[UK-CONTEST] CQ WPX CW G3XTT HP Assisted

[Don Field]

As others have been very good at recording their WPX CW experiences, I
guess I should follow suit! I decided to have a half serious bash at
single-op assisted, mainly to put some QSOs in the log (I decided this year
I wanted to make 20k QSOs from home for the first time, just for the heck
of it) and to get some band slots for the G3WGV CW table. This would mean I
would be spending time DXing, which isn’t a good strategy for this contest
of course, where a G0 is as good as a VK9 as a prefix (I worked the latter
but not the former!).  I also find it hard to do serious contests efforts
from home these days as there are invariably too many domestic
interruptions. This weekend was typical – having staked my claim for the
contest, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter decided to come for tea on
Sunday! So my total operating time was well under the allowed 36 hours
(around 30 hours, according to N1MM).


So all that was by way of an excuse for why Olaf, with low power and wires,
has left me in his wake with my high power and Yagi. Hats off to him for a
great effort. Unlike him, I didn't use RBN (I need to work on getting the
integration sorted), so was mainly watching Cluster spots when I wasn't
running or S&P.


Conditions were interesting – I felt Sunday was better than Saturday,
particularly on 10m where Sunday was marked by a great mix of F2 and
Sporadic E, with huge European signals then, in among, nice ones like A5A
coming in at much lower strength. 20m was open round the clock so, the
first night, I didn’t know whether to be working 1 and 3 pointers on 20m,
or 6 and 2 pointers on 80 and 40 – it all depended on the relative mix of
EU and non-EU contacts. Whoever said contesting was just a fast exchange of
signal report and serial hasn’t battled with these on-the-run tactical
decisions! And, unlike Mike G3WPH/G3P, with his vertical, those of us with
Yagis were forever wondering which direction in which to beam. Often JA and
US would be workable at the same time, but the beam headings are separated
by about 100 degrees which is about as bad as it can get – even being able
to reverse my SteppIR in a matter of seconds wasn’t always an answer.


As for numbers, here are the QSOs totals:


Band          QSOs

1.8           23

3.5           236

7             363

14            581

21            577

28            229


Total         2009


Claimed score:  3,977,870


Station: FT-5000D, Acom, SteppIR at 60ft, sloper for 40, inv-vee for 80,
inv-L for 160.


Don G3XTT