Hi all,
Firstly, I have to say that was a real blast! I had a clue conditions would
be good, as I spent a little time on 10m and 12m on Friday afternoon, and
was enjoying working into W6/7.
Well, I say "good", but an SFI of 138 isn't really good. It's better, but
not like the last peak when it was over 200 for months on end.
Due to other commitments, I wasn't able to start the contest till around
lunchtime on Saturday (about 1200UTC), and the higher bands were buzzing
nicely. I was also aware that I needed to get a few other things done around
home, so this was only really supposed to be a part-time playing session for
me.
When I started, 20m was poor though, with few W/VE's around.
After spending a little time seeing what was around, S&P'ing as I went, I
started CQ'ing on 15m. This was good, and produced some nice runs for me.
However, I started to feel something was wrong, as folk coming back to me
weren't responding with their usual promptness. I hit ESC part way through a
CQ, only to find SV2EAG supposedly working folk that were clearly calling
me. His exchange also seemed to vary, so sometimes he was sending 599 56 56,
and sometimes 599 46 or 48.
I kept on going though, and eventually he seemed to tire of the game and
went away.
I realise I could have been on HIS frequency, but there was nothing apparent
when I started, and nor did I hear anyone call him while I set things up,
and before I started CQ'ing.
10m was the place to be though, so I also spent some time there calling CQ,
and was rewarded with some good ones. It was great to get called by VP8NO
for a new band-slot too.
At some point in the evening, I had had enough fun for the day. 10 was
starting to close, 15 was open, but I could nothing new to work, and 20m was
like a graveyard - only a few weak EU signals around.
40m was very dead too, with only one single RTTY station audible. As for
80m, well, I thought I must have disconnected the antenna.
On Sunday morning, I woke up early, but decided to have another hour in bed.
When I got to the shack, once again, 10m was the place to be. And endless
(so it seemed) stream of JA's to work.
I did pop down to 20m around 0700UTC, and found Bill W6WRT CQ'ing like he
was an EU station! However, he was the only W audible at the time (0724UTC).
After such fun on Saturday, I thought Sunday would be the same, but I kept
getting visits from the gremlins. I had RF get into the microKeyer II, the
PC crashed, the mouse froze, and the RTTYRite window with it, but everything
else was fine. Careful use of Alt-Tab enabled me to shut down in a
controlled manner, and a reboot fixed that.
On both 15m and 10m, while CQ'ing, I had a tuner who kept sending a single
tone on my mark frequency, and although it disrupted a few contacts, I
managed to keep going.
I also had another guy who decided to be a nuisance to me. I was called by
EA2DDE, and when I went back to him, he didn't come back. I sent the
exchange a few more times, but nothing, so I cleared his call and hit QRZ. I
had several callers, including EA2DDE.
I decided to work one of the JA's, and then I see that EA2DDE is sending him
a report.
This meant several AGN's on both sides, but I eventually made it. So I send
TU & QRZ, only to have the same thing happen again with the EA2.
This went on for around 40 minutes before he finally accepted an exchange
from me.
So, gripes over. Despite those problems, and only intending to play for a
short time, I did quite well.
All 10 W call areas on 10 and 15, but only 5 on 20m.
Highlights:
Many, such as being called by VP8NO on 10m, AL9A on 15m, plus TI, HI and a
few other nice ones.
Also managing to work J39BS on 10m.
I also took some time out on Saturday afternoon to work HP1/IZ6BRN on 12m
RTTY, which was a new band-slot and band-zone for me. And that is already
confirmed on LoTW too, which is even sweeter.
I also worked many new (to me) callsigns, and I guess I was a new one to
many of those. Wonder if the postman will be busy in the next few weeks??
So, here is my claimed summary:
Class: Single Op LP (around 80 watts)
Age sent - 58
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts Mults
------------------------------
80: 0 0 0
40: 28 60 22
20: 147 335 55
15: 186 453 65
10: 210 575 66
------------------------------
Total: 571 1423 208
Total Score = 295,984
40m Summary
Countries
4L DL EA ER EU HA I LX OH OK
ON PA S5 SM SP SV TA UA UA9 UR
Z3
Call Areas
K4
20m Summary
Countries
9A A6 CN DL DU EA EI ER ES EU
F GI HA HB HS I KL LA LY LZ
OE OH OK OM OZ PA S5 SM SP SV
UA UA2 UA9 UN UR YB YL YO YU Z3
ZC4
Call Areas
K0 K3 K4 K6 K9
VK4
VE2
JA1 JA3 JA4 JA5 JA6 JA7 JA8
15m Summary
Countries
4X 9A CN DL EA ER ES EU HA HZ
I IS KL KP4 LA LY LZ OE OH OK
OM PY S5 SM SP SV SV5 TA TF TK
UA UA2 UA9 UN UR VU YB YL YO YU
Z3 ZC4
Call Areas
K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9
VK3
VE2 VE3 VE4 VE7
JA0 JA1 JA3 JA4 JA5 JA6 JA7 JA8
10m Summary
Countries
4X 9A CE CN CT3 CX DL EA EA8 ES
EU F G GM HI HK HZ I J3 KP4
LY LZ OH OM OZ PY S5 SM SV TA
TF TI TR UA UA9 UN UR VP8 VU XE
YB YO YU ZC4 ZS
Call Areas
K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9
VE2 VE3 VE4
JA0 JA1 JA2 JA3 JA4 JA5 JA6 JA7
So, thanks to all for the amazing fun, and my log is finally on LoTW. It
appears to have taken quite a time before it was accepted, so I guess that
was due to the servers being busy after the WAG contest.
73 all
Phil GU0SUP
---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 111017-0, 17/10/2011
Tested on: 17/10/2011 19:37:54
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2011 AVAST Software.
http://www.avast.com
_______________________________________________
RTTY mailing list
RTTY@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty
|