All posts in Contesting

Contest : IOTA Contest
Callsign : M1N
Mode : PHONE
Category : Single Operator – Assisted (SOA)
Band(s) : All bands (AB)
Class : Low Power (LP)
IOTA : EU005
Operating time : 11h55

TOTAL SCORE : 160,500

Dupes are not included in QSO counts neither avg calculations

Operators : M1DST
Soapbox :

Suffered with wideband noise at various times during the contest on Sunday and had a headset mic element fail which needed repairing.  Should have considered entering unassisted as I almost never used the cluster.

Contest : CQ World Wide DX Contest
Callsign : M1N
Mode : PHONE
Category : Single Operator – Assisted (SOA)
Overlay : —
Band(s) : Single band (SB) 20m
Class : High Power (HP)
Zone/State/… : 14
Operating time : 18h30

TOTAL SCORE : 120,006

Dupes are not included in QSO counts neither avg calculations

Operators : M1DST
Soapbox :

A few of us from the Swindon Radio Club each entered CQWW in various sections. So we could each follow progress we submitted our realtime scores to http://cqcontest.net/ which was great fun to watch.

Had some issues with RF killing the Universal Serial Bus (USB) which broke CAT, keyboard and mouse control making logging difficult in the first few minutes. This was quickly solved with a single ferrite.

I decided to “fiddle” during the contest with Win-Test scripts. I wanted to allow PTT from the keyboard instead of using the footswitch. I did this using a modified script and the pause button. If I press the pause button then it toggles the PTT. I can also use ESC to always kill the PTT regardless. I was using the internal voice keyer on the K3 using the F1 – F3 keys on the keyboard.

Had plenty of fun but as usual family needed attention so time was limited. I should have spent more time calling CQ and less time getting distracted on webpages, within apps etc. There is always next year.

Oh and whilst tinkering I also reloaded the K3 firmware in the hope that my scripts would work properly. The problem was F1 would trigger the CQ and ESC would stop it. If the CQ was in repeat mode, the ESC wouldn’t cancel it. Very odd. I found a bug in the script which I fixed but it still didn’t work properly even if triggered from the radio. A firmware updated fixed the problem. Phew.

Uploaded log to CQWW, LOTW, ClubLog, my Log, and [email protected]. Also submitted claimed score to 3830.

Contest : IOTA Contest
Callsign : M1N
Mode : PHONE
Category : Single Operator (SO)
Overlay : —
Band(s) : All bands (AB)
Class : High Power (HP)
Zone/State/… : EU005
Operating time : 11h39

TOTAL SCORE : 123 300

Dupes are not included in QSO counts neither avg calculations

Operators : M1DST
Soapbox : Conditions very difficult. Lots of QSB and I struggled to hear stations calling me.

I arrived on site around 10am and started work erecting the antenna and getting the radio ready. The first problem was I had forgotten a stub mast so there I couldn’t deploy the rotator. Although I was so early I did have enough time to pack everything back up, go home, get a stub mast and start again but I decided against that. I decided that it was one thing less to pack away at the end of the evening.

The site I operated from (IO91CL) Barbury Castle is a public site owned by the council and they lock the gates at 9pm. This meant I would need to cut my entry off by a few hours to ensure I could escape the gate keepers.I was setup in about an hour which left be 4 hours to play before the contest started. Having a tune around I could hear that conditions were favourable. I managed to work a number of European stations with ease.

After a couple of hours the Europeans disappeared and the band sounded quite quiet. Not what you want to hear right before a contest. The sun was also slowing moving around the shady area I had parked in and was now beating down on me.
I decided to pack up the radio and move everything into the car where there would be shade. This worked out quite well in the end.

I started the contest at 14:00 UTC and eventually gave in and used the DVK after receiving taunts from 2E0SQL via twitter after becoming tongue tied a number of times whilst trying to call CQ, and surf the web for last years results.

I had a few visitors pop in to ask what I was doing or say hello. Frank, (G3JOT) and his wife arrived late afternoon and said hello too.

At around 19:45 the generator ran out of fuel so that is the point I called it a night. I refilled the generator and packed up the car and was home by 21:15 where my lovely wife had a double steak burger waiting for me.

This year I kept the flag flying for SDARC as our usual contest crew were committed to a Raynet event but hopefully we’ll be able to enter as a team next year.

Contest :VHF NFD 50 MHz
Section :R (Restricted Section of VHF NFD)
Group :Swindon & DARC
QSOs :69
DXCCs :6
WWLs :16