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[3830] W4EF Stew Perry SO/LP (Short Score/Long Summary)

To: <3830@contesting.com>
Subject: [3830] W4EF Stew Perry SO/LP (Short Score/Long Summary)
From: W4EF@pacbell.net (Michael Tope)
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 03:17:48 -0000
                            STEW PERRY SUMMARY SHEET


    Contest Dates : 27-Dec-97, 28-Dec-97


    Callsign Used : W4EF
         Operator : W4EF

         Category : SO/LP/WN(Single Operator/Low Power/Wet Noodle)

 Default Exchange : 599 DM04

             Name : Michael C. Tope, W4EF
 Station Location : 3944 East Mountain View Avenue
                    Pasadena, Ca
          Country : United States

                                                        
  Mailing Address : 3944 East Mountain View Avenue
   City/State/Zip : Pasadena, Ca 91107-4905

Station Description:

                 Rig: Ten-Tec Paragon (100 Watts Output)
                     Pentium 133 running Trlog 5.80

     Antenna: 1/2 A3S Tribander Driven Element at 25' with 4 16'
              radials fed thru antenna tuner with shield of coax
              open at shack. System fed against 1 inductively loaded
              radially (see Soapbox)
                        


   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points
 __________________________________________

  160CW       20          20         54
 __________________________________________

 Totals       20          20         54


 Final Score = 54 X 2 = 108 points.


Band    Date    Time  QSO#  Call worked   Sent Rcvd  Qth 
                 Pts
 ----    ----    ----  ----  -----------   ---- ---- ----- 
               ---
160CW  27-Dec-97 15:01    1  N6TR           599  599 CN85 
                   3
160CW  28-Dec-97 15:19    2  NI6T        *  599  599 CM97 
                   1
160CW  28-Dec-97 00:40    3  AD6C           599      DM04 
                   1
160CW  28-Dec-97 01:19    4  N5IA           599  599 DM52 
                   2
160CW  28-Dec-97 03:58    5  K7RAT       *  599      CN85 
                   3
160CW  28-Dec-97 03:59    6  N2IC        *  599      DN70 
                   3
160CW  28-Dec-97 04:00    7  K7OX           599      DM43 
                   2
160CW  28-Dec-97 04:01    8  K6SE           599      DM04 
                   1
160CW  28-Dec-97 04:06    9  KO7X        *  599      DM40 
                   2
160CW  28-Dec-97 04:10   10  K7CA           599      DM26 
                   1

160CW  28-Dec-97 04:14   11  N6RO        *  599      CM98 
                   1
160CW  28-Dec-97 06:32   12  WA2DFI         599      DM43 
                   2
160CW  28-Dec-97 06:42   13  W7XZ/6         599  579 CM99 
                   2
160CW  28-Dec-97 06:45   14  NC7W           599      DN41 
                   3
160CW  28-Dec-97 06:49   15  N6LL           599      DM04 
                   1
160CW  28-Dec-97 08:55   16  K8MK           599  559 EN80 
                   7
160CW  28-Dec-97 11:36   17  NL7Z           599      BP51 
                   8
160CW  28-Dec-97 11:38   18  N6CMF          599      DM14 
                   1
160CW  28-Dec-97 11:44   19  K8ND           599      EN80 
                   7
160CW  28-Dec-97 12:00   20  W7GG        *  599      CN94 
                   3




QSO Distribution

                  Grid   QSOs    PTS    
   1.         DM04    3         1
   2.         CN85    2         3
   3.         DM43    2         2
   4.         EN80    2         7
   5.         CM97    1         1
   6.         DM52    1         2
   7.         DN70    1         3
   8.         DM40    1         2
   9.         DM26    1         1
  10.         CM98    1         1
  11.         CM99    1         2
  12.         DN41    1         3
  13.         BP51    1         8
  14.         DM14    1         1
  15.         CN94    1         3

Soapbox:   Discovered Saturday morning that my kludge 14MHz ground plane 
(1/2 the driven element from my A3 tribander stuck in a tree) would load up 
on 160 with 2:1 VSWR if I opened the shield of the feed line where it comes 
into the shack. What I didn't know was that the ground system for this very 
short vertical was the coax for my 2 meter station which connects to the HF 
rig's ground through the common connection to my Astron power supply. I 
discovered this quite by accident when I pulled the HT out of the packet 
station to take it with me to a CITARC (Caltech ARC, W6UE) workday on 
Saturday morning. When I returned early Saturday afternoon, I left the HT 
in the truck. When I tried getting back on the air late Saturday afternoon, 
I noticed that the VSWR had increased drastically and my rig was shutting 
down when I tried to match the antenna with the tuner. In the desperation 
that followed, a multitude of half-baked theories flashed through my brain 
including a conjecture that the afternoon sun had evaporated the morning 
dew which still filled the traps of the A3 driven element on Saturday 
morning when I made my first contact. Apparently the RF burns that followed 
my attempts to keep the paragon from shutting down planted the seeds of 
reason - "Eureka, it's the missing HT". I ran out to my truck, grabbed the 
HT, and then wired it back into the packet station. My VSWR went from 
infinity down to 2:1 and the Paragon quite balking as I pushed the drive 
level up towards 100 Watts.

Some experiments after the contest revealed that the RG8 coax which feeds 
my packet antenna, a 3 element 2 meter Yagi stuck in the tree, was acting a 
single inductively loaded (most of the 100' of coax is coiled up as the 
antenna is only about 15' above the shack) radial for my ad hoc vertical. I 
am amazed that this kludge seems to have been resonant at around 1880 KHz 
quite by accident - this is definitely a case of inverted Murphy's law. 
Post contest bandwidth measurements suggest that the antenna is not very 
efficient (2:1 bandwidth ~200 KHz) which is no surprise given the physical 
height of the antenna and the extent of the radial system (this is not 
K1ZM!).

Despite the Maxcom factor in the antenna system, I was really surprised to 
manage 20 qsos, including NL7Z (8 points), K8MK (7 points), and K8ND (7 
points)- nice ears guys! I even had two stations answer my CQ's! BTW, I 
left the noise blanker on the Paragon running throughout the contest. This 
served to kill the local line noise which is quite strong here. It also 
served as a broadband receiver which let me know when a new powerhouse who 
might be capable of hearing me showed up on somewhere on the band CQing. 
N5IA gets the big signal award despite his running low power - the 
earthworms under Milt's antenna are obviously not getting warm.

Was wishing I had better antennas, but glad to hand out a few points.

73 es HNY de Mike, W4EF/6


I have observed all competition rules as well as all regulations 
established for amateur radio in my country.  My report is correct and true 
to the best of my knowledge.  I agree to be bound by the decisions of the 
Awards Committee.



Date _1-1-98_   Signed __Michael C. Tope_  Call _W4EF__




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