The RSGB IOTA Contest 2001.
Republished from RSGB IOTA Contest Results Booklet. 2001.

Dear Contester
In the early years of the IOTA Contest, entrants received a results booklet like this one. Unfortunately that hasn’t been possible for the last few years. However, we are delighted to be able to reintroduce this service for 2001 contest participants. Results of the IOTA Contest 2001 have already appeared in RadCom, the RSGB’s monthly magazine, and are also posted on the Web pages of the RSGB HF Contests Committee. This booklet includes additional details and background, as well as the rules for the 2002 contest, in which we hope you will take part. We have also taken the opportunity to include some information about other RSGB contests, including the special Jubilee Contest, which will run this year to celebrate the Golden Jubilee (50 years’ reign) of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. In addition,
you will find further details of the IOTA programme and the awards available for working island stations. Finally, we are including a floppy disc with logging software suitable for use with the IOTA and Jubilee contests. If no disc is included with your booklet, or there is any problem with it, don’t worry. You can download the software from EI5DI’s Web page (see p.31 for details). It really does make life easier for the adjudicators if you are able to send an electronic log either on disc or, even better, by e-mail. In any case, do please include your e-mail address with your entry. For the 2002 IOTA Contest we will once again be providing an extended results service but, instead of a booklet like this one, for reasons of cost and convenience we will almost certainly be providing the service electronically via e-mail or the Web. Thank you for taking part in the 2001 IOTA Contest. We do hope you will enter the contest again this year, and encourage your amateur radio friends to do so too.
73 Don Field G3XTT
IOTA Contest Manager

IOTA CONTEST 2001 (reported by Don Field, G3XTT).

The IOTA Contest proved highly popular again in 2001, with over 1,000 entries and over 100 check logs. This is a slight reduction on 2000, partly due to a number of logs having to be reclassified as check logs (see “Logging”). The contest continues to be very popular, with entries having grown from 308 in 1993. Over 20,000 different calls appeared in entrants’ logs. Propagation, while not outstanding, was favourable enough to enable some recordbreaking scores to be achieved, and for those who were more interested in working some new islands rather than gaining a high contest score there were some rare ones to be worked. Many appear in the listings, but activity was also reported from D44BS (AF005), ZD7KA (AF022), XU7ABR (AS133) and others. A quick count shows that over 260 island groups appeared in contestants’ logs, more than enough for new IOTA chasers to make an excellent start in the Awards’ programme. Of these, more than 110 were in Europe, and it is certainly true that the contest continues to have a strong European flavour. European stations also benefited from Sporadic E propagation, enabling a good number of 10m QSOs. By DXCC country, the highest entry was from UA, followed by DL, SP and G. Having said that, a huge number of Japanese stations appeared in the logs, and representation from South America continues to increase. A priority for the RSGB Contests Committee for this year’s contest is to try and encourage greater participation from North America (nearly 5,000 different US calls appeared in entrants’ logs during the 2001 event), and we do hope
our US entrants will encourage others to send in a contest log.

Results.

The Island Multi-Operator section is probably the most hotly-contested category, and 2001 saw some outstanding scores being achieved. For the first time, scores broke the 10m barrier with OH9A achieving an incredible 12 million points, with the highest QSO and multiplier totals yet seen in this contest. As the OH0V team said, “We were targeting 10 million, which proved quite an accurate prediction, but even this was not enough now that we know what our competitors scored”. A key element for multioperator entrants was logging accuracy, and several teams lost substantial numbers of points as a result of logging errors. This is discussed more fully below. Second, third and fourth places were taken by 9A0A, 9A8RR and CQ9K, all with scores which would have won the contest in 2000. It is clear that multi-operator entrants can no longer confine their run operations to SSB, while calling CW multipliers as and when they appear. Nowadays there is a huge amount of CW activity in the contest, and a high score can only be made by devoting significant amounts of time to that mode. As an example, some 1400 of OH9A’s QSOs were made on CW. Andy, G4PIQ, at the controls of M6T, wins the island 24-hour SSB category, with a 1 million point increase on his previous year’s score. This result is due mainly to his excellent multiplier total, gained by some slick multiplier passing. Clive GM3POI takes the honours in the island 24-hour CW category, narrowly beating last year’s winner 9H1ZA. Petar 9A6A heads the island 24-hour Multi-Mode category. This is an interesting category to enter, as there is a significant element of strategy in deciding 4 when to switch modes. It is clear from the multiplier totals being achieved in other categories that we could see much higher Multi-Mode scores in the years to come. The 12-hour categories remain very popular, quite understandably. Here there is a rather different element of strategy which is, quite simply, when to take those breaks.It is not allowable, as some competitors seem to think, to operate more than 12 hours and then simply to submit the “best” 12 hours’ score! Such entries will be reclassified as 24-hour, or the first 12 hours of your log will be used for scoring purposes. The island 12-hour SSB category was very closely fought, with Pekka OH0R emerging the winner. The top three scores are from north, south and west Europe, so clearly there is no specific geographic advantage at work here. In the 12-hour CW category Laszlo 9A/HA6NL takes the honours. The Croatian islands were certainly popular as a contest destination, perhaps not surprisingly. Good propagation and good weather, while enjoying a summer holiday break! The final island category is the 12-hour Multi-Mode and was won by Steve AA4V from the Isle of Palms. This is an excellent result, showing that North American entrants really can achieve winning scores in this contest. “World” entrants in the IOTA Contest face a different kind of challenge. It is more difficult and less rewarding to run stations, and much more attention has to be paid to good multiplier-hunting. The winning entrants show just what can be achieved. Once again the winning World 24-hour SSB entry is from Germany and this time it is Thomas DL4MCF who heads the table, with a score which is almost 1m points higher than the previous year’s winning total. World 24-hour CW honours are taken by Slava RA1ACJ who was obviously determined to improve on his 2000 2nd place finish. In the World 12-hour Multi-Mode category, Zoli HA1AG takes top spot with a score and multiplier total that would be the envy of many multi-op teams. Zoli comments on his summary sheet that the contest is very hard work for non-island entrants, but his excellent score suggests that the effort was worthwhile! Romeo UN5PR leads the way in the World 12-hour SSB category, with a lower QSO total but higher multiplier score than those in 2nd and 3rd places. Scores in the World 12-hour CW category are almost as high as those on SSB, and Igor RZ3BW emerges the winner. In the World 12-hour Multi-Mode category there was a close fight for first place, with Wojciech SP9HWN (operating as SP9W) winning by the smallest of margins.

