by Phil Cooper | Sep 19, 2023 | Contesting, GU0SUP
Well, what a month so far! Wife and I went away to Chesterfield to stay with her brother & wife, and we went to the Chatsworth House Country fair on the 2nd, which was AMAZING! We also went to Matlock Bath for the first time, and I have to say that it is a beautiful place to visit.
That trip meant no radio for a few days, as I also had to catch up with some other jobs on our return. However, since then I have managed to get on air quite a bit since then. Sadly nothing new to report, but loads of QSO’s made on various bands.
As of the 19th, I am now up to 7063 QSO’s in the log for this year, which is my best tally so far in any year, and we still have a little over 3 months to go yet! And – there is CQWW RTTY coming up!
Well, CQWW RTTY produced 183 Q’s on 10m single band, low power. Not a bad effort for around 12 hours total. I had 22 Zones, 48 DXCC and 36 States/Provinces. Some nice DX too, such as P49X, ZF2SS, FY5KE, V31MA, TI2OY, HI8SDR, PZ5RA, 6W/IV3FSG, HK3TU, VU2IBI, A60A, A44A, 9N7AA, A71AE, XE1YL, several JA’s, and even MJ0X!
As of the end of the month, I have 7362 QSO’s in the log – my best year yet!
Also, on the 30th, I made it to 70 years old 😁
by Phil Cooper | Feb 15, 2023 | Contesting, GU0SUP
When you are operating in a RTTY contest, please consider the following tips@
If you are calling CQ, then make your F1 macro something like this: CQ GU0SUP GU0SUP CQ (end with another CQ!). If you come across my call whilst tuning around, you can be sure that I am indeed calling CQ, and not responding to another station.
If you see me calling CQ, ONLY send your call! Twice, if conditions are great, three times if not. What I do NOT want to see is GU0SUP GU0SUP DE W1AW W1AW. If you do this, then there is a good chance I might miss your call, especially when QSB is around, or several stations are calling me. Only send your call!
When I send you a report, it will look like this: W1AW 599 001 001 001 W1AW. That way you can be sure the report was meant for W1AW and not someone else.
You would then send GU0SUP 599 100 100 100 W1AW so that I am sure I have the call right, and you heard me. Please do NOT send GU0SUP QSL UR 001 001 TU 599 599 100 100 100. I know what I sent you, and there is a chance I may not see the rest of your exchange, and then think you are sending me 001, and not 100 – again, especially when there are others trying to work me.
If I ask for a repeat (eg NR AGN? or NR? NR?) then DO NOT send your whole exchange! Create a macro that ONLY sends your serial number (or whatever the exchange is) and nothing else.
When the contact is complete, I would then send W1AW TU (CR/LF) GU0SUP CQ
At the every least, when operating in a contest, take a few minutes to watch and see how folk operate, and what their macros look like.
Thanks for reading this! I hope it helps….
by Phil Cooper | Feb 13, 2023 | Contesting, GU0SUP
Had a play in the WPX RTTY contest at the weekend (11/12th Feb 2023), although it was only a part time effort.
As I had things to do on Saturday morning, I though I would operate in the “Classic” 24hr category, and fired up the rig around midday.
To my surprise, 10m was buzzing, so I ended up doing a SB LP entry on 10m.
I managed to get just over 6 hours operating on Saturday before the band closed, but bagged a few nice DX calls, including KH6ZM at 1806UTC, which did surprise me, as he was loud here.
Sunday started with a few JA’s and BY’s in the log, and a good few EU stations, including GM.
Both afternoons saw a good opening into west coast USA, who were generally stronger than the east coast stations.
Here are a few of the choice DX worked….
C5YK, 9N7AA, D4L, FY5KE, PJ2T, TI2OY, V26OC, V55Y, V31MA, KH6ZM, P49X, VU2IBI & VU2DED, plus JA, BY, VE6, PY, LU, XE, KP4, CX, and US States AZ, WA, UT, OR, CA, WY, CO, NV, SD and many others.
I ended up with 313 QSO’s, 253 Prefixes and 207966 points.
Not a bad effort for some 15 hours of lazy S&P’ing I thought….
