Hello all

Firstly, thanks to all UK ops, DX travellers and HQ ops for the QSOs.  In recent years I have activated GB5CC, but this year was pleased to pass that callsign to RSGB President Bob GU4YOX, in memory of long-time BERU / CC supporter Bob G3PJT SK.

As I have said before, being so far North on the UK mainland has the advantage that I can work UK stations on all 5 HF contest bands, but the disadvantage is that any auroral activity can severely impact my ability to make DX QSOs. This was the case on Saturday afternoon, although to my surprise the auroral oval reduced in size instead of increasing, so I was able to continue making QSOs.

I installed a 40mm diameter aluminium 80m vertical especially for the contest, but the weather had other ideas – an unexpected strong gale last week overcame my 16 guys and the vertical broke in two. I happened to be looking out of the window as this happened – luckily nothing was damaged apart from the 3-layer internal joining sleeve which I though would have been strong enough -wrong. I re-erected this vertical the following day.

Overall the propagation made the contest as bit of a ‘slog’, but being able to work UK stations means you are a lot busier than other UK entrants who can only work DX and the UK bonus stations.

Contest         : RSGB Commonwealth Contest
Callsign        : GM6XX
Mode            : CW
Category        : Single Operator (SO)
Overlay         : Headquarters
Band(s)         : All bands (AB)
Class           : High Power (HP)
Zone/State/…  : 
Locator         : IO77WS
BAND   QSO DUP DXC  HQ  POINTS BONUS   AVG 
——————————————–
   80    81   1  11   6     110   420  6.54 
   40   103   2  19   5     185   660  8.20 
   20   148   0  29  11     430  1220 11.15 
   15    70   1  18   4     140   560 10.00 
   10    38   0   6   1      45   180  5.92 
——————————————–
TOTAL   440   4  83  27     910  3040  8.98 
=========================
            TOTAL SCORE : 3 950

GM6XX 2026 made 206 QSOs with DX stations and 238 QSOs with UK stations.

One indicator of good conditions is backscatter on UK signals on the higher bands – I did not hear any of that this year, Signals from ZL were very good on Sunday morning.  Overall I thought the contest/participation was reasonably ‘healthy’, but unlucky with propagation this year.

73     Chris    GM3WOJ / GM6XX