Assisted Categories.

For the first time a single-operator Assisted category was introduced into the IOTA Contest. The organisers felt that this would be helpful to serious island chasers who want to enter the contest but do not want to miss any rare island counters which are active over the weekend. Just 22 entrants participated in 2001, but hopefully this will increase in 2002. All are listed together but, of course, the scores are not directly comparable as the entries include both Island and World, 12- and 24-hour, and all possible mode options. The results indicate that PacketCluster support really does allow some high multiplier totals to be achieved, and congratulations to Ken W1NG for showing, again, that a winning score is possible from North America.

SWL.

There were 24 SWL entries, a slight decrease on recent years. The results listing has been fully categorised this year, giving 8 section winners. Warm congratulations to all the winners who will each receive an IOTA certificate of merit. Next year’s SWL listing will also be presented in this way, so it is important that listeners clearly show the category and section they are entering. Apart from the sections shown, it is worth noting that there are also four other Single Op Assisted categories that can be entered. Logs were received from 14 DXCC entities, and it was particularly pleasing to have logs from Uruguay, China, Japan and Thailand. Logs were of a very high standard and well presented. The majority of entrants lost some points but one fell foul of the “1 in 3” rule – remember that two other callsigns must appear in the “station worked” column before the same station can appear again – and lost several hundred thousand
points!

Logging and Adjudication.

Logging accuracy was generally good, considering the complexity of the contest exchange. The greatest number of errors appeared in multi-operator logs, perhaps due to the inexperience of some of the operators, and perhaps also due to problems in coordinating logging (especially of band and mode) between run and multiplier stations. It is certainly a concern that there is no logging software package that fully supports the IOTA Contest for multi-operator entrants, though most teams managed to make one of the main programs (most commonly Writelog, NA and CT) work for them in an acceptable fashion. Single-operator entrants are better served, with EI5DI’s SDI continuing to be the most popular logging software for this contest. Where entrants’ scores have changed substantially from that claimed on the cover sheet, this is usually because they had been incorrectly scored. Some entrants claimed 15 points for every QSO (not just island QSOs) while others were still using the old 2/5/15 point system. Many island entrants were also confused by the rule (introduced
for 2001) allowing credit for own-island. All island-station logs were re-scored in accordance with the rules, but this proved very time-consuming for the adjudicators (and would not have materially affected the final placings), so the rule has been dropped for 2002. The good news this time is that some 70% of entrants now send in electronic logs, which helps enormously with the adjudication. All paper logs are typed up by a team of volunteers, but this is time-consuming and, because they are all human, errors do creep in. Unfortunately a substantial number of entrants sent in electronic logs which omitted key data (usually serial numbers and/or IOTA references). Where possible, the adjudicators contacted the entrants concerned and requested that a new file be submitted. Due to time and resource constraints this couldn’t be done in all cases, and some entrants had, in any case, deleted the logs from their PC. In all such cases, in fairness to other entrants, the entries concerned were reclassified as Check Logs. Do, please, ensure that your log contains the key information. You cannot simply assume that the logging program will include it in an entry file, especially as some of the major programs still do not offer overt support for the IOTA Contest. Also, do ensure that your summary sheet is absolutely clear about which section and category you are entering. IOTA categories differ from other major contests, and it is essential that the adjudicators know whether, for example, your entry is 12- or 24-hour, Assisted or non-Assisted. For purposes of adjudication, this year’s adjudicators imported all entries to Excel, which enabled a significant amount of analysis and comparison to take place. Penalties were applied for mis-logged calls, mis-logged band and/or mode, and mislogged contest exchanges (small errors in serial numbers were ignored, as it is clear that multi-operator entrants often have problems keeping serial numbers in step between the run and multiplier stations). While there is currently no equivalent to, for example, the UBN reports available for CQ WW contest entrants, I am happy to provide feedback to entrants (in response to an e-mail) on the adjudication of their log. It is worth bearing in mind that the 15 to 3 points ratio for island/non-island QSOs and the importance of multipliers mean that losing a 15-point multiplier is dramatically worse than losing a 3-point non-island QSO.

Rules for 2002.

