Chris Colclough

Well the weekend of the CQWPX RTTY contest has now passed us by and I enterd from home using the club call M9W. But as usual my plans for just operating as a single band entry went out the window. I was going to enter on 80M only and operate through Friday night, sleep Saturday and then operate Saturday night, grab a couple of hours sleep on theSunday, and then go to the end on the Sunday evening.

Never happened. I started well on the Friday evening with a good small run to the USA and Caribbean area. This then dried up so I thought I would have a go on 40M, and again worked USA, Europe and Asia. It was around 4.30 and I was strting to feel sleepy so went to bed.

I then received a phone call from a friend needing some help with a small job, so off I went to their house to help. I returned and thought get on 20M for a couple of hours, and then tried 15M with only 2 contacts. So on 20M I worked Asia, throughEuropwe to the USA. And by when 5pm came round I again had to leave the radio. I had forgotten there was a Northern Soul event at a local venue (see my website http://www.g1vdp.com) and I had promised my friends I would be there. So it was off out for a few drinks and a dance.

When I returned I had a quick tune and call on 40 and 80M with more USA and Caribbean worked. Sunday I spent again on 20M with a quick check on 15M. Ending the day on 40M with a final spurt on 80M.The final results were;

432 QSO's
1408 Points
253 WPX
Claimed score of 356,224

This is only a part time score due to the constant interuptions and the antennas were only dipoles - 80M, 40M and 30M tuned for 20M and 15M through my Palstar AT2K.

Don't forget we will be on from the farm in a few weeks in the CQ WPX SSB contest. Not sure how we are going to operate as yet, but it is looking like a 2 single band activation using MW9W and MC0SHL. Hope to work you in the contest.

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