[UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW Report from M6T

Thu Feb 23 20:23:40 PST 2012

Civil aircraft including rotary wing types can generally fly down to 500 ft above ground level.  There are areas where this is not so but it is the lowest allowed generally. All Military a/c are permitted to fly at 200ft + and helicopters down to 50ft for pre declared sections of a planned route.  Pilots are not allowed to always repeat the same section at the lower level, Mum might like it but not all the neighbours do apparently!
If you are worried by the thought of your mast being higher than this, you can inform them.  Contest sights are generally known months in advance so a Notam (Notices to Airmen) can be issued well in advance.

Giles Herbert
G0NXA

> From: olof at rowanhouse.com
> To: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:07:05 +0000
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW Report from M6T
> 
> Well, I didn't make the connection at the time but we do have an image to
> prove it. One of our 40m verticals has taken a near hit and I am making a
> bold attempt to rescue the vertical whilst exposing a broad target as the
> helicopter is approaching for a second attack. I thought it was one of the
> Culdrose-based helicopters but the registration G-M6T should have  alerted
> us to what was going on. See http://m5e.org/poldhu/under-attack.jpg . Photo
> courtesy M0CFW.
> 
> 73 de Olof G0CKV who survived the attack (and so did the antenna)
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Andy Cook, G4PIQ
> Sent: 23 February 2012 20:35
> To: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW Report from M6T
> 
> It did occur to me when I heard about the story, although it came down about
> 25 miles from the contest site so not the same time! 
> 
> They do spend a lot of time flying very low at night with no lights on round
> here though.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Andy, G4PIQ
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tony G4NBS
> Sent: 23 February 2012 19:34
> To: Andy Cook, G4PIQ; uk-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW Report from M6T
> 
> Off topic I know - but is that the same apache that is sitting in a field
> somewhere in Suffolk after hitting the Power Grid Cables I wonder??
> 
> 73
> Tony G4NBS
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Andy Cook, G4PIQ
> Sent: 21 February 2012 08:50
> To: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: [UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW Report from M6T
> 
> 
> Call: M6T
> Operator(s): G4BUO, G4PIQ, G4TSH, M0DXR
> Station: G0KPW
> 
> Class: M/2 HP
> QTH: JO02RF
> Operating Time (hrs): 48
> 
> Summary:
>  Band  QSOs  Mults
> -------------------
>   160:  139    28
>    80:  727    53
>    40:  720    54
>    20: 1333    59
>    15: 1482    59
>    10:  127    35
> -------------------
> Total: 4528   288  Total Score = 3,910,464
> 
> Club:
> 
> Comments:
> 
> Rig : 2 x K3 + Acom 2000 / Alpha 87A
> 
> Ants
> 160m â?" 33m tall T + 580ft Beverage
> 80m â?" 4 square
> 40m â?" 3el wire yagi @ 24m
> 20m - 4el @ 28m
> 15m - 5el @ 28m
> 10m - 5el @ 28m
> 
> There seem to have been two major parts of Europe for this contest - the
> South West (mainly CT, EA, CU etc.), and the rest - with the rest having a
> grading of increasing grimness as you headed further North-East. Looking at
> the multiplier scores out of the South West on 160 & 10 is like looking at a
> different contest to us! Equally I’m glad that we had better 80 & 160
> propagation than OH8X!
> 
> We found 160m poor throughout, with the first night being particularly bad.
> 80m played reasonably well although our QSO total is not that high. 40m was
> best on the first night and it was good to see it open after 80 had closed
> both mornings, however the Saturday and Sunday evenings on 40m were very
> hard work. We felt right out of the propagation.
> 
> 20m & 15m were in decent shape with some great signals out of the West
> coast.
> 
> 10m was disappointing. We had a limited opening on Saturday which started
> skew path and turned direct, but on Sunday the big guns on the East Coast
> were about
> 539 and we just caught W0AIH poking their head over the noise at about 1630.
> I
> heard a few West Coast stations very weakly calling Caribbean / SA stations
> skewed path over South America later that afternoon, but couldn’t hear
> anyone calling CQ or raise anyone with my own CQ calls.
> 
> All the radio equipment ran well, but we had a pile of computer hardware
> failures. While we had spare PCs to hand, the Win-Test registration server
> being down meant that we couldn’t register them. So we had to log on paper
> on one station (right at the peak of the 10m opening so who knows what we
> missed from the RBN) for an hour until we could get the right software build
> and interfaces onto a spare laptop which had an existing valid registration
> key.
> 
> My writing was always bad, but it’s got worse and I’d have a 20% UBN rate
> just from transcription errors if I had to log on paper. We did remark that
> our newest and youngest operator M0DXR (welcome Mark), doesn’t even remember
> paper logging and weâ??d have to teach him how to deal with a manual dupe
> sheet!
> 
> On the Friday, while winding up the towers and setting out antennas, we
> became slightly concerned about the levels to which the competition might be
> taken as an Apache helicopter gunship circled the site...
> 
> Many thanks to all for the QSOs and moves. Special thanks for Bob, G4BAH for
> 
> the use of the station.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Andy, G4PIQ for team M6T
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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