A really disappointing end to the 2013 Contest year for me.
Normally I prefer to Blog about the good things that happen but life just isn't always like that is it? This years 144 MHz AFS Radio Contest was just one event that did not live up to expectation.
This year has seen a gradual but steady improvement in my Contest results from my fairly modest station here in Spalding. Thanks to G4YHF and G1ZJP I hoped to put on a decent station running the full legal power of 400 watts for the 2 meter AFS and make a valuable contribution to the Club's score. While the power worked faultlessly my rotator decided to give up the ghost 45 minutes into the Contest leaving my antenna pointing into the middle of nowhere (the North Sea!). After 30 minutes with a volt meter it looked like it was a mechanical problem so down came the pneumatic mast to see if I could repair it but it looked terminal!
I pointed the antenna towards the Continent and pumped the mast back up to see if I could work some Kms and salvage some points. I could turn the mast by hand but it is a very frustrating business because, as the crow flies, the mast is only about 6 feet away from my operating position, but to get to it meant a trip through 3 rooms of the house and a trot across the garden. My thanks to all of those stations who exercised patience with enforced laboured operating practices and waited for my return to the microphone.
I managed to make 74 contacts with the best DX being DF2VJ at 624 Kms, sadly, none in CW although I did put out a few calls with the key. There was some tropo but in general I thought conditions were quite flat with some deep QSB. Apart from the rotator I was very pleased with the station performance. Receive performance has steadily improved this year by changing the LNA for the new HA8ET version and also changing the RG213 coax for Ecoflex 15. Having 400 watts of power available certainly made contacts a lot easier - when you could squirt it in the right direction!
It sounded like SDARS was plagued with problems for this years Contest but I did hear a number of other Club stations on so I hope that they faired better than me. I have worked hard at improving the station this year so it is very disappointing when something happens to foil your plans especially when you start it with such high expectations.