The rules for this year’s contest have already been published with January RadCom, and are available on the RSGB HF Contests Committee Web site. They also appear on p.15 of this booklet. After last year’s changes, it was hoped to keep changes this year to a minimum. To some extent this is the case, but there are two significant areas of change which potential entrants need to be aware of. The first is that, for consistency, and to encourage greater participation, all entrants can now choose between high-power and 100-watt categories (this option was previously available only to island expeditions). A World multi-operator category has also been introduced (several entries for such a category have been received in the past and have had to be re-classified as Check Logs). Secondly, there have been changes in the definition of an Island DXpedition. This has happened both because it has been increasingly difficult to classify some entries as Island Permanent or Island DXpedition, and also to get back to the original intention of this category, which was to encourage expeditions to remote and rarely-activated islands. Under existing rules, a team of UK operators, for example, could set up a temporary station with multiple towers and antennas from EU005 (UK Mainland) and be competing with a group which has had
to establish a station on an uninhabited rock, accessible only by sea. In future, island DXpeditions will have to satisfy more strict criteria and will appear in a separate DXpeditions listing, as well as in the main Island Station listings. All participants, even those making a small number of contacts, are encouraged to send in an entry. The preferred method is by e-mail. Nowadays this is quick and easy
and, if there are any problems with your log, it is much easier for us to contact you and sort things out. Single-operator entrants are encouraged to use EI5DI’s SDI software, which has been developed especially for the IOTA Contest, but this is not
essential, and most logging programs provide satisfactory log and summary files. If you are in any doubt about which files to send, or how to set up your logging program to provide the best support for the IOTA Contest, do feel free to contact me or any
member of the RSGB HF Contests Committee. Advice on using the most popular programs will, as soon as possible, be made available on the HF Contests Committee Web page.

Publication of Results.

As well as this write-up, a full listing of results has been posted on the RSGB HF Contest Committee Web pages (www.rsgbcc.org/hf), to allow entrants to download and analyse them at will (for example, by country or continent). This booklet is being mailed to as many entrants as possible and will also be available for download. Extended results of the 2002 and future contests will appear either in booklet form or via the RSGB HF Contest Committee Web pages.

Thanks.

I was asked to take on the management of the IOTA Contest in 2001, never having previously managed a contest of any sort, never mind one as popular as this! That we have been able to prepare and publish the results within the usual timescale is due entirely to the support and help I have received from a number of people including
Catherine at HQ, G4ZFE, GM4FDM, MM0BQI, GM4UZY, GM0CLN, GM0NTL, GW4VEQ, G4PDQ, G4IIY, G3LZQ, G3NKC, G0JQN, G4BUO, G3ZBE, M5ACC, EI5DI and, for all matters relating to the SWL entries, Bob Treacher BRS32525. Also to the HF Contests Committee, and especially its Chairman Justin G4TSH, for their unfailing support. My apologies if I have omitted anyone. Credit for a successful outcome goes to them, any errors and omissions should be laid at my door. Finally, I want to thank Chris Burbanks G3SJJ, who preceded me in this role. Chris, I didn’t realise what a major job this was, and all credit to you for bringing the IOTA contest to where it is today.

Check Logs.

Check logs are acknowledged, with thanks, from 4L4KW 9A2TN DH5MM DK3RED DK9EA DL1DTC DL2HWI DL2RYL DL2VB/P DL4NTC/P DL5AWI DL5CX DL5KVV DL5NA DL7UCX DL7VAF DL7VMH DL7VMM DL8DTL DL8UFO EA3CZM EA4DRV EA5DCL EA6BB EA8BIE EA8BVX EU2MM G0JQN G3LUW HB9DCM IV3JVJ JA5APU KF3CV L_481219 LA7FD LA7FJA LA8LA LZ1JZ MM5PSL OK2ZJ OK2ZW OZ0RS OZ5MJ OZ6TL PT2ND PV8DX PY1KX PY2GEC PY3AJB PY3AU PY3MM PY4OY RA0ZN RA1QDP RA3OU RA3TAR
RA4UAT RA9AWQ RK9KWB RN3ZZ RN4LP RN9AXX RN9BYL RU3DG RW9AWG RW9BXA RW9BXL RX9AWB RX9BXN SM1ALH SM3NXS
SM4AWC SM4BNK SM6AVD SM6BSK SM6BZE SM6DUA SM6PVB SM7BJW SP1DMD SP1JON SP1PBT/1 SP2MEF SP4GDC SP5AHY SP6BEN SP6GTN SP6IHE SP7BDS SP7CKP SP7DTP SP7JKW SP7XK SP9CVY SP9HZF SP9MDY SQ9CAQ UA0FGN UA0ZC UA1ANE UA1ZJW UA3AVR UA3YJU UA4AO UA4ARL UA4LFC UA4UAR UA4YJJ UA9JQN UA9OS UR5EFJ UT7QL UT7WZA UW7W UX3ZW UX7MY W6IXP YO4ASG YO8COK YO9BGV YU1AEK YZ1SG. Some of these logs were originally submitted as entries, but had to be reclassified as they did not include all the required log information. The adjudicators will make every effort to contact those having problems with their log, but you can also help by double-checking before mailing us your log. In any case, all logs, both entries and check logs, are useful to the adjudicators, and it is very easy to send in a log by e-mail, so if you make any contacts at all in this year’s contest, do please send us your log.

Trophy Winners.

