EUHFC SSB 1999 From OH0Z
(by OH5DX)

The European HF Championship has become very popular during the 
last couple of years. Activity is very good, the playing field is 
quite even and the 12 hours operating time (Sat 10-22Z) makes it 
very attractive. Both modes are on at the same time. 
You can go CW only, SSB only or mixed-mode.  
In our own OH0Z contest calendar the contest was "reserved" 
for me this year. Here´s how it went on SSB from the Aland Islands...

Friday before the contest

My wife Katarina and I start the two-hour drive towards the harbour 
and huge Viking Line ferry at 6.30AM. After six hours of smooth 
sailing we arrive at Mariehamn, the capital of the Aland Islands. 
We check in our cottage and then head for the OH0Z location, 
some 20 km out of town. The first thing to do there is to check 
that everything´s OK on the towers. For you see, there´s lots of 
aluminum up at OH0Z and the winds are often extremely strong. 
Everything is fine and the only thing to do is to tune our 80 loop 
from CW to fone and then I´m all set. Down the hill we go and back 
to Mariehamn to do some "tourist things." Sometime during our pub 
tour we run into Peter, OH0JFB. He´s the driving force behind the 
famous OH0AZ VHF/UHF contest team, our neighbours on the hilltop! 
(OH0AZ and OH0Z on the same hilltop, is that ZZ TOP then, heh?).

Saturday, contest time!

Start checking the propagation at 9Z, one hour before the start 
of the contest. Ten meters is dead -major disappointment! 
If I don´t get 10, have to compensate heavily on other bands. 
15m is marginally open, so decide to start there. 
After the first hour on 15 have 90 QSOs in log. Already the 
third station doesn´t have a clue of the contest exchange 
(the year of operator´s first amateur license, 
e.g. 59 77, 59 94 etc), but gives the regular 59 001. 
This thing happens time after time during the contest and 
take´s a lot of explaining. Make a quick jump to ten at 1102Z, 
but only ER0F and LY2BM are worked. Down to 14185 I go and 
get a nice pile´up going right away. Over 40 QSOs during the 
first ten minutes. Stay on 20m until 1151 Z and get some nice 
numbers: DJ9BK 59 47, G3KOZ 59 55, DL3WB 59 49 etc, meaning 
these gents have been licensed like 50 years or so!
Find a marginal opening on 10m at 1152 Z. Six QSOs and 6 new 
multipliers in 8 minutes. Call many CQs, but nothing. 
Time to QSY again, this time to 15 meters. Stay there only for 
15 minutes and 20 QSOs. Where is everybody? Don´t really like it, 
but have to go back to 20m again. Find 14195 open so there we go! 
Stay there basicly for 5 hours, with some quick checks on 10/15 
meters which bring a few new multipliers. Get some great 
numbers again, like G3ID 59 37 and GW3AHN 59 47. 
Play a lot with the two VFOs on FT1000MP. Between every CQ I 
tune the band with the second VFO trying to find new QSOs. 
Yeah, I know some of those stations may come come back to my 
CQs later, but it gives me a good feeling when I know that 
I  have done everything possible to increase the score! 
Then there is this comedian who has recorded ES5RY´s CQ 
contest calls and is playing them back to me like 50 times. 
I of course ignore him and away he goes to irritate someone else. 
Poor guy, his signal is so weak that everybody is head and 
shoulders over him. Should have spent his money on a good antenna 
instead of tape recorder! 

I want to stay on 20 as long as it is reasonable. I feel there 
are not so many people workable on the low bands and want to 
go there as late as possible. At 17Z make the decision 
and go to 40 meters. Band is really crowded as one would expect. 
Do some quick S&Ping while searching for a "clear" frequency. 
Find a hole around 7092 and start running. 
Being able to beam two directions simultaneously on 
40 meters is nice. I keep the stacked yagis on DL and 
the 2el yagi on UA3. The first hour on 40m is 94 QSOs. 
Stay on 40 almost for 3 hours. EA2ASJ gives me 59 20 (?). 
Hit 80 meters at 19.50Z. Find a good hole on 3745 and 
start running. 26 QSOs in the first 10 minutes. 
Make a bunch of 160m skeds for 21Z/1845khz. 
Eighty gets so slow that I hit 160 already at 2045Z. 
I´m pleased to find that many of the asked stations are there. 
The 160m run is over quite fast and down to 80m I go again. 
I ´m running out of stations to work and the rest of the 
contest is spent moving between 40/80/160 meters. 
Make a last minute sked with OH2U for 10 meters. 
He comes crashing through at 2159Z giving me a new multiplier 
to finish the contest with. 

Here´s the breakdown band by band:

160	31	21
80 	105	41
40 	277	53
20 	459	56
15 	125	44
10 	19	16
Tot	1016	231    =    234.696

(This is raw score which still needs some editing!)

In retrospect the contest went very well. Suffice it to say 
that the Internet contest reflector high-claimed scores show 
OH0Z as number 1. It is still premature to celebrate, 
because there were some extremely active stations on SSB who 
have not reported their scores.
Anyway, it was fun! Thanks for the QSOs.

73 Ari, OH5DX