Hi all,
I hope most of you excaped the nasty weather at the start of the contest!
On Friday, we were forecast to get wind gusts up to 70MPH, as well as some
very heavy rain. As November is our "windy" month, it isn't unusual, but I
think the weathermen underestimated the nastiness of the storm passing
through!
It started late on Friday evening, and was gusting to about 60MPH, and the
rain was very heavy too. I did try the radio around 2300UTC that evening,
and all I could hear was static from the rain.
I had hoped that it would have passed by the early hours of Saturday, but it
didn't, and it steadily got worse during the morning.
At one point, I really thought the mast holding up my dipole and inverted L
was going to break, but amazingly, it didn't. But, it did get trapped around
a tree, and some garden fencing, so I had to brave the wind and rain to try
and sort it all out.
By around 1200UTC, the wind had dropped sufficiently for the antennas to
look safe, and the rain had stopped, and the sun was starting to creep
through the black clouds.
OK, so starting late was a pain, but these things happen.
The afternoon went reasonably well, although I just could not get a run
going. Still, there was plenty to work, and some nice signals coming out of
the west coast, so no real problem.
Around 1800UTC, the rain started again, and I had to quit as I just could
not hear a thing.
I've never heard rain static at this level before, and was a little worried
that it was a problem with water ingress into the coax, but as it was
working before, I put that idea out of my head!
As I was forced to stop, I decided to have tea, and then go back afterwards,
but the rain just did not stop. It was that bad on occasions that you could
not see the ground from all the splashing. I estimate it was bouncing up
around 6 - 9 inches, and it carried on for several hours.
I was really getting annoyed, as I wanted to be in there, swapping QTC's
like crazy, but conditions just wouldn't allow it.
Sunday morning was a whole different story! I woke up early-ish to no wind,
no cloud, and even a little hint of clear skies.
I was later than planned (due to one too many beers the previous evening!!)
but it was still before dawn.
80m was almost dead, with only a few EU mults worked, so it was on to 40m.
By this time, it was getting quite light, and it looked as though 40m would
only yeild EU mults. But, U was pleasantly surprised to work KJ4EEW, who was
the only W signal I could hear on the band.
By 0800 I was on 20m, but no JA opening here, or maybe they were all in the
JIDX contest? Nice to work ZM2B on 20m as it is a while since I logged a ZL
station in a contest.
The W6/7 and VE7's were out in force, but it was quite late on Sunday before
I bagged a VE6. Also, I had to wait ages for a W8 on 20m, although I did
work one on 15m.
It was good to work Dick KS0M again, as well as AK0A, and a few other such
calls.
And what a blast to work Jim AD6WL, and exchange QTC's almost without an
issue! Shortly after that, Jim spotted me, I had a very pleasing run into
W/VE, and worked quite a few stations for whom GU was a new one.
Looks like I will have to write out quite a few cards from that session!
I have to say that I only came across a few stations that said SRI NO QTC,
so that was better. I did try to elicit some from EA8URL, but each time I
asked, his only response was to call CQ. I did see him exchange QTC's, so
not sure why.
And guess what! I did not send one single QTC! But, I did receive, as I
thought that was generally easier for me.
I also think I managed a new band-slot on 20m with VP2MNK. Thanks Jan!
So, here is what I managed after a much shortened contest:
Call: GU0SUP
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Guernsey
Operating Time (hrs): about 19
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts QTCs Mults
------------------------------
80: 49 49 0 88
40: 84 84 0 123
20: 206 206 349 130
15: 66 66 30 66
10: 0 0 0 0
------------------------------
Total: 405 405 379 407 Total Score = 319,088
Thanks to all for the fun, and it WAS fun. My log is now on LoTW, but paper
cards are always welcomed.
73 for now
Phil GU0SUP
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