Congratulations to all the trophy winners, listed below. In recent years the W9DWQ trophy has been awarded to the leading North American Island Expedition station, but the trustees of that trophy have indicated that it should actually go to the leading Single-Operator North American Island Expedition station. As there was some ambiguity in the published rules, a further trophy will, therefore, be issued to the leading Multi-Op North American Island Expedition Station, which is XM2CW VO1NO, VE2AYU, VE2TBH, VE2WHO, VE2SEI, VE2YAK, KA8ZUO, VE2DX). Although the rules for 2002 show only the existing trophies, sponsors are being sought for a much wider range of trophies to reflect the high level of participation in most categories, and details will be published on the Web page when available. If you, or perhaps your club, are interested in becoming a Trophy sponsor, then please contact me or any member of the RSGB Contests Committee as soon as possible.

A Full listing of all the Results are here.

Soapbox.

(The following is a selection of the comments received and gives a flavour for how the contest was seen by its participants. Apologies if your soapbox comments do not appear, but those from paper logs or contained in the body of an e-mail rather than the summary sheet may have been missed)

5B4/SP5UAF: I was active from an island for the first time. Not too much time for the contest. So I
decided to operate 12 hours CW only. I was located on the mainland of Cyprus, in Nicosia - the capital
city of this wonderful and friendly country. Antennas were not too high, only about 9-10m.

7S2E: First time in the contest - have been collecting IOTA for some time and managed to find about
40 new ones.

8S7A: We did better than last year. Still lacking multiplier search facilities but we enjoyed the contest
despite bad conditions on 10m. See you next year!!

9A/DL1BKK/P: Wanted to be QRV 12 hours, but so frustrating with small equipment and bad
conditions that I gave up after 5½ hours, sorry. Average QSO-rate 1 QSO every 3 minutes, but outside
the contest 1, 2, or 3 QSOs per minute.

9A1AA: I had big problems with my computer. All QSOs are dated as year 2094, hi.

9A2WJ: After a Saturday early morning shift (like a bus driver) it is to hard during the next night
sitting in front of the gear being capable to work a whole night/day, hi. The conditions were good. See
you in the next IOTA Contest.

9A5V/P: The contest was very nice and I'm looking forward to next year.

9A7T/P: We were operating from the beautiful island of Zut with 100 watts and modest antennas.
Conditions were rather poor and it was very hot (37C) but we have bettered our last year's score by
more than 700k points. See you next year from another island.

9A0A: Fantastic contest with fantastic team! Thanks to everybody for QSOs!

9V1RH: Quite good fun as usual. Some new IOTA islands were the icing on the cake.

CO3JO: I took a rest for 1 hour because I was sick, with a headache. I enjoyed the contest very much
and it increased my DXCC score. Thank you!

CT7A: Times are not OK in the log. Many problems with computer network.

CX4ACR: Very bad propagation, and I broke my transceiver. I hope next year will be better.

DJ1AA: I had a lot of fun and hope to be on the air in 2002 too.

DJ1YFK: Why is there no QRP category? Contest was great fun as usual! (Lots of categories already
OM – perhaps more than any other contest. – G3XTT)

DJ7IK/P: Five years after winning the 24 hour mixed class I took part again from DJ6QT's QTH. I
decided on 24 hour CW and had a lot of fun. My experience is that you have to look for multipliers
very intensively. Otherwise you have a lot of QSOs but no good results at all.

DJ9AO: My first entry in this contest. It's very hard in the European pile-ups without good antennas.

DL1CW: Just a few hours, but nice to see as the contest goes more and more to become a big event!

DL1EFD/P: I was overslept five hours during the night, so only a few QSOs on 80/40m.

DL3KUD/P: My target was to reach more than 1,000 QSOs but Mr. .Murphy sent me heavy
thunderstorms between 1940 - 0300 UTC. So I had to go QRT during the night. Nevertheless I had fun
with this small activity and my first QSOs after the 3B6RF expedition.

DL3NSM/P: IC735 with tuned inverted-V for all bands. During the day more than 30C, in the evening
a million gnats and a mighty thunderstorm in the night – a contest for hard men!

DL6JZ: A lot of fun again. Could only work CW because my family wanted to sleep in the night, hi.
This year with a tribander for the first time I was able to work more multipliers. Very good activity by
IOTA stations, even on CW!

DL7UIO: The weather was OK, but with 34C in the shack it was too hot for contesting!! Thanks for
the nice contest, bye bye until next year.

DL7FER: First time that I participated seriously in that contest. Great event.
DM5JBN/P: Had a lot of fun, good conditions and many island-stations, fine contest!

EA1BZP: Good contest, I had a good time although I had strong storms for my area and was unable to
participate for more hours.

EA4WC: For me this is the best contest.

EA6/F6GIN: The more I participate, the more I like this contest. Looking forward to 2002.

EI2CH: DX not great.

EJ3HB: Great weekend. Looking forward to next year

EJ4GK/P: Kohei JR0BAQ, a native of Japan, was a member of the team and he spent some time on
the microphone calling Japanese stations (in Japanese). The response was very good, and many stations
not otherwise participating in the contest gave us a call. Thus you may note an unusually high
proportion of unique calls in the log.

ES1QD: Hello to all IOTA friends. Next year I will again activate an Estonian IOTA island.

ES2/SM0ELV: Had expected more contacts but with not too good equipment it was OK. Lovely
island and sunny so everything fine. Hope to be on another island next year.

F/G4CXT/P: Station located approximately 6m above high tide level in a beach car park! Antenna on
top of a war-time bunker. Started out as a bit of fun and ended up staying on for remainder of contest.
Main problems were mosquitoes and the sunshine as the temperature soared to 40C! Perhaps consider a
competitive multi-band entry for next year. Paper log only, no computers!!!

