Brian operated from his usual location near Stoneykirk, SW of Stranraer.
“The weather was good if a little warm. I did the 24Hour section, but
split it into two sessions. Saturday 3pm till 7pm. This was set by the
falling off of SpE and the need for dinner. Sunday was 8am to 3pm.
The band was open via SpE to most of Europe , Italy, France, Spain etc,
but I was failing to get replies to CQ and to work what were very loud
stations. I think it was a combination of heavy QRM in Europe and my low
antenna and proximity to the edge of the opening.Attempting Tropo to G
was no good as they were all beaming into EU. I did get the classic
“You’re 5 and 5 off the back”
On Sunday morning there was no SpE , so it was just a hard graft using
weak signal tropo, CW and A/S . I took ages to work M0UHF on tropo .He
was clear as a bell as my noise level is very low there. I tried CW –
but he can’t read it . The S/N 34 but he could only resolve the “4”
I got through by tapping 3 dits, in the style of Maroni’s ” I heard 3
faint clicks”
By 2pm I’d got 51 contacts with no prospect of any more and was
preparing to pull the plug. Then the band opened and the propagation was
in my favour . I finished up with a pileup of French stations.
It was a pleasant outing given the weather and I do have the luxury of
returning to base when things get slack. I think the 6m Trophy may not
be an ideal multioperator event for us – unless there is enough SpE to
occupy operators for the 2 days . On the other hand plenty of time for
socialising.
I think I might have faired better with a higher antenna.
One thing I found is the 7300 will work split mode CW/SSB if CW- Reverse
is selected. SSB is easier to resolve in the reverse filter if it’s set
wideish .
GM3HAM/P Lothians Radio Society
Section Single Operator Others . High Power.
TX/RX=IC7300+SSPA Power=300W
Antenna=5 element Tonna at 5m agl , 89m asl
QSO=6
Points=59108
Bonus Points 9800 Squares plus Countries
Total 68,908
Well done, Brian!