 3/4 per minute, the next moment they were all
gone, there would be only one contact in the next minute then back to a crowd
again it was strange and also sigs were loud then weak, but copiable, by turn.
I had an enormous pile of JA at one stage in this period when the sigs were
multi path making copy difficult and my rate dropped from around 150 to under
100, but with a few hundred JA's in the log I can hardly complain when I read
that some west EU  and parts of NA did not get much of an opening to JA.

Missed zones were the usual suspects, zones 1 & 10 were never heard (HC8N,
please sort out that licence!), couldn't break zone 6 and as for zone 3 our
sunset is just too early for this band I did hear a couple of very weak ones so
maybe P33W or P3J made it from this island.

Highlights - being called by T6 & 9N7 for a couple of uniques whose earlier
piles I didn't break. Being heard by ZK2V who was really at esp level (good
ears Chris). Working my friend Gab, SU/HA3JB, in Cairo, well within this band
skip zone, he was running NA but heard my backscatter, I was lucky to catch a
lull in his pile, - we lose many but do win some.

If the next 3/4 years can maintain at least these s/s levels we can look
forward to some more great times.

Eqp't - TS570 - 100W. 3 Ele Triband Yagi up 15mtrs. Logging with 'SD'.

73 Brian 5B4AIZ. (C4Z).