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CQWW SSB Contest 2004
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30th-31st Oct 2004, Cambridge University Wireless Society shack, TL 415 597
This was the second combined club effort by CUWS and the Granta Contest Group. On Friday morning during setup Martin G3ZAY phoned me to ask if I had a 4m yagi, the one at the shack had fallen off the tower. Fortunately I have two contest-ready 4m yagis for the packet system, so I got one of them out of the loft, and packed it in the car with the rest of the equipment.
The Plextek trailer-mast was use to support Martin's XM240 at 85ft. The two CUWS towers were fitted with an A3S and a TH5, on 80m we had Andy's 3 80m slopers with 120 degree direction switching, and on 160m we had a dipole. The equipment was 2 FT1000MPs, TL922 & Quadra linears, Dunestar filters and laptops running Writelog.
Propagation was excellent over the weekend. We came 3rd place in England. Here are Dominic's soapbox comments.
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB Call: M4A Operator(s): DJ9AO G3ZAY G4AXX G4EAG G4JVG G4KNO M0BLF M0TDG Station: G6UW Class: M/S HP QTH: Cambridge, England Operating Time (hrs): 48 Summary: Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 183 9 51 80: 545 17 67 40: 460 27 102 20: 597 33 117 15: 789 31 124 10: 574 33 136 ------------------------------ Total: 3148 150 597 Total Score = 4,667,256 Club: Comments: The Cambridge University Wireless Society (G6UW / M4A) joined forces with the Granta Contest Group (M0CAM / M4R) for this multi-single operation. For once we were reasonably well prepared but Murphy still struck by occasionally disconnecting our local node from the rest of the DX Cluster network. It was especially hard to make full use of the multiplier station with no spots for a total of about 12 hours, including 1900 UTC on the Sunday through to the end of the contest. We ought to have been able to reach 5 million points with a constant connection. Apart from that, we found conditions were a lot better than expected, especially on 10m, and run rates were often quite high. Thanks to everyone who worked us. Equipment (run): FT-1000MP, TL-922, TH5, Dunestar filters Equipment (mult): FT-1000MP, Quadra, A3S, Dunestar filters Equipment (shared): 2el 40m beam, array of 3 80m dipoles, 160m dipole. Operators for CUWS: G3ZAY, M0BLF*, M0TDG* For Granta Contest Group: G4AXX, G4EAG, G4JVG, G4KNO Guest Operator: M0TAO/DJ9AO* (* - Member of WWYC)Click on a thumbnail below to see the picture.
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The site from the main road. |
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(Left to right) XM240, TH5, A3S & 4m packet. |
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The TH5. |
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The Plextek trailer mast. |
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The mobile shack. |
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The XM240. |
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We have to site the trailer-mast to use whatever guying points are available. |
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The XM240 with the TH5 in the background, looking East. |
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The three towers (sorry Tolkien). The two cables arcing down to the tower are two of the three 80m feeders. |
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The trailer-mast with the shack in the background. |
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Lattice-work. |
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Worm's eye view. |
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We used this six-pack as a remote direction switch for the 80m slopers. |
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Guys on a gate post. |
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A3S & 4m with migrating birds. |
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As above but even better. |
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Simon G4EAG & Steve G4JVG. |
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Again. |
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Simon G4EAG. |
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Steve G4JVG & Oliver M0TAO/DJ9AO. |
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Oliver M0TAO/DJ9AO. |
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Steve G4JVG. |
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Dismantling the station on Monday morning. |
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The winch battery was flat so we used the Range Rover & some jump leads to power the winch. |
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Packing away the guys, tidy for next time. |
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Removing the cables & guys. |
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The Range Rover with the shack in the background. |
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Removing the Ham-V rotator. |
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We used a 12ft extension pole to support the boom truss. |
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Packing the Range Rover. |
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Martin & Dominic rolling up the coax. |
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Nearly ready to leave. |
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The results, 3rd in G. |
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The certificate from CQ magazine. |