Contests

I operate most weeks during the university term in the RSGB UKAC contests as G6UW, from the CUWS shack in JO02af. For contests, we submit our log as members of the Camb-Hams.

I have also operated in the AFS contests as GX3PYE for the 160m club calls contest, in the Camb-Hams portable station Flossie, and M0BLF for the 2m AFS from the CUWS shack - G6UW was being used in Jersey that weekend (GJ6UW) by members helipng with a Japanese DXpedition.

My first contest was CQWW SSB 2011, as M4A, again from the CUWS shack, and was definately an experiance! Keeping the station running for 48hrs straight, with set-up and take-down either end (we can't have all our extra masts up all the time) make for a tiring, but enjoyable, weekend. A copy of the submitted contest report, by Dom M0BLF, can be found here.

Contest Equiptment

The equipment normally in operation from the CUWS shack is two Yaesu FT1000MP and aYaesu VL-1000 amplifier for HF. VHF radios are usually brought by operators.

Antenna consist of a 160m diploe, 80m vertical, 60m diploe, 40m dipole, 30m dipole, and a 3-element SteppIR for 20m - 10m. For VHF we have 5/5 Yagi for 6m, 3 element for 4m, 8 element for 2m and 23 element with masthead preamp for 70cms.

For CQWW 2011, we used an additional phased array for 80m, a 4-square for 40m, a second diploe for 160m, and monoband yagi for 20m and 10m (the SteppIR being dedicated to 15m).