Hello Alan and all
I agree with your comments below. I was really a-buzz after the first night with great rates the first 3 hours but then it sure turned “south” (as they say in the northern hamisphere) . LOL
My score was so “ordinary” that I hesitated to post it to the group but here it is.
Still some good runs in there and I was happy the station seemed to be in top form and Murphy was QRU here.
Best to all
73 Steve
RSGB Commonwealth Contest – 2024
Call: VJ3A
Operator(s): VK3JA
Station: VK3JA
Class: SO-Open-24 HP
QTH: Rural Melbourne
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs Bonus Pts
———————–
80: 10 250
40: 68 995
20: 154 1370
15: 60 515
10: 45 625
———————–
Total: 337 3755 Total Score = 3,755
Club: VK Contest Club
Interesting to read all the comments about this year. As a well medicated 87 year old with a stuck beam (60deg) I was going to try enough hours to make 100 plus QSOs but this year failed to do this due to the contest logging program locking up and having to switch to contest mode and hand keying on my station logging program. A few booboos with that but allowed me 56 QSOs with most of the main players and ‘exotics’ on one band or another. I then failed to get on for UK morning session which has always been a fascinating period.
Overall, some signals from all parts were exceptional (worked the RAC stations right across Canada easily on 15 off the side of the beam) but the general impression was that activity and/or condx were down with auroral effects.
Sorry not to find VK6VZ or 9J2BO. I hope both are OK.
With regards to inter G working and spicing up G for other entities, I may have misunderstood the new regulations with regard to call signs but it seems to me that G stations are much freer to interpolate an extra letter in the prefix. If this is so perhaps the contest committee could look at splitting England into the usually understood regions (SW, SE, Mids, NE and NW) and designating an extra letter in the prefix for each one. This would make it more interesting for everyone.
I hope to do a better job next year along with a better contribution from the propagation gods and the status of the station