The first leg was CW, I will admit I know very little CW, I can make out my callsign and 59 but that really is my limit so I setup MixW and CW Skimmer to act as my ears, which like normal worked perfectly. After 5 QSOs, I got into the flow of things and started working my way up the CW portion of the band, within two hours I managed to work 58 QSOs. Conditions seemed reasonable and every station I called came back.

The QSO amount was also an improvement over 2011 where I’d worked 43 stations using a 80m Quarter Wave Inverted L so least I managed to increase the total for this year slightly.

This weekend saw the SSB leg of the contest, at dead on 14:00 I worked Rob (M0VFC) operating G3PYE and then started to work my way back down the band. Which worked well slowly getting more contacts in the log, there was the usual QRM from stations splattering each other but even so there was only two stations who I didn’t manage to work, this might be due to conditions, QRM or my antenna not being that great even so the half size G5RV with 80m traps worked well.

I wasn’t worried after two hours S&P, I’d put 60 QSOs in the logbook and called it a day. What I did learn was that I needed to sort out keying the FT950’s DVK within Win-Test so I’ll be sorting some LUA scripts out in due course as it will be handy for other contests as well.

Overall very enjoyable two weekends, now need to look at what other contests I want to take part in this year.

During the RSGB Convention, I decided to join the ARRL not because they had a slick stand at the convention (because they did), but because it will be interesting to read the different articles and hopefully learn some new stuff.

Setup went to plan and we had the Force12 C31XR, 40/80m Dipoles and the RX station vertical setup along with K3s, Yaesu Quadra Linear and the computers ready to go before the kick off, what we wasn’t expecting was the poor conditions. It was nearly impossible to get any sort of run on 20/15/10m and lots of the stations in the All Asian contest flatly refused to work us and sometimes in a pretty rude manor (Think they need to chill out a bit?).

Never the less we plodded on and worked what we could. After fish/sausages/chips for dinner, conditions seemed to start to pickup and I managed to get a few small runs to North America then about 11pm till 1am managed a big pile up to the States which was good fun and boosted callsigns in the logbook no end.

40m was also a pretty decent band through the night but we had problems on 80m due to lots of static crashes. This always seemed to happen around the time of the other station giving the serial number which got very frustrating.

Sun rise soon appeared Sunday morning and after working a bit of DX on 40m we shifted back to 20m to be greeted with a reasonable pile up for a while, then rest was spent calling CQ and working multipliers which the Spotting station was passing across. One problem I did find was due to vision being a bit poor sometimes missed the “spots” showing on the logbook!

Like normal soon as the contest was due to finish the heavens decided to open, but thankfully by the time it got to taking the tents down they’d nearly dried off which was lucky. We ended up at the end of the contest with about 1102 QSOs including dupes, and we’ve got plenty of ideas on how to improve the score next year.

What I did seem to manage to work was stations in squares IO81, IO91, IO92, JO01 and JO02 and according to Win-Test best DX was G3PYE/P in JO02CE. Activity seemed pretty low and a spent an awful lot of time tuning up and down the band, swinging the beam not hearing a lot.

Map

View Larger Map

Final results

 BAND   QSO DUP LOC  POINTS
----------------------------
  432    10   0   5      0
----------------------------
TOTAL    10   0   5      0
============================

Equipment:

ICOM IC-910, 10 element Yagi and Win-Test for logging.

Just before the start I decided to have a tune across the band and found Chris (G7IVF) having some pre-contest QSOs so had a quick chat; I then found Mike (G6RC) in Crawley and had a really nice chat with him till the start of the contest and he was QSO number 001.

Screenshot of QRAs worked

Conditions for the whole period of the contest seemed worst then normal and lots of people in IO91 square were saying similar, but was able to work IO90, IO91, IO92 , IO80, IO82, JO02, JO03 also heard a few stations in Ireland, Netherlands who were weak and a French station off the back of the beam who also seemed to be giving away points!

At the end of the contest I managed 25 QSOs, best DX was G4DEZ at 111miles but I’m pleased with that it’s an improvement from previous sessions.

Equipment: ICOM IC-910HX, 5el Diamond Yagi and Win-Test for logging.

I was surprised how well the half-size G5RV and the traps where doing at the end I had 41 contacts in the log! Maybe I’ll take part in these mini contests more often.

Never the less had fun and enjoyed giving points away! Furthest north I worked was G5FZ/P in (IO93RH) and East would be joint between G0VHF/P and G5LK/P. What I did notice was that the antenna preformed well beaming to the east which was the main bulk of QSOs.

