RSGB AFS CW 2011

The Contest

□ About the contest

This contest was the second of four contests forming the AFS Super-League, which Cambridge University Wireless Society and the Camb-Hams (the social part of Cambridgeshire Repeater Group) entered jointly. See AFS 2m for more information on the Super-League entry.

I operated from Flossie, the Cambridgeshire Repeater Group's communications van, as G3PYE for this event.

Equipment

□ The Rigs and Antennas used in the entry

Initially: FT-1000MP, TL-922 linear, dipole.
Later: IC-756ProIII, barefoot, dipole.

Adjudicated Score

□ The summary of points I made during the contest

After log-checking, our score was reduced by almost 16% from 1470 claimed to 1240 points. This put G3PYE in 153rd place out of 236, which was slightly disappointing but unsurprising given the problems we faced. As a group, Camb-Hams A came in 24th place (of 91 teams) with 6160 points, which was within the top 50% needed to compete in the Super-League. AFS CW 2011 official results

Write-up

□ My comments about the contest

This was a hard contest for a number of reasons. First, my lack of CW skill after nearly a year without practice was somewhat limited, so apologies and thanks to those of you who patiently put up with me! One of the items which we'd forgotten to pack into the van was a keyer so, about an hour into the contest, M0VFC and M1BXF left me to pick up M1BXF's Pro III, which has a built-in keyer.

While they were in M1BXF's shack, they noticed many people replying to my CQs whom I wasn't hearing. After a quick phone conversation, we realised that there was something wrong with the FT-1000MP's receiver. They returned with the Pro III, which we then ran barefoot as we had problems connecting it to the TL-922.

We never did find out what caused the receiver problems with the MP; all was fine when we took it back to G6UW later. Thwe changed rig did siognificantly improve our run-rate (possibly also affected by me getting used to CW again), from 20Q/hr in the first hour to around 55-60Qs/hr for the rest of the contest.

QSL Information

□ How to get a QSL-Card for a Contest QSO

QSL is OK direct to M0VFC or via the bureau to G3PYE. Please do not send me cards for this contest entry.