TD9IGI (KA9FOX op) Single Op All Band High Power
BAND QSOs Mults
__________________________________________________
160SSB 286 49
80SSB 817 59
40SSB 963 58
20SSB 1852 60
15SSB 2447 59
10SSB 338 30
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Totals 6703 315 = 6,334,335
First EVER effort as a Single Op All Band entry. Never even tried it from
the US. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Operated from the QTH of Gerry Bezzina, TG9GI/TD9IGI in Guatemala City. He
has a small residential lot with one tower -- a TH6 at about 65 feet and
Inverted Vee's for 40 and 80 at about 50 feet. I brought down a
loaded/shortened 160m dipole (85 feet long) and installed it sloping from
the top of the tower down to a tall brick wall (with coiled razor wire and
two runs of barbed wire atop!) only about 20 feet from the tower, then bent
back towards the tower. Gerry's amp didn't do 160m, so we used an old
FL-2100Z at about 350 watts for 160. Dunno why, but the thing really
played well for such a compromise antenna and low power. This was also my
second ever tower climb.
Stayed up all 48 hours, which was a mistake. My wife's herbal energy drops
kept me awake (not one drop of coffee or soda all weekend) but I was WAY
too disoriented and confused on Sunday, which cost me plenty. Heck, I
couldn't even say my own callsign! Really! Next time (?) I'll sleep 2-3
hours on Sunday early morning. Also, I spent too much time on 160. It was
just so fun!!
HIGHLIGHTS:
* 15 meters!!! Wow!! Check out these rates from Saturday morning:
14z 265
15z 248
16z 256
17z 256
* Best rate happened when switching to 20m Saturday afternoon. I managed a
323 hour at 21z!! (is that good enough for the DG Almanac?)
* 160 meters worked. When the antenna was first installed it didn't
resonate. Turns out it was reacting to all the guy wires and the inverted
vee's. Moved the thing to get it away from as much of the wires as
possible and it resonated at 2:1... good enough for a tuner.
* Checking 10 meters on the hour payed off on Sunday. A short opening to
the east coast gave me most of my 10 meter mults and about half of the Q's
(the other half came from running W6's).
* No frequency fights. No pig farmer or arthritis net problems. Not one.
* Appearing to have edged P40V. (the log checkers will decide this one!)
LOWLIGHTS:
* In my sleepless daze on the second night, I used the 40 meter antenna on
80 meters and blew out the 80 meter portion of Gerry's Alpha 374 amplifer.
Thank God it was about time to leave 80 and that the amp continued to work
on all the other bands. Where where ya Murphy?
* Only having the one decent opening on 10 meters but hearing HC8N runnin'
em many times!!
* As I mentioned, not sleeping did me in. Needed to be more alert for the
runs on Sunday.
In addition to the hospitality of TG9GI, I owe a major thank you to Juan
TG9AJR. He spent much time preparing for this contest, put me up for over
a week at his place, fed me, and let me use his rig during all that time
plus during the contest. (I made over 3300 QSOs before the contest from
the TG9AJR QTH, more than 75% on CW).
I have gained an incredible new respect for all of you single ops out
there, especially those in the US/VE. It was bad enough with 100+/hr rates
for me, but how do you guys stay up all those hours with the rates that you
get being in the US/VE??? ZZZZZzzzzzz
- QSL TG/KA9FOX to N9ISN (N9ISN is also handling PJ8Z and KP4/KA9FOX)
- QSL TD9IGI (only for March 2-3 1996) to KA9FOX
73 - Scott KA9FOX (TD9IGI)
P.S. Anybody know how TI1C did? He seemed to be everywhere (and always
doing well). Maybe I have a shot at the North American Plaque???
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