CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: W6XR
Operator(s): W6XR
Station: W6XR
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: WNY
Operating Time (hrs): 10.2
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 10 5 8
80: 27 8 20
40: 51 14 38
20: 205 29 110
15: 115 23 71
10: 42 9 22
------------------------------
Total: 450 88 269 Total Score = 437,325
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
The â??Golden Yearsâ?? continue! My wife, Nancy, and I decided to do the
downsize routine which for me meant taking apart a perfectly good radio station
thatâ??s been in the top 10 in several categories along with miles of wire,
three towers and much aluminum along with some very reasonable radios and
amplifiers.
We moved a year ago to a two bedroom, one bath bungalow along side a fine
upstate NY trout stream on just over one acre leaving a very large hilltop
location with several acres of land. I knew I could get a reasonable station
up within an acre but was unclear where to start. Not ever being one for
convention, I put up a 135â?? center fed zepp at 50â?? and a K9AY pennant array
for listening on the low bands. That was a start but something that rotated
was needed so I planted the 89â?? crank up and had the C31XR placed at 98â??
and a Force 12 Mag 240N at 89â??. At the very top, a neat seven element 6
meter yagi resides and serves as a nice bird perch. An inverted â??Lâ?? for
160 finishes things off and itâ??s time to see just how the little station that
could (itâ??s all relative) would do in the CQWW phone which brings us to this
weekend.
I had suspicions my new QTH was special because Iâ??ve been unexpectedly
successful with just the zepp but never was I planning the degree of success I
enjoyed this weekend. Phone contests rival root canals in my experience but I
enjoyed this exercise quite a bit. Granted, my new QTH is very, very quite and
the S meter sits on the left peg in the absence of a signal; forget that the new
tricked out Ten Tec Orion II receiver was just outstanding and the TL922A with
QSK mods just did what it was supposed to do ever so quietly too. All things
just worked perfectly, even though this was the maiden voyage. There should
have been problemsâ?¦but none surfaced, not even with the new accessory toys.
Now with everything going well, I still was only able to keep the body parts in
the chair a short time because the body parts were not in good shape having
broken my back in three places in June while playing Paramedic. For the time
spent in the chair, Iâ??m more than happy with the results.
160 was difficult because I didnâ??t have enough radials under the Inverted
â??Lâ?? but that will change starting tomorrow. The guys in the Caribbean
were hampered by the local QRN or so I was told, so that multiplier was down.
80 was an enigma because sometimes I couldnâ??t work a station I should have
easily worked and the following QSO elicited a report of