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| Ian G3WVG operating 10m Single Band in ARRL-CW. | A 7-el 10m beam on a Versatower specially erected for the contest. |
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| Local Short-Wave-Listeners take an interest. | New 10m beam in a muddy field. | Jack GW8DX with shack dog Betsy. |
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| Neighbour David and Ian G3WVG work on the Versatower. | Jack GW8DX masterminds the installation of 7-el 10m beam. |
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| Installing 7-el 10m yagi for ARRL-CW. | Ground conductivity should be good. | Ian G3WVG examines the new power feed. |
Ian G3WVG writes : Conditions on HF were predicted to be superb. So a single band entry for 28MHz should be fun. Thanks must go to my friend Jack GW8DX for inviting me down to his new hilltop QTH in Wales to take part in the ARRL DX CW contest. I would be taking part in the very first contest from Jack's new station.
The tower was in place already before I arrived but we still needed to build and install the 7-el monoband yagi. Both the rotator and the coaxial cable still needed to be installed. Also the excellent purpose-built shack had no mains electricity supply.
For several days before the contest we worked hard in the cold and wet weather getting everything together. Just in time, it was late on Friday before there was finally an electricity supply to the shack.
Conditions for the ARRL CW Contest were excellent and everything worked faultlessly.
The 10m band was jam packed with stations. The first QSO on Saturday was at 1040z and the last one at 2035z.
On Sunday the opening to W/VE was a bit shorter: first QSO was at 1147z and last QSO at 2010z. The opening was about 90 minutes shorter on Sunday than it was on Saturday.
The overall result for the contest was 1,680 QSOs and 60 states and provinces worked. The missing provinces were Canada's troublesome trio of NU, NT and YT.
The entry was un-Assisted. No Internet in shack.
The last word for Jack GW8DX's new location is that it is really excellent. It has a great take-off in all directions and zero man-made noise.
73 - Ian G3WVG MW5B