CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: GM7V
Operator(s): GM4YXI
Station: GM4YXI
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Ellon, AB41
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 156 8 47
80: 657 16 72
40: 423 24 86
20: 907 32 98
15: 1339 29 101
10: 630 26 103
------------------------------
Total: 4112 135 507 Total Score = 5,273,388
Club: Noth of Scotland Contest Group
Comments:
Not been very active in the last few months so was looking forward to this.
Usual last minute long list of antenna work to do in the days prior to the
contest (took a few days holiday!) ?.checking 20/15/10m yagis, fixing 40m
vertical radials, put up 80m vertical, stringing out beverages, reposition 160m
inverted L. Also put up 2nd 40m vertical well away from everything else but, in
retrospect, I never did any 40m on the second radio so that was a waste of time.
ICE 419 filter never did arrive in time (ironically, it was waiting for me when
I got home from work on Monday).
Managed a little sleep on Friday night so I felt reasonably ready for the start,
though the flare and a K index of about 7 on Friday night didn?t really
encourage me.
The start was very tough. I could not make myself heard on 160m, 20m was all but
closed and 80m was a mess. One auroral JA audible on 15m. No transatlantic
signal on 160m all night, no 80m run to W/VE and none of the NA stuff other EU
was working on 40m was audible here. Did eventually get a run on 40m to W/VE
after my sunrise. Saturday morning was not very inspiring. JA lp on 20m was
patchy, NO JA at all on 15m and only just possible to work Zone 17, but not
beyond, on 10m. Mostly worked Eu with some AF and AS mults. Attempts at passing
mults were failing due to propagation. At 1130, my 15m yagi developed high SWR
during torrential static rain. Decision time! This antenna had never so much as
coughed for 5 years?..why now? Stop?lower tower?.gamma match fine but caked in
bird-s..t, which was all wet. I can only guess this was conductive enough when
drenched to provide a low resistance path to mess up the gamma match, since
cleaning it seemed to fix the problem. Tower back up but 160m inv-L is now
knotted in tree in the blowing gale. Back on just after 1330. Possible to run NA
on 20m then 15m then to 10m which was kinda open in a patchy sort of way if I
beamed SW. Late afternoon saw 10m actually improve a bit with a reasonable
90mins of propagation. 20m closed very early and the remainder of the evening
was a bit of a slog.
Propagation seemed a little better on Sunday. Could run 80m to NA for a while
but never heard any of the stuff that I could hear G and GW working on 160m.
Heard VP2E and PT0F on 160 but they CQ?d in my face. 40m was OK around sunrise.
20m lp was still pretty grim come daylight and although 15m was packed with
stations, they were almost all only worth one point! I worked maybe 5 more JAs
on a skewed path beaming due east. At least a few Asian zones were workable
today. 10m never really opened to the west on Sunday so I had to concentrate on
15m where signals were good but the QRM was grim. By Sunday night I could make
virtually nothing on 40m at all and even 80m was dead slow and stop. 20m,
however, filled with auroral signals for at least a few QSOs to finish.
Propagation could have been worse, given the forecasts, but the old attenuator
in the sky certainly had its way.
Highs?40m sunrise openings, including KL7RA
All those guys who moved for mults?thanks
Actually surviving fairly well physically
Lows?...15m yagi failure and the 160m antenna in knots
Trying to find a run frequency on 15m
40m SSB???.
CU in CW with home call.
Keith GM4YXI (GM7V)
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