ABOVE: John ZL1BYZ (rear) and Andrei ZL1TM (front) concentrating on the pileups.
Band QSOs Zones Countries
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160: 21 10 9
80: 413 24 56
40: 1675 33 106
20: 1649 34 125
15: 2175 32 96
10: 1671 34 77
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Total: 7604 166 469 Total Score = 14,175,105
Operator(s): ZL1AZE, ZL1BYZ, ZL2AGY, ZL2BSJ, ZL1TM, ZL1CT
Class: M/M HP
Operating Time (hrs): 48
We had some real challenges getting organised this year. A pole on our overhead 11 kV line burnt out a week before the contest and power was not restored until the day before the contest. Several antennas were also damaged in strong winds and a new 15m 6 element yagi for the short path to Europe was rendered useless due to water in the heliax coax feeder! Despite these set backs we managed to get the station on the air and still had a lot of fun.
Our claimed score this year is similar to 2003, despite poorer conditions and 200 less QSOs. Highlights were being called by ZS6MG on 80m at our sunrise, and by 5U5Z on 10m. Some good pileups at times on 40-10m, but 80 and 160 were disappointing overall.
During the contest we had to climb several of the 20m masts to fix a problem with the wires from two vee beam antennas touching each other. This situation caused considerable inter-station QRM which lost us QSOs and mults in the initial 24 hours of the contest.
BELOW: The team looking very pleased with the result at the end of the contest. From left to right - ZL1CT, ZL1AZE, ZL2AGY, ZL2BSJ, ZL1BYZ (ZL1TM not in photo)
