Hello one and all,
How pleasant it is to have the SFI a little higher! OK, it needs to go
WAAAAYYY higher yet, but it seems to be a start!
I had intended to make a real go at this contest, and operate for as many
hours as I could, but a couple of household chores just had to be done, and
I did not get to start until after lunch on Saturday.
The afternoon was great, with a few nice runs going, but by dusk, 20m had
died here, and the lower bands were extremely noisy.
It was great to see W6/7 and VE6/7 once again on 20m, and all had signals
like EU stations. Dick KS0M was a nice signal, and a pleasure to work once
more. And what a pleasure to get called by VE6YR too! Usually, I call him,
but this time he found me!
The plan was to be up and in the shack by 0500UTC on Sunday morning, and
putting a few W call area mults in the log on 80 and 40. Great idea, but I
slept through till about 0615UTC, by which time it was light here. So, no
W's on 80m, but I was called by W1BV on 40m at 0723UTC, which is way after
sunrise.
Got on to 20m by about 0740UTC, and worked a few JA mults, but 20m wasn't
quite playing ball. Had a look at 15m, and was amazed to work loads of JA
stations.
Some odd propagation on 20m too, as I worked G3SNU and MW0CRI there, which
is most unusual.
By around 1800UTC, 20m had died, and it was galling to see so many spots for
mults on 15m during the afternoon, when the band was totally quiet here. I
was also annoyed that K4M was being spotted on 10.140MHz, but I had no copy
whatsoever. All I could hear were the PSK stations and a couple of
"ditters".
I ended up calling it a day at 1843UTC on Sunday, as I had the tea to cook,
and after that, the phone didn't stop ringing. Loads of relatives all
phoning to see how things were! By the time tea was finished, and relatives
had been satisfied, I was too tired to bother going back to the shack.
Comparing my efforts this year to previous years, the lack of mults on 40/80
and 15m were to blame for the poor score.
Interesting to see so many new calls on the bands. A few seemed to have
problems with macros, either left over from CQWW, or they didn't read the
rules! W2MF sent me 05 05, but I never got a reply to my request for AGE, so
he wasn't logged.
The cluster seemed to cause some hassle too. There were way too many spots
for "DX", only to find the very call that spotted the DX in that frequency.
I also saw my call spotted on 20m, which was wrong, as I was S&P at the
time. Not good practice!
Also amusing were the few calls that asked for AGE AGN when they got 00 or
99! READ THE RULES is all I can say.
During my CQ sessions, there were quite a few that would not listen, and
called right over an exchange, meaning repeats had to be asked for, and
still they call! At one point, I had a UT station call me, during an
exchange, and he called again during the repeat, and when I finally called
him, he asked me to QSY to 15m for a mult for him! What is it with some
folk?
And the last gripe is about those stations that come and work me, then park
themselves about 100Hz up or down from me, then call CQ with 1kW. I suspect
they think that stuff coming to work me will then move on to them, but I am
not sure that is a good move. It mostly means I have to QSY as I just can't
compete with the power. And then there are just a few that work me, then
decide to work any DX that calls me, effectively bouncing me off the
frequency. Again, I can't compete with the power.
Oh well, it's all good fun, isn't it!
Here is my claimed score:
QSOs Points DX: Call Areas
80m: 19 38 15 0
40m: 83 172 30 2
20m: 222 536 38 20
15m: 56 136 13 10
10m: 0 0 0 0
Total: 380 882
Total multipliers: 128
Claimed Score: 112896
And here is a breakdown of the bands:
80m Summary
Countries
DL F G HB I OH OK ON OZ PA
S5 SP UR YL Z3
Call Areas NONE!
40m Summary
Countries
4L 9A DL EA EU F GM HA HB I
IS LA OE OH OK OM ON OZ PA S5
SM SP UA UA9 UN UR YL YO YU Z3
Call Areas
K1
VK3
20m Summary
Countries
4L 5B 9A CN DL E7 EA ES EU EX
G GW HA HS I LA LY LZ OE OH
OK OM OZ PA S5 SM SP TF UA UA9
UN UR YB YL YO YU Z3 ZC4
Call Areas
K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9
VK4
VE1 VE2 VE3 VE6 VE7 VE9
JA1 JA3 JA8
15m Summary
Countries
4X ER EU I IS LA OH UA UA9 UN
UR YU ZC4
Call Areas
K3 K4 K5
JA1 JA3 JA4 JA5 JA6 JA7 JA9
Thanks to all for the fun. My log is already on LoTW, but - as usual - paper
cards are always welcomed.
73 all, and see you in the next one!
Phil GU0SUP
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