G3TXF Claimed Score : 10m SOSB - Assisted : 1,450 QSOs : 39z : 158c : 611,685 points
G3TXF has participated in CQWW-CW in 43 out of the past 46 years !
The 2014 CQWW CW weekend was spent, in effect, doing two contests in parallel. The day-time operation was a Single-Band Assisted entry on 10m, whereas night time was spent looking for new countries on 160m. For 10m there was a single 4-el yagi at 80ft. For 160m an Inv-L was used with a new radial mat consisting of about 40 radials.
On Top-Band there was the potential to work several all-time new ones, but in practice, despite many hours of presence on the band this did not happen. HK1NA was worked relatively easily for a new one on the first night. However there was no audible trace of two other potential new ones which came up : KG4LB and HR2J. Similarly although VP2MDX was being spotted a few times he could not be heard, let alone worked! Although the K Index was only at 1 on the first night of the contest, conditions on 160m did not seem to be that good. In fact they were pretty poor. Even at our SR at 0740z when you'd expect to be hearing plenty of signals during CQWW CW there was little or nothing to be heard. All in all the nights spent on 160m were not very productive in terms of the hoped for new countries. However on the positive side, the Inv-L with the top section at 90ft did work well.
Meanwhile on 10m, a full set of Zones was worked with the sole exception of Zone 01. By the end of Saturday the only two missing Zones were 01 and 19. A Zone 19 was found soon enough on Sunday morning. However it was not so easy for Zone 01. Unfortunately by the time that KL7RA was coming through (as it nearly always does!) in the late afternoon, I was suffering from a locally triggered "noise" towards the North-West caused by an infra-red detector and light on the neighbouring house. This noise problem has to be solved before doing another serious contest entry on 10m! The noise generating detector is tripped by the RF (but only when the beam is pointing right at it towards the NW).
On 10m G3TXF finished up with 39 Zones and 157 Countries, which is slightly less than the 39 Zones and 164 Countries which had been achieved in 2013.
On Top-Band there was the potential to work several all-time new ones, but in practice, despite many hours of presence on the band this did not happen. HK1NA was worked relatively easily for a new one on the first night. However there was no audible trace of two other potential new ones which came up : KG4LB and HR2J. Similarly although VP2MDX was being spotted a few times he could not be heard, let alone worked! Although the K Index was only at 1 on the first night of the contest, conditions on 160m did not seem to be that good. In fact they were pretty poor. Even at our SR at 0740z when you'd expect to be hearing plenty of signals during CQWW CW there was little or nothing to be heard. All in all the nights spent on 160m were not very productive in terms of the hoped for new countries. However on the positive side, the Inv-L with the top section at 90ft did work well.
Meanwhile on 10m, a full set of Zones was worked with the sole exception of Zone 01. By the end of Saturday the only two missing Zones were 01 and 19. A Zone 19 was found soon enough on Sunday morning. However it was not so easy for Zone 01. Unfortunately by the time that KL7RA was coming through (as it nearly always does!) in the late afternoon, I was suffering from a locally triggered "noise" towards the North-West caused by an infra-red detector and light on the neighbouring house. This noise problem has to be solved before doing another serious contest entry on 10m! The noise generating detector is tripped by the RF (but only when the beam is pointing right at it towards the NW).
On 10m G3TXF finished up with 39 Zones and 157 Countries, which is slightly less than the 39 Zones and 164 Countries which had been achieved in 2013.
