Hi all,
Despite being a committed (my XYL says I SHOULD be!) RTTY contester, I
couldn't summon the desire to operate in this one.
There seemed to be a distinct lack of anything promoting this contest -
either via email, or the various DX bulletins, and after being in
Friedrichshafen one weekend, and then playing in the very enjoyable DL-DX
contest, a third weekend devoted to a RTTY contest seemed a bit much.
However, the weather wasn't good here, so I went to the shack just to see
what was around. Sometime around 1500UTC, the bands were devoid of any
contest-style QSO's, and I could only find two RTTY QSO's taking place, both
of which were exchanging names, QTH, RTTY gear etc, so I wasn't
disappointed.
On the other hand, the CW end of the bands were full of signals, and as it
was the IARU contest, I fired up Writelog, and had a little play.
Patrick F6IRF said that conditions were not good. Hhhmmm! Not sure I agree -
at least as far as the CW was concerned, as 10m was WIDE open to EU and
occasionally to the US.
I was only "playing", so just wandered around the bands, seeing what was
about. Judging from the number of contacts with HQ stations, I would say
there was the reason for the lack of activity on RTTY! Most of these
stations were being run by RTTY contesters! Some, such as HG0HQ sent HI PHIL
DE TIBOR HG4I, and there were a number of single ops that are most usually
found on RTTY too.
I also heard a few being worked, such as K4WW and VE9DX, so maybe this new
UK-DX RTTY contest needs to find a decent weekend for the contest?
Overall, I would have to say that conditions seemed good, considering the
state of the cycle. Working 9Y4ZC on my inverted L for 40m seemed quite
pleasing, although I didn't manage to get V44NK on 40. 10m was open, and
there were plenty of stations to work, although no RTTY signals were heard!
Now I am looking forward to SARTG, and I am hoping it will be a bit warmer
by then! Last week, we had the wettest day since records began, and it was
also one of the windiest days in a while.
I will also be part of the GU8D IOTA team so do look for us on the bands!
(IOTA is EU-114).
73 for now
Phil GU0SUP
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