W4EF Stew Perry Distance Challenge
Operator: Mike Tope, W4EF (ex AD4VH)
Category: Single Operator/Low Power/Unassisted
Location: EL-98 (Melbourne, Florida)
Score: 80 QSOs for 288 QPoints X 2 Power Mult = 576 Points
DX Worked: GM3POI (14pts)
Total Operating Time: ~3 hours
Rig: Ten-Tec Paragon - 100 watts output
Software: TRlog 5.80
TX Antenna: Marconi @ 50' (133' horizontal, 50' vertical)
fed against 20 1/4 wave radials, mostly in the NW to NE
quadrant
RX Antenna: TX Antenna/40 meter dipole phased using JPS
ANC-4
Comments:
Spent Saturday afternoon blanketing my 1/2 acre lot with
2000 feet of radial wire. Because of the location of my
antenna, my radials are laid asymetrically with the bulk of
them between in the sector between 330 deg and 30 deg
azimuth. This definitely improved my signal as I can now
work most of what I hear coming from the north. I am still
having trouble working the west coast, which is probably due
to the lack of radials in that direction. The JPS ANC-4
saved me from local noise, but made S&Ping a little
cumbersome due to the frequent renulling required when
changing frequency. Took me a while, to get used to the
quirks of TRlog 5.80 (just upgraded from 4.50). My apologies
for any strange emmanations, I was still reading the manual
while making qsos.
Big signal awards go to N4AR, K8MK, and N2IC. Especially
Steve, who sounded like he had moved his station to Florida.
I guess K1ZM was running QRP, he was so much weaker than
usual that I asked him for a repeat on his callsign thinking
that it had to be somebody else. The band was very quiet
during my first two hours, ~2230 - 0030, but got much
noisier when I got back on from 0400 to 0500. Must have been
thunderstorm activity to the west. Activity seemed a little
on the low side, but all-in-all a great contest. See you all
next year!
73 de Mike, W4EF
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