[WWYC] IARU G0MTN

[Lee Volante]

Hi all,

After a 3 month absence I'm contesting again.   In the interim I've finally
got my own place, and managed to get a few antennas together, and after a
worrying start with TVI to a neighbour with 500 mW of 145 MHz FM, am now QRV
again.

IARU HF Championship

G0MTN - Mixed Mode
Radio:  TS850 (100w)
Antennas:  132 foot windom @ 8m,  HF6V

Score:  646024

QSOs:
10       81
15      258
20      547
40     154
80      79
160    10
Total    1129

This was the first time I've operated as a single op 24 hours around the
clock and I didn't find it too bad.    After a very late start getting out
of bed on Saturday, I was really surprised how quickly the afternoon and
evening went.    I took around 15 minutes off for food / coffee breaks etc.
but stayed at the radio for the rest.   A welcome boost to have the light
returning at 4am too (and for once not be stuck in a cellar) :-)     A
couple of hours sleep afterwards in the afternoon and I've been mostly
functional at work today, although I am worried at the prospect of true 48
hour contests.   I also found it really worthwhile to stand up and operate
to stretch legs and try to keep focus !      It's amazing how contesting
increases your appetite for chocolate biscuits, and chocolate muffins will
be a new regular at G0MTN from now on.

Anyway, I digress.    Last year I operated for about 16 hours from my old
place with my old battered HF6V and a 3.5 MHz dipole and made around 500 Qs
/ 200k+ pts.    The year before I operated for even less time from my local
club, but with good conditions on the high bands and a yagi to play with I
had good rates and a reasonable score.   No real target for me, save to beat
last years score,  drive test the new antennas (and nearby TV's) and stay
awake.    Conditions this time were not as good on the high bands,  it
generally seemed like a steady plod although I've not got a great frame of
reference with the new station.    I also remember turning the freezer off
at about 3am in case it was the source of a funny noise on 80m !

I could run on 20m and 40m CW but that was about it, everything else was
S+P.   SSB was quite noisy a lot of the time apart from the HQ stations
which started to become annoying by their omnipresence at the end !  CW to
SSB QSO ratio was 2:1.    Band/mode changes:  125  (good or bad?).   I
maintained a pretty steady hourly rate of 50 for the whole contest, and for
100w and a wire antenna I was quite pleased, but I think I'm going to need
a beam and an amp to get anywhere near the pace of some of the
posted scores.

Nice to see a fair few familiar calls from near and far say hello.   Well
done on your scores.  Next stop IOTA.....

Lee G0MTN





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