CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: GS7V
Operator(s): GM3WOJ GM4YXI
Station: GS7V
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Shetland Is. GM/s
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 724 21 76
40: 1353 26 85
20: 1022 30 101
15: 1307 34 117
10: 724 28 109
------------------------------
Total: 5130 139 488 Total Score = 5,790,972
Club: North of Scotland CG
Comments:
Hello all.
Below is the story from Keith GM4YXI/GM5X about our CQ WW CW Contest 2023
DXpedition to the Shetland Islands (a 14-hour overnight car ferry voyage from
Aberdeen to Lerwick).
On previous trips to Shetland we have had fairly good weather - this time it was
terrible. It took us 3 whole days to install 5 simple verticals - working in the
icy winds up to 50mph and driving sleet. We abandoned any hope of installing our
fairly strong 160m vertical - it would have been blown down immediately!
Have a look at GS7V and VK9XGM on QRZ.COM for some background info. Photos will
be there a.s.a.p. Thanks for working GS7V 2023... 73 Chris GM3WOJ / GM2V
--------------------------------------------------------------
CQWW CW GS7V (and not VK9XGM ☹)………it’s a long story
Well, that was not quite what Chris and I had intended. As you may have read
elsewhere, Chris and I were due to depart for VK9X on Nov 17th and operate as
VK9XGM for two weeks, taking in CQWWCW as a M2 entry. Our intentions had been
well publicized from early May in all the usual places and on our website. On
the 5th November there was an announcement posted on line that YL2GM and EA5EL
were planning to be active as VK9XY from 14th to 28th November with intended
activity in the contest. They were to use a QTH less than 200m from our planned
location. The reply to our email to them, sent within hours of us hearing this
news, was essentially ‘tough, this is our plan, our tactic is to announce at
the last minute’ with no offer of apology or any compromise. This selfish,
inconsiderate act made our trip untenable. We were disinclined to spend yet more
money on an expedition which could not now possibly meet our expectations, would
leave the contest unfeasible, could possibly lead to unpleasant confrontation
and would leave us with our second week on the island licking our wounds. We
decided to cancel our trip.
I think it is fair to say that we were both stunned by these developments, and
we have not yet got over the disappointment, but about 48hrs later, Chris
floated the idea of making a last minute dash to Shetland for the contest. After
initial misgivings (mostly because I couldn’t get my head around the fact that
VK9XGM wasn’t happening) we developed a plan.
Locations suitable for the contest are not all that easy to find on Shetland.
Former, proven sites are no longer available and our last trip, in 2018, to a
place called Gaza (yes, really) was uncomfortable and spoilt by s9 power line
noise. Many cottage lets are unavailable in the winter but we eventually found
and booked a place on a farm near Vidlin with what looked like a reasonable take
off in most directions and space for antennas. No problem getting booked on the
ferry – not many visitors to Shetland in late November, I wonder why?!!
We had all our gear gathered and semi-packed at my QTH, but Shetland allowed us
to take stuff in our cars which could not got on a plane. We decided we didn’t
have time to consider taking yagi antennas like in 2018, and to be honest, it is
not feasible on a trip like this to get yagis high enough to work properly
anyway. We decided to stick with the plan to use verticals. However, these
antennas were not Shetland-proof, so I remade most of them with heavier wire.
Anticipating some wind, we also took three 18m and three 12m Spiderbeam poles,
heavy hinge bases for 160 and 80m and loads of heavy duty guy pegs and rope. We
would omit the thinner top sections of these poles on 80-10m and top load 80m.
WARC bands would be an afterthought.
We left Aberdeen on the ferry on Tuesday evening 21st November. We had toyed
with the idea of leaving on Wednesday, but that would not have left us with much
time for setting up and operating before the contest. It turned out that this
was a good decision; we learned that the Wednesday, Thursday and possibly the
Friday ferries were already cancelled due to incoming bad weather. We left
Aberdeen at 7pm on fairly calm seas but Chris was gloomy when the purser
announced we should expect heavy swell in the latter part of the journey. It WAS
heavy – I was wakened (almost thrown out of my bunk) about 1am and that was it
until we reached Lerwick. The roughest crossing either of us have experienced.
We did some food shopping in Lerwick then headed north for Vidlin, arriving on
site about 9am when it was getting light. The location was pretty good and we
had free use of all the land north, east and south of the cottage, mostly wet
peat bog. A smallish windmill, spinning like crazy, was close to our site but
gave no QRN. It was very windy with horizontal sleet showers sweeping across the
site. It took us all morning to partially unload the cars and roll out our
feeders. We attempted to erect a 30m vertical but gave up – it would never
have survived 5 minutes. We also realized at this point, with 50 mph gusts and
sleet, forecast to get worse in coming days (and it did), that 160m was going to
be impossible to get up in the air unless we reconfigured the antenna for about
12m of vertical. We decided to ditch this idea and use our hinged bases on 80
and 40 with the lower sections of the 18m poles. It was almost dark when we got
the 40m vertical up and battled on in the dark to get 20m up and working.