F5RAB/P: My first IOTA DXpedition - very exciting! Some problems with "HF returns" with the FT-
990 at the beginning with the FD4 and other problems to verify Murphy's law, hi!

F5TYY/P: Thanks for the organisation of this fantastic contest.

G2HLU: Conditions were markedly better than last year on 21 and 28 MHz. But where were the
VK/ZL stations? I heard only the one ZL that I worked, and I don't think my old cloth ears are so bad.
No joy with Africa either, for that matter.

G3HZL: Thank goodness I do not use a linear. It was warm enough without one, despite a big office
fan going full blast. Guess at 74 I am getting past it. Peculiar conditions; Europe at any strength from 3
to 9 all day, plus JA, UA0, ZL, 9M all at good strength. Picked up a few new islands. Maybe if I live
long enough I will have enough for an award or two. Brain seems to be slowing down!

G3JJG: First year that have entered but will not be the last.

G3LHJ: Sorry this was only a token entry; always clashes with our TARS Club special event station,
but have give up that now, so all stops pulled out for next year.

G3PJT: 12 Hour only this year. Conditions poor. Plenty of activity.

G3SXW: Great conditions, good fun. Highlight: VK6HD calling me on 80 metres. Lowlight: time
breaking multiplier pile-ups with 100 watts. Fascinating QRV/QRT strategy-decisions in the 12-hour
section. Many thanks and good luck to Don and team.

G3THE: Enjoyable once again - can we have a low power section for home based stations? (yes, see
this year’s rules – G3XTT)

G3TXF: As a Cluster assisted CW-only entrant it was evident that several multi-operator IOTA
stations were concentrating on running stations on SSB but only dipping into CW to work multipliers.
Some 'big' IOTA stations were just never heard 'running stations' on CW. Logical, I guess, from a
rate/scoring point of view, but somewhat frustrating for the CW-only entrant. Great contest!

G3VQO: By far my best-ever effort in this contest. For once, no work QRM to affect my operating
times. Whatever happens to the people who operate from the Scillies? They never seem to appear on
CW, so I still need EU-011 for IOTA !

G3YEC: Hardly any signals the first two hours. Found the antenna lead had broken and only
occasionally making full connection! Then developed keying trouble on the rig (not the PC)! For one
of the very few times in my amateur career I moved to SSB! Other than that it was a great amateur
contest. I particularly liked being told by a station who I congratulated on having over 2000 contacts
"without the likes of you I wouldn’t have so many" - now that’s the true spirit of amateur radio. I wish
a few more would realise where they get their figures from!!!

G3ZRJ: Very busy weekend, but glad to hand out a few points

G4AXX/P: Foot and Mouth disease restrictions meant we couldn't use our usual military airfield QTH
this time, so we found a field next to a caravan site belonging to a friendly garden centre. It was £10 a
night and we used the 16A caravan site mains. Take off was flat in all directions at only 20m above sea
level. What a brilliant contest, had a great time, and boy was it hot! Participation seems to have
increased and the bands were in excellent shape. High points were working VK and ZL on 15m, 90
minutes after sunset and again, on 20m, 90 minutes after sunrise. Finishing off the contest racing
through a pileup was superb.

G4BJM: My first full-time entry. Should have spent more time searching out multipliers, but good fun
running.

G4DDL: Whilst my Morse is far from perfect there was some truly horrible CW being sent! Mainly
caused by excessive speed settings on keyers and computers, some stations had to repeat their data so
many times to most stations that they would have been much quicker slowing down! Otherwise lots of
fun, need to get much better myself!

G4EDR: Some stations not giving their callsigns until asked.

G4JFS: 80m? Where was everybody? Maybe I need to get up earlier next time!

G4KNO/P: Wow was it hot! The trailer mounted cabin at the foot of the tower is made out of
aluminium - great as a Faraday cage, but I kept burning my elbows on the walls whilst operating! At
least the equipment survived.

G4TSH: 40m as usual the best band for me. Some stations not giving a callsign, but no instances of not
giving the IOTA.

G4UCJ: My first entry in the IOTA and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was amazed to work over 500 QSOs
with just 20 watts and mainly indoor wires. Some stations not giving call/location very often which was
a time waster for me but on the whole operating procedures were pretty good. Will be back next year!!

G5XV: Our best ever score. Operating very close (spotting station was only 150ft from the front door)
to our watering hole, the Woodmans Arms, made for an excellent and exciting contesting weekend!
But it was a little difficult getting operators out at certain times of the day. Very hot weather made for
plenty of liquid refreshments to moisten the throat, hi. We are planning for next year already with
hopefully improvements. We had many members of the public visit us, and amateurs from the island
and on holiday. We adhered to RSGB advice and obtained prior written permission from land owners.
Finally, the locals thought we were scientists, hunting Unidentified Flying Objects......bless them!!

G9Q: The late reintroduction of this event due to the Foot and Mouth problems caught our members on
the hop as most believed that all UK events for 2001 had been scrubbed. We therefore had problems
raising a team so we held an open day style event and invited members from other local clubs along,
this went well, however some guys just could not understand that the S&P station could only work
Mults. To this end we have marked all 80 legally worked QSOs as Busted Call and scored them as
zero. We also suffered from network problems, which lost us around 30 QSOs.

G0DVJ: Just giving points away for a few hours.

G0LUQ: This years contest was much better for me than last year, a Heil headset and a new (to me)
laptop made life a lot easier. Only one dupe. I typed in the call and pressed enter instead of back space
so just let it go. Operated from Harwell Amateer Radio Club near Didcot, Oxfordshire. I hope to go to
an island next year! Where can I go and cause a pile up? Will let you know a bit nearer the time!

