It’s great to see the reports from some of the stations active at the weekend. I was hopeful that the recent HF condx would extend into the weekend – and they did – in spades. Not quite so true on 80m and 40m. I took my eye off the clock – and consequently, I missed any grey line propagation and was two hours late on these bands on the Saturday eve. So, I apologise to the VK / ZL guys 😌

I normally find that in the early hours, when the rate slows right down that I struggle to stay awake. Not this year. In fact, 10m was open quite late and 20m was open long path to VK / ZL between 0200z and 0400z.

I agree with the comments about QRS – I had to ask a few to slow down – because of the aurora. I just hope that I found the right balance of speed and I tried to work as many people as I could.

QSO numbers on 80m and 40m were way down on previous years. At GB5CC you’d expect to work something like 150Qs on 80m and 200 on 40m – you can see the numbers that I worked this year on the summary below (The column labelled “Sec” shows the HQ stations worked) – but are similar to Don’s totals at G5WS. I’d be interested to know if everyone found the same?

Beforehand, I was considering SO2R – but reasoned that I’d probably be CQing most of the time – so I stuck with a single radio. I was using a single K3 with an Alpha 89 amplifier. Antennas were a Doublet on 80m and either a dipole or vertical on 40m and an ancient TB3 Yagi at 20m on the HF bands. I also had Beverage ants for RX. Here’s a couple of photos to give some idea of the set up (hopefully photos are allowed through)

I have tried to erect better TX antennas on the LF bands – but it’s just not that easy.

My thanks to everyone who worked me – and I know that there were some where we just couldn’t make it – but I just hope that I made GB5CC in BERU 2023 appear in as many logs as possible. GL to the operator of GB5CC next year – you’ll have fun.

73 Graham G4FNL

[graham@…]

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