[UK-CONTEST] RSGB 1st 1.8 MHz Contest

[Chris G3SJJ]

Good to work you, Tom and likewise some other old friends!  I thought both UK and mainland Eu activity was well down. I agree the K3 handles close in 
performance extremely well, but as yet I have not experimented with diversity, which is silly because I am sure I could gain a few Qs! My noise level 
was relatively low at about s7 but I know I missed a few weak ones. I finished at 0030 after just Qs in that half hour. (At least the Time Police 
couldn't get me!!) Just one K3 and VE1ZZ of course. 146 QSOs. My dipole at 57ft just isn't competitive (I write that every year!!)

Missing mainland Eu countries included CT, EA, HA, HB, OM, ON, YL, YO, YU and Z3. That is quite a list considering the contest is suppose to be open 
now. The PACC contest is supporting this event, without it there would be no point in continuing it. I don't think adding SSB has helped, it just 
syphons off potential activity and changes the focus of a long established RSGB event.

After all that it was nice to get on the band and make some Qs!!

Chris G3SJJ



On 12/02/2012 11:14, Tom Boucher wrote:
> Nice to work some old friends last night although G activity seemed low and the last couple of hours were a little painful. 160 QSOs with at least one dupe which was my logging error (sorry Terry!) Nice quiet channel for almost all of the contest and noticeably few keying clicks on the band - perhaps all those FT1000s have now been modified. The K3 once again showed its superb close-in performance and is just great in split Rx or diversity modes. My 85 ft high inverted 'L' is probably not the best transmitting antenna for a UK contest and I would probably do better with a horizontal dipole - next time perhaps.
>
> Shack was minus 2 degrees C so as well as the amp, had the fan fire running full belt. Unfortunately tripped the mains breaker part way through so had to reduce power somewhat (the fire, not the amp!)
>
> Conditions for DX were not particularly good although the band was open to North America with some weak signals. VE1ZZ called me 5 minutes into the contest - Jack must have been in full daylight at that time. K2ZM, N2FQ and N4RJ were the others with WD5R as my last Q. To the east UA9XF was a good signal but no JAs heard.
>
> 73
> Tom G3OLB
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