G0MRH: Enjoyed a first time venture but conditions on Saturday were terrible. A lot of non-IOTAreference-
giving stations. Surely everywhere could have a reference to give to show more interest.

G0MTN: Good fun as ever but I chose the wrong hours to operate!

G0OYQ: Excellent conditions.

G0VBD: Enjoyable competitive contest as always, and bettered my previous two years’ score by
chasing multipliers.

G0VDZ: It might have been me but I thought the bands were dead.

G0VVE: This was the first time I have entered an IOTA contest so was not quite sure what to expect.
It was good fun and I will no doubt enter again. Having no comparison I can't make any useful
comment on conditions, etc. However I did try 80m but no contacts were made.

GB3RS: Steve (G4JVG) and I thought we would put GB3RS on the map for IOTA and in the end we
were quite pleased with the result and hope it flew the flag appropriately for the RSGB. We had an
absolute nightmare with TR log; not only did the network crash 20 minutes into the contest never to
recover, to the general consternation all round, it also managed to lose a complete QSO! It just
vanished off the screen, never seen that before with SD, CT, WL - all very strange. Hope it doesn't
cause problems. It also proved a problem to sort the log out afterwards (it is a hard way to learn it, but
we now feel that TR only really works for single-ops well, too many intangibles for multi-op). Might
try NA next year. In the end though it was a fabulous contest and a great time was had by all and a
good score put in from EU-005 we felt.

GB5SI: Broken rotator, Broken vertical, Broken shoulder but not broken spirit !! Highlight of the
contesting year, masses of fun and great contesting spirit. Island is booked again for next year when we
will leave all the broken bits at home !

GD3UNA/P: My first lone operator entry and my first lone DXpedition. Hardly any planning; just
upped sticks and went! Fell asleep for 3 hours. Only used half a tank of petrol with little generator. I
can recomend the Isle of Man for a holiday.

GI3XRQ/P: Great contest, everyone enjoyed it very much. Already looking forward to next year.

GM2T: Yet another great IOTA Contest! We all had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend
despite a definite lack of sleep and a multitude of problems. Failures included 1 PC, 1 Monitor and a
Rotator which refused to work due to voltage drop until we reduced the length of the cable run! Not to
mention tripping the mains circuit breaker about a dozen times during set-up (probably due to water in
electrics!) and having the run station plunged into darkness early on Sunday morning when our host
returned from the pub and unplugged our mains lead so that he could plug in some fairy lights! The
main improvement had to be having DX Cluster access. This is reflected in our score which has more
than doubled since last year.

GM3POI: The points differential for non island QSOs is too great, several have commented on the
reflector that it’s not worth entering IOTA when they are getting only 3 points for that type of QSO.
We will have to ask ourselves whether it’s worth wasting time for 3 points or carry on CQing for JAs
etc. I worked 126 JA. I suggest 5 points for a non island Q. (It used to be that way, Clive, but there was
a strong body of opinion to change the differential to the way it is now – G3XTT)

GM3PPG/P: Again a very enjoyable contest. Steady improvements each year to my totals although
still lots to try and experiment with. Homebrew linear needs attention as not QRV on 10m. I need to try
a different approach for the antennas for 20/15/10m: I heard one well known DX operator/contester
(from a European island ) saying, before the contest, that this contest format had run its course.
However, I disagree entirely. From my point of view , going portable and trying to pick a good location
(rather than operating from home on the UK mainland ) and hence installing all the antennas at short
notice makes it all worthwhile. The old adage is still true: you have to put a lot of effort in to get
something out - and believe me when you beat your own targets it's great fun and the sense of
fulfillment is tremendous. I treat the whole episode as a mini DXpedition with the IOTA contest as
only a part of it! My main interest is getting a phased array working each year on 80m.

GM4EDX: Very short skip on 10, 15 and 20. 80m very poor, and little activity on 40m. I expect this
will have pleased the anti-contest brigade, hi. Due to skip lack of multipliers. Missed the 2000 contest,
but found this one more enjoyable than my last 1999 entry. Why was (callsign) inviting stations on
SSB, after their contact to switch to CW for a contact on the same QRG. One I did not think it was
allowed in the rules to have CW in the SSB band allocation. Two, it took potential stations off SSB and
away from others waiting. I heard them do this twice. (This is indeed against the rules and spirit of the
contest, and several stations had contacts disallowed where this could be proved. I suspect it was
usually some of the less experienced operators in multi-op groups who made this mistake. – G3XTT)
Lastly, as a single parent of a 9½- year old girl, who also decided to have two pals round of the same
age, this made it a hard contest for me. But still a buzz.

GM0F: Whinge #1 - Expeditions don't give their calls every QSO. It's awful to wait for a guy to
eventually give his call, only to find that you've worked him before. Whinge #2 - Who started this last
two letter calling technique? It's rife in the IOTA contest, and it slows everybody down. All in all, I
thought it was a good contest. Reasonably high activity (could do with more from the USA) and lots of
casual callers (all using their last two letters!).

GM0FGI: Enjoyable contest, first entry although have dabbled for a few years.

GU8D: Apart from the heat (30C) we had a few problems. Open-circuit co-ax outer and seized rotator
on the Guernsey Amateur Radio Society tower. Unable to enter the field used for multiplier antennas
due to Foot & Mouth Disease restrictions so had to allow the GU guys to erect and lower multiplier
antennas. Unfortunately this resulted in a coupler folding and my A4S crashing to the ground. Just one
of those things we have to accept.

