[UK-CONTEST] 21/28 Contest - M0VSQ

[G0HVQ]

Our fledgling contest group decided to give this one a go in the Open
section, mixed mode: K3, Acom 1000 and tribander, operating from my QTH (in
the garage!).

 

The old adage about good preparation certainly paid off. We setup the aerial
on Sat but it just wouldn't tune, and seemed to be defying the laws of
physics: looks like driven element trap problems. Fortunately I had some
spare bits and we managed to cobble one good antenna out of two bad ones.
Fired it up on 15m and heard strong West Coast signals straight away, and
much stronger than on my HF Vert, so antenna was working. Anyone who's
thought about putting a Tribander up but not bothered because they can't get
decent height, think again: this was up at 25ft and worked very well on 15m
and 10m over the weekend, although 20m would have been compromised with it
being so low - but it was 21/28, so that didn't matter.

 

Onto the contest. I did a single band 10m low-power entry for CQWW RTTY last
weekend with some great West Coast runs, even got called by a KH6, all with
just the 100W. What a difference a week makes. Condx were pretty dire,
although there seemed to be some fleeting openings to most parts of the
globe on 15m. 10m was a different matter, and just plain hard work - who'd
think we're at or near solar max? It was classic "just about open" scenario,
with the Eastern Med and Middle East stations and beacons coming in but very
little else. Didn't even get much of the usual evening TEP down to South
Amercia: I hear LU/PY almost every night on 10m from here, but even that
path was a struggle and unreliable.

 

By mid-afternoon the rate was very low and we went a whole hour without a
QSO. I'm glad we stuck with it though, as loads of W6s suddenly appeared on
15m at the end, when the California QSO party started up, and even a few W7s
called into our CQs: the West Coast path seemed much more reliable than East
Coast / Mid-West this time.

 

Total 227 QSOs with a few dupes and Gs. A few stations called in but refused
to give us a serial no, so we logged "000" - not sure if these QSOs will
count? Iain M0PCB was the CW king and this seemed to be where the action was
at, phone was very slow in comparison. Think we all had a good time (apart
from various ailments) and will be back for more.

 

73

Darrell G0HVQ

Vulture Squadron Contest Group M0VSQ 

http://www.m0vsq.co.uk/