Thursday was much worse – gusting 60+ mph with sleet and hail that stung your
face. No wonder the farmer was out wearing goggles! Many times we had to abandon
proceedings and go inside, even putting on and taking off the wet weather gear
guzzled up significant time. By Thursday evening we had 15m working and 80m up
and stable but not usable (poor SWR). Friday was snowing and still blowing a
gale. 10m was installed and 80m eventually got working courtesy of a
cobbled-together hairpin match. By dark on Friday we had only one station
working and the rest of the gear was only shipped into the house when the wind
and rain abated a bit. Folding tables and heavy amplifiers are not the easiest
things to carry in storm-force winds and driving sleet……………….
Neither of us had slept well for days, between the ferry and the roaring wind
blasting the windows and roof above our upstairs bedrooms. Miraculously, the
antennas we did get up all survived, but 160m was never possible. The internet
on the BT line never worked but a 3G signal allowed a mobile phone hot-spot. We
were all ready for the contest by about 9pm Friday. We decided Chris would do
the first 4 hours alone, I would take over for 4 hours, after which we’d both
be QRV. The contest itself is all a bit of a blur. 80 and 40 were reasonable at
the start, but slow – neither of us manage a rate much over 110/hr. North
America was easy to work, especially on 40m and the location and our verticals
seemed to be doing a job. We plugged away on 40/20 then 15/10. A few JA were
workable on 15 but no volume, few BY and some mults appeared. 10 was sluggish
and had there not been short skip to EU, it would have been very slow. It was
pretty much a one-point morning and a lot of mults just could not hear us.
Pile-ups were never that dense and we had the distinct impression that a lot did
not know we were a separate mult. We had announced on NG3K and sent info off to
the collators of the CTY db file but we did not appear in the last pre-contest
release (Grrrr!).
15 and especially 10 remained slow into Saturday afternoon, and just got slower.
Signals were weak, QSB marked and North America was reluctant to open. And then
the aurora hit. Hardly any signals were T9 and it just got slower and slower. We
were quite gloomy and saw a difficult weekend ahead. On to 20/15 much earlier
than we anticipated, we discovered our only real interstation RF issue when my
IC7300 on 15 did not like 20m around and kept locking up Wintest. We battled on
but by 17z 15m was dead and 40/20 was not delivering much. 19z saw only a few
QSOs and we stopped to eat and consider our move. Chris went to zzzzz at 21z, I
went back to find the bands had actually woken up a bit and made a bit of
headway on 20/40/80 until energy ran out after midnight.
We were back QRV at 0500 Sunday and had two stations going again by 08z. The K
index was much lower and the bands sounded better – actual T9 signals again!
It never properly opened to JA on 15 – and not at all on 10 – but we could
hear more, and more were calling us. Had news spread that GS7V was a mult? A VK
was worked on 15, a few more mult pile-ups were cracked by tuning off set and
sending at 24 wpm. 10 was still hard going and many mults were audible but
unworkable. By noon we were on 20/15, leaving 10 for a while and saw the best
rates of the weekend over Sunday afternoon with a much better opening to NA. The
verticals also allowed us to be working Asia and North America and wherever
during early and mid-afternoon. It slowed noticeably about 16z and we thought we
were in for ‘death-by-aurora’ again but about 1745 it was like a switch was
flipped and NA started booming in on 20 and 15. This lasted about 90 mins and we
had our first decent signals from zone 3. By 20z 20m was pretty much gone so it
was 40 and 80 until close of play. We wondered what the pile up would have been
like if we had had an antenna for 160m! 80m was notable during that last period
– 4W8X, BD7DT, EY7BJ, PX2A, 3W9A and E2X all called us.
I think it is fair to say that we were both relieved when it struck midnight.
Tired, but happy with the contest overall, despite the horror show of the first
three days for set up, and then the aurora on Saturday. I can imagine you might
be thinking ‘how on earth did it take two men, three days to put up only five
simple verticals?’ You had to be there to understand………………….
The rest of the trip was a slow teardown and some activity on 40, 15 and 30m. Wx
was a bit kinder – only 30-40mph northerly wind and snow showers –
positively tropical! We had a visit from Tony, GM7AFE, a 20+ year resident of
Shetland who lives in Lunna House, the former base of the famed ‘Shetland
Bus’ of WW2. Tony reminded us that the first time we had met was in 2001 when
he came to help teardown after GZ7V @CQWWSSB.
The ferry home on Wednesday evening was a gentle 14 hour trip by comparison and
we were back at my QTH and unloading by 0930 Thursday.
Shetland is a unique place in the British Isles, well worth a visit, and if
available, the QTH we found is a keeper. Our hosts from the farm were, like all
the Shetlanders we met, very kind and helpful. We are still pretty sure a lot of
folks had no idea we were in Shetland so our multiplier identity was not best
leveraged. It’s a shame the GZ prefix has, so far, remained unavailable. But
always remember, the wx in Shetland in October and November is most likely not
going to be for the faint-hearted.
Claimed score : GS7V (IOTA EU-012) CQ WW CW 2023 - Multi-Two - 5239 QSOs
:
Band QSO Zones Countries
160 0 0 0
80 724 21 76
40 1353 26 85
20 1022 30 101
15 1307 34 117
10 724 28 109
Final totals 5130 139 488
Score claimed 5,790,972 but all GM QSO’s scored nil (which is wrong!)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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