GW0ANA/P: Spent more time hunting multipliers this time. Great fun learning more each year. It was
the bite of the "IOTA Bug" that sent me off to ZD7K and ZD8K this year, hi. I love islands and IOTA.
GW0GEI: Wow! What a buzz! 10m pile ups from Europe were amazing! Best contest I've had for
years. I even tried speaking slower for G3SJJ's benefit! (see unsubstantiated complaint in RadCom
article regarding GW6J in last year’s IOTA contest)

HA1AG: The IOTA contest is undoubtedly a Search Pounce competition for non-IOTA stations. Due
to lack of interest in working a non-IOTA like me I got no real runs this year. Just for curiosity I put an
IOTA station from the super-rare EU-029 in the second VFO and I noticed that nearly 90% of the
stations doing Search and Pounce and piling up on him ignored my endless CQ's 2kHz above this
station. I think the creators of this contest thought the only role of a non-IOTA is to provide masses for
the IOTA operators' pileups. (I think Zoli, your own excellent score shows that non-island stations can
still make a lot of QSOs! And they also benefit from the opportunity to work new islands for the IOTA
awards. – G3XTT)

HA8UT: This software is very good, many thanks to EI5DI!

HB9ARF: I made more points and QSOs than last year. It was a good opportunity to work new
IOTAs. Thanks for this nice contest and see you next year.

HB9FBI: Problems with dipole have not me permitted to operate on the 80m band. I operated from a
small village at 5400 feet over the sea.

I2AT: Finally many multipliers on 10 meters!!

IA5G: My first DXpedition, the propagation wasn't very good. Great experience ready for next year.

IA5P: Pianosa, is a very small island in the National Marine Park of Tuscany Arcipelago; it is very
quiet and peaceful, with clear water, but is very difficult to get to because it is a maximum security
prison. So I send my thanks to the Italian "Carabinieri" for great hospitality, and to the Chief of Park
for the opportunity to stay on the island. This is our first IOTA Contest and satisfaction was very high,
with the propagation good on 10/15/20m and normal on the low bands. Not too many QSOs on CW, as
only Sergio I5NSR is good operator on this mode, hi. See you in the 2002 IOTA contest. 73 to
everybody from Giovanni I5JHW (also QSL manager).

IC8WIC: Continuous EU pile up - few JA and US openings.

IK7FPX/P: A very good experience; the island is very beautiful. The IOTA Contest is very interesting.

IZ1DFI: Best contest.

J49R: Great contest! I had a very good time and enjoyed the pileups! Usual lack of JAs. The 10m band
was quite good, much better than expected. The first day I had a bad noisy 20m, so I stayed longer on
15, which I think was a good choice. I improved my last year score by more than 30%, so far so good!
Some very good operators helped for some all band multiplier sweeps. Congratulations to the OH9A
team for their "outstanding" performance!

JA9SCB/1: The propagation from JA was not so good. Thank you to all European stations who called
me. See you in the next IOTA contest.

JW5E: We were the most northern station during this contest! Maybe ever. Only 1000km from the
North Pole means no nights and no 80 m openings! Always nice to hear all those islands specially
activated. This was our 7th IOTA contest in a row and we still love it.

K2TV: This was my first IOTA contest and will not be my last. I didn't have a lot of time to operate,
but jumped on the rig every chance I got. Great Fun.

K4RFK: Co-ax problems kept me off the air for a good portion of the contest and restricted me to just
the 15m and 20m bands. Otherwise had a great time when all was OK.

K6ACZ: Did not seem to be as many stations in this year's IOTA as previous years. 10m was dead
here. Thanks for a good contest

K8KFJ: Had only a short time in which to make a few search and pounce CW contacts on 20m but
enjoyed the time I spent there. I think the yearly IOTA Contest is a great one and would never miss it
(if possible). My thanks to those groups who went to islands (for us to work) and who made it fun.

KF9YL: Thanks to everyone for participating in the contest!

M3C: Great fun. I did not make the same mistake as last year and go single band. I should read the
rules more carefully. See you next year.

M3S: A good year, weather 'too hot', good band conditions all round.

M0CAR: My first contest.

MI0LLL: Conditions this year were very good. Thanks to the short skip I was able to work plenty of
Gs on the higher bands which was great for my score. Conditions to JA on the Sunday morning were
excellent as I was able to log a whole list of them as well. I really enjoyed this contest and hopefully
will for time to come. However, I believe the down side to this contest for me is the lengthy exchange.
I know that this has already been discussed again and again, and I wonder how many others agree with
me that it is too long. I suggest the removal of the serial number as this to me is very intimidating, I
know myself that I give the contest 100%, and am doing very well to come 7th or 8th but when a super
station calls you with a number like 2400 and me only on 1300 you say to yourself that what is the rear
point in carrying on. If however you don't know what number he is on I feel that you will be able to
continue with 100% to the wire. Please don't feel that I am crying or jealous of the super stations as I
am not, as I know that I will be there one day too (confidence for you!) but for now I am merely
voicing my opinion about this well maturing and excellent contest. (As the adjudicator, serial numbers
certainly help with the checking process, and provide some “real” information to exchange, especially
for non-island stations – G3XTT)

MW5EPA: Microphone problems meant I couldn't operate for the full time but really enjoyed the
contest and looking forward to next year's.

