Last week the official results came out for the UBA DX CW contest 2008. Great: another win in the 12h HP class. To put things in perspective: mine was the only log submitted in this category. Nonetheless: I won both SSB and CW in 2007 and 2008. So 5 UBA plaques on the wall in total (2006 CW or so? I’m not in the shack right now).
I have a slightly higher score in 12h than the winner in the 24h class. I really hit it hard in CW. I tried that in the SSB part but that was a painfully slow contest. My CW score (about 850 QSO) was almost double than the SSB part (460 QSO). Same conditions, same setup, only 4 weeks apart. Main difference is the mode. The UBA CW contest coincides with CQ 160 SSB. The UBA SSB coincides with CQ 160 CW. Contesters prefer CW – period.
UBA CW in 2009 might be a problem. The usual date (last full W/E of February) is the same weekend as ARRL DX CW. That would kill UBA CW for sure. Since it’s unlikely the ARRL will move dates and the fact that those weekends are jam packed with contests (2x ARRL, 2x CQ 160, 2x UBA, 2x REF etc), I pointed this out to the UBA HF Manager a few weeks ago. I hope the UBA will move their CW DX contest.
Last weekend was SSB fieldday. I set the alarm to wake me at 6AM on Sunday to visit locals ON4BHQ and ON4ALY. They did a joint effort with 2 of the local clubs. When I arrived on the scene (about 10km from here) another familiar face arrived (ON4AFU). They had a nice setup with two big construction cranes to support the antennas. One of the cranes was illuminated making it a visible landmark. Their /P shack was a touring car. It’s for sale HI.
Other than that again nothing to report.