[UK-CONTEST] gw2op in 21/28 mhz contest

[STEVE JONES]

First time outing for Pembrokeshire Contest group in 21/28mhz contest this weekend, although I have operated and enjoyed the contest as a single op over the last twenty years or so.  The Group is mainly made up of experienced vhf operators, which has done well in its two recent outings in 2011 and 2012 vhf fd and 6m and 4m trophy contests. As a relatively inexperienced vhf contester (appart from 6m) I offered to put on a hf contesting training event at my qth (which is limited but more comfortable than a tent on a Pembrokeshire hill top!).
 
The plan was to put a multi op multi mode entry in so that I could demonstrate how n1mm works in hf contests with cat interface via microham keyer, and win key esm keyboard sending on cw, along with dx cluster spots and bandmaps etc.  We had home broadband wifi access to dx cluster.
 
The planned antenna building (2 ele quad and tribander yagi plus rx antennas) and training weekend in September never happened, due to weather, work, and some neighbour problems (mobile p60 tower in front field was final straw!). I did some diplomacy visits and compromise agreements on the antenna heights etc in the weeks leading up to the contest, which led to the event being still on.
 
Tim g4fjk, and fellow local Nigel gw0irw, joined me for the weekend, which started with some action planning over a drink on Friday evening.  Murphy had arrived earlier in the week, in the form of high swr on the ldf450 feeder and a 1000dxc rotator problem.  The quad had not been rebuilt so it was down to hope that the elderly second hand mosley triband yagi would go back together ok after a rebuild plus an r5 vertical and 10m moxon for rx antennas.  
 
Saturday started with a nice local bacon buttie and tea before the mosley was built, tested, repaired and installed at 45ft on the mobile p60  along with a replacement rotator and some new ldf450 and lmr coax.  The rx antennas went up after lunch, followed up by some testing in the temporary shack (dining room!) which revealed some audio feedback /loop issues. We installed some additional audio switching gear on the ft1000 from vhf fd station which gave some better rx 1 and rx2 and mixing options for both ops; followed by some training in n1mm basics and cw keying using enter send message mode.  The curry banquet was then ordered and collected along with some beer and wine:-)
 
Early start on Sunday morning, with bacon butties again, and then a kickstart on 15m cw with second op on ft1000 second rx on 10m. 10m was very slow to open and 15m ssb was hard going on the run. CW on 15m proved to be the saviour most of the day, and in hindsight we should have done more on cw rather than plodding along on ssb.
 
The last hour was slow but 15m cw came to the rescue again with some nice mults into south america and w6/w7 stations at the end. Chris GM3WOJ was a huge signal on 15m ssb backscatter (congrats on the  big score Chris, under more challenging northerly conditions) and 5b4/g0tsm was a beacon on 10m cw and ssb throughout the day.
 
A nice home brew three bean chilli washed down with red wine, and a final chat about lessons learnt ended an enjoyable day. 6am start this morning to  get the tower down and luffed over to keep the neighbours happy and an early trip home to Devon for Tim.  
 
All in all an enjoyable training exercise for the new contest group, and a good intro to hf contesting for the other two.  Roll on next year and the proposed new multi band contest for this weekend in 2013 - a great warm up for cqww:-)
 
73
 
Steve @GW2OP (GW0GEI)