N2GC: This contest is a lot of fun, especially for an island station. Could only put in 12 hours due to
prior family commitments. Next year will mark the calendar before my xyl makes plans.

N0AX: This contest is a lot more fun when you count as an island! Hope to have a bigger effort in the
future.

OH2NAF: This was my first IOTA contest and I enjoyed it. The 12 hours system suits well for me
because I am 67 years old. Maybe we will meet again next year.

OH9A: Another unbelievable IOTA contest! This year we had some 10m propagation and were able to
improve our 10m multiplier by 37 from last year (403 more QSOs). On the other bands the conditions
were a little better than last year. Still it is quite difficult to break the huge pileups with our modest
antenna setup. The only problem was the CT program which is not yet totally ready for IOTA contest.
There were still too many crashes. However, it was much better than last year! Anyway, we had a lot of
fun and will be back on the air again next year!

OH0V: We were targeting for 10m score; quite an accurate execution. However, this target was proven
too small as we know our competition scores now. Only surprise was TR software mixing numbers and
not transferring corrected QSO data to the other computer in the network. That created a lot of post
contest log processing.

OK2QX: Sorry that there were not more island stations on CW.

OK2SWD: Very good Contest and perfect IOTA operators. See you next year again friends

OK5SWL: Very good contest with interesting IOTA operators. With 30 watts it is not effective using
CQ mode. See you next year again friends.

ON4KVA: First IOTA contest, very FB.

ON7CC: First participation , nice contest.

OX3NUK: First time contester - learned a lot during the contest. Very poor conditions - only bands
open 15 and 20m. Discovered a poor SWR on antenna so radiated power around 50 - 60 watts. Will
participate next year.

PA/F5PAC: Nice propagation and much fun.

PY2EMC: Would be better with good propagation!

SM4BTF: What a pity I had no more than an hour or two for this enjoyable contest

SN2B: Very poor conditions but good Es on 10m to G and the whole of Europe. Also, on the second
day a 0015 opening to the US on 10m for about 30 minutes. 80m very bad and 40m no US so not the
best IOTA contest for conditions, but points and mults more than last year thanks to the E’s on 10m!

SP3GTS: Very interesting contest, but I didn't have enough time to participate full time.

SP6AOI/6: Weather was very bad, stormy, turbulent and with lightning.

SV1BRL/SV8: Enjoyed hearing the bands full of activity and the IOTA stations were able to bring
some sea breeze to the rest, hi!

SV8DTP: This was my 2nd IOTA Contest. Propagation was not so good to start with but great fun!!
Anyway, I did a bit better this year and I will certainly try to take part in next year's contest.
Congratulation to every single participant for an excellent contest!!

UR5FCM: I used the SDI program for the first time. It's very simple to use in this contest. I'm looking
forward to next year’s IOTA Contest.

US7IGF: Very nice and very interesting contest. Nice program from EI5DI. See you next year.

V73OD: I enjoyed the little bit of on air work that I did; next year I will know how to be better
prepared.

VE1JS: My best IOTA contest ever! Working with only a dipole has both advantages and
disadvantages. Easy to install quickly and one does not have to worry about pointing it! Force feeding
it with 1 kW really helps!!

VE2OWL: It was lots of fun contacting the island stations before, during and after the contest!

VE6YP: Great contest with excellent participation. However I spent more time 'fixing' YPlog to make
it work properly with the IOTA contest. Hopefully, YPlog now runs properly for this contest.

VK1JDX: First time in the Contest - great to make my 100 islands at last for my first application!

VO1GO: Hard going with dipoles plus 100 watts.

W4SAA: Antennas were on the roof of the 3rd floor at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of
Marine and Atmospheric Science on Virginia Key (near Miami). Special thanks to Virginia Newell and
the RSMAS people for use of NA-141. We had three generations of contesters operating: Dick N4RP
(82 years’ old), Joe W4SAA (55), Art AB4RL (23) and we had a ball. We even set up networked
computer logging with two computers; a first time experience for us all, using WriteLog. It worked
great. A photo QSL is being printed with the help of RSMAS and will be sent to all via the bureau.

W5FO: I really enjoyed the IOTA contest. I have started chasing IOTAs now and tried pretty hard in
the contest to get a good score.

W9LYA: First time in IOTA - nice to find SDI program for free!

WA3AAN: Thanks for a wonderful contest. Just got my feet wet this year. Hopefully I'll do better next
year.

WB8YJF: Fried a trap in the beam, but managed to Rube Goldburg it back into sort of usable! 2.5:1
SWR at best! I love this contest! CU Next year!

XM2CWI: A good expedition, but poor conditions on 10m, and problems with logging program.

YC3MM/5: I am QRP station (3 watts), sorry for low signal.

YO7ARY: Very nice contest. Congratulations to EI5DI for superb program.

YO7LCB: Very good activity this year in the contest! I worked 6 new islands and made my best score
compared to past years! I hope to be in the top ten this year! I raised my island total above 600!
Congratulations and see you next year!

YU7BW: Good contest, but have no more time this year.

YZ1V: Very nice contest like every year, but I had problems with my Windom antenna. I couldn't
point it to UK and western Europe. Also SWR problems. I hope next year I will have a better result.

YV5NWG: This is my first real entry. I need more ears for CW, anyway always have fun.

YV5JBI/P: We had a lot of fun despite the low propagation. Thanks to all who called and cheered our
effort in the DXpedition. 73´s, see you all the next year! (thanks for putting on a new one! – G3XTT)

Z32AF: Big problems with computer this time.