2023 - RSGB National Field Day (CW)

Tony G2NF, Mike G3WPH and myself, John G4IRN operated from Portland Bill again this year at G4GA/p. Our other regular op, David G4ERW had opted for a Coldplay concert instead, however per last year we were fortunate to receive visits from local resident Rich M5RIC who helped us set up and rip down the antenna hardware. After last year’s thunder and lightning storms, it was pleasing to have a beautiful weekend of sunshine, it certainly makes life easier.

No major issues with the station this year but we were surprised by the amount of (zero points) Russian activity which of course puts uncertainty over QSO totals and scoring. We were listening out for our friends at G4FNL/p, G3UES/p, G4A/p and GM4Z/p to check QSO numbers being handed out throughout the contest but its all rather meaningless with so many zero point QSOs about. Almost 9% of our QSOs were with zero pointers.

10m was really disappointing; although there was some long skip to Asia and even VK, there was a lack of Es to DL land which impacted the totals.

Our QSO total was 1135 (net of dupes) but with so many zero point QSOs in the log, the claimed score is indeterminable.

I always enjoy NFD weekend - an excuse to play radio in the outdoors with like minded friends, however diminishing /P interest is a serious threat to the essence of this contest. Some stats:

115 UK and Crown Dependency QSOs which comprised 54 unique stations.Only 21 of these were /P.

346 DL QSOs, 143 uniques, 67 of these were /P.

136 UA* QSOs, 91 uniques, 10 were /P.

I've put some pictures here: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZ7LUEVZ1mVM25LxXsLN64K6BJylFYksKIsX

Equipment:

Elecraft K3 - 100 Watts.

Doublet antenna for 10-160m at 15m high.

Site details:

QRA is IO80SN

WAB is SY67

POTA is G-0133