View Larger Map

Thinking for the RSGB Backpackers & PW Contest I might venture out with Dads FT817 + Sota 3el beam to somewhere high and see what I can work from there.. currently waiting for the Oxford Preservation Trust to email me back.

So final run down.

Equipment: ICOM IC-910H (50w), 5element Yagi at 10ft and Minos for logging

QSOS: 15

Total QSOs: 43

Equipment: Yaesu FT950, 80m Quarter Wave Inverted L , MixW

Once we found them and unpacking suits and other bits, we headed back to the main meeting areas for a look around, coffee, tea & hot chocolate the time soon passed and it was soon time for the Friday buffet on a whole the dinner was fantastic although service was rather slow this was due to people taking too long to get there food from the serving area and the fact there was only one serving area, after the dinner we moved to the bar area to carry on chatting and a few drinks.

Saturday

Surprisingly the Jimmy’s (youngsters) were pretty knackered by midnight and went back to our rooms to get some much needed sleep before breakfast, which we all turned up for without hang overs rather impressive for us! might even be a first the day kicked off at 9:30 with the first lectures, In the morning I attended

• IOTA Update by Roger Balister, G3KMA followed by Kaglin Island, Alaska by Mike Crownover, AD5A.
• Line Islands (T32) by Derek Cox, G3KHZ.

Then decided to take some time out to rest due to health so a few of the Jimmys retreated to the Games Room which we had decided would be our base during the day before getting some lunch with Dad. Afternoon lectures soon started though with

• World Radiosport Team Championship by Dave Lawley G4BUO: Which was very interesting to learn about the station and the experiences Dave had while in Russia.
• Chesterfield Islands 2009 (TX3A)  by Tomi Pekarik, HA7RY & Chris Hildebrand, HA5X/M0XXA.
• Blowing away the smoke and mirrors of antenna operation by Roy Lewallen, W7EL.

Then it was time to have some more social time, before getting ready for the DX Dinner on Saturday night which was excellent both food and company and as it was table service it was a lot quicker too. Then it was back to the bar for a few more drinks with the Jimmy’s which proved to be rather entertaining when Glyn (Santa) GW0ANA turned up to share his years of knowledge although at times we had no idea what he was on about!

We continued in-till the early hours of Sunday morning before I left some of the Jimmys and headed to bed to get some much needed rest before yet entertaining day!

Sunday

Before I knew it, it was the last day of the conference lectures started at 9am which I personally thought was a bit early by the time we had gotten up and had breakfast and needed to pack our bits up ready to be checked out of the rooms by 11am, so Dad and & Myself missed the first lecture of the day to get sorted out!

Once I did get ready for lectures I attended

• Clublog by Michael Wells, G7VJR & Alan Jubb, 5B4AHJ.
• HF Contest Awards by RSGB Contests Committee.
• Digital/D-Star by Darren, G7LWT and Gavin, M1BXF: Well you have to support a fellow Jimmy! even if it is just to haggle and wind things up
• Skimmer and RBN – more fun or the end of amateur radio? By Olof Lundberg, G0CKV.

At this point it was time for the Raffle, we had all complained when we bought the raffle tickets we never won anything, this weekend proved different though with Paul (M0TZO) and myself won a prize each and we got a suitable cheer from the Jimmys! Sadly non of us won the grand price of the IC7000 or the FT450 maybe next year? then suddenly the conference over we all said our good byes and returned home.

Notes

• You can find all my other photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/m3php/sets/72157625135428692/with/5069272906/
• We tweeted throughout the weekend using the hashtag #RSGBC http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23rsgbc might be worth a read

Thoughts?

• Good
  • Confusing everyone else calling each other Jimmy
  • Great weekend meeting the Jimmy’s & everyone else!
  • Nice choice of lectures
  • Good food at both the dinners & lunch you could easily have put some weight on!
  • Being entertained by Santa.. (Actually maybe not “Good” but amusing!)
• Bad
  • Chairs for the lectures were uncomfortable (Maybe I’m being picky)
  • Bar wasn’t big enough and not enough seating!
  • Bar was expensive unless you bought the RSGB £1 beer.
  • Wifi was poor
  • Everyone seemed to struggle to get mobile signal (Orange worked fine though!)
  • 9am lectures on a Sunday..

We found conditions very hard going on the the higher bands 20/15/10m but also due to spending time calling CQ lost some most needed QSOs on the low bands.

Maybe 2010 can improve this.