Hi all,
Well, after seeing a few comments about me not CQ'ing, I thought I should
make a comment!
Some of you must realise that I have a "little pistol" station here, with
poor antennas, and they do not make much impression on the bands when I call
CQ.
However, I did spend about one third of my active time in the BARTG Sprint
doing
CQ, although not that successfully! It doesn't help when one of the European
"big guns" works me, then sits about 500Hz away and calls CQ. That just
swamps my signal, and I tend to move away. I also got blasted by Pactor
stations on numerous occasions as well, plus the odd MFSK signal that just
started up without warning!
If you were watching me S&P, then I guess you were S&P as well, which
doesn't make it easy for us to work!
Conditions were strange here, and I wasn't hearing the usual DL/IK/SP/UA
stations on 20 until the last hours of the contest.
I did try 40m during the Saturday evening, but the band was in poor shape,
and although there were some strong signals, they weren't all hearing me.
Oddly, I worked May WA1EHK before 2100UTC much easier than an SP6 station I
tried calling!
There is also the fact that I want to work the mults, and for me, that
generally means doing S&P. I do call CQ, but it is when I choose, and on the
bands that are most likely to gain me points from mults.
In a contest such as the BARTG Sprint, where a mult only counts once, I have
to balance CQ'ing with the need for mults.
Over this weekend, I spent the last 90 minutes or so calling CQ on 20m, and
ended up with a very unruly pile-up. At one point, I had half a dozen folk
all calling me one after another, over and over again. Trying to send an
exchange to one call caused the others to call again, and again!
The result was that I was only logging a call once in each two to three
minutes, which ain't good.
I also attracted lots of "UR 599 001 PLS QSL ROUTE" which I accept as part
of the fun, but wonder why they insist on this in a pile-up!
I also find it difficult to get through the EU pile and hear the DX that -
on occasions - does try and call me.
You may also be interested to note that I was NOT the only GU participating
in this contest! MU3EFB was active on the Sunday, and was calling CQ on 20m
and 15m for long periods.
MU0FBO was also around on Saturday afternoon, as was GU0GUX.
Generally, I will try and work all I can hear, and if I miss you, then I
apologise.
73 to all, and see you in the FMRE contest this coming weekend!
Phil GU0SUP
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