50MHz Trophy 2014

This event used to be one of my favorites and I had a string of successes in the 1990s.  The last time I put on a "proper" station was 2007 (see www.g4bvy.com/contests).  And then I did the 6 hour section in 2010.  So it was time to "do it properly" again.  My only concession was to go with a main array of 2 * 5 element NBS yagis and a single 5 element Tonna.  (The full system had a pair of Tonnas for the second array but takes even longer to build !!).

So forget all of the pre-event testing and vehicle packing, this is still a mammoth undertaking.  Leaving home at 08:30 on Saturday morning, it takes 90 minutes to get there and five hours to build the station.  (Then there is a contest - see below).   Then it takes two and three quarter hours to disassemble and pack it up, a thank you call to see the farmer followed by the drive home to arrive at 19:00 on the Sunday.  Thankfully the weather was dry all weekend and the was more cloud cover than forecast which kept me a bit cooler.


OK - enough of the logistics - how about the contest ?!    Well here is the main antenna system on its 36 foot mast under construction.  Remember that this is single operator so that is me holding the antenna up while taking the photograph ?!




 

 And this is the full system with the second antenna array.  This is looking North East and you can just spot the Malverns on the horizon to the right of the main mast. The first test is to usually see if you can receive on both systems and that the pair gives a stronger signal.  Panic (?!) - I was hearing completely different signals on the two antenna systems.   Yes - they were pointing in the same direction - not !!  One was east and the other one was west !!

  And then there is the station.  Note the extremely comfortable operating position complete with extra padding!




The event got off to a swift start with 60 tropo contacts in the first hour.  Then at 15:24 the Propagation God switched the sporadic E on.  No weak stuff first like there usually is, but bang - there you are!  The Es lasted for about two and a half hours and there were two, or maybe even three, reflecting centres.  The main one gave activity mainly into Italy, Croatia, Serbia and surrounding countries.  The second one was into Spain.  So with the two systems it was two different pileups - one in each ear ... decisions decisions!!  There was also a more minor event at the same time into Sweden.  And that was the end of the main excitement.  There was a tropo enhancement into PA and ON and one ON called me to say that I had been a very steady S7 for hours on end.  At dusk on Saturday evening there was a very visible inversion.

So in all I operated for about fourteen and a quarter hours.  It would have been 15 but the K3 developed an interesting fault where it would not receive or transmit !!  I worked a total of 487 stations in 122 squares and 33 countries.  The only one missing on the map is the best DX which was the Canaries at 2865 kms. 

9A	13	EI	3	LA	3	SP	4
CN	1	F	25	LZ	1	SV	1
CT	2	G	267	OE	4	TK	1
DL	3	GI	1	OH	1	UR	4
E7	1	GM	3	OK	1	YO	8
EA	24	GU	4	ON	15	YU	12
EA6	1	GW	9	PA	9
EA8	1	HA	8	S5	4
EA9	2	I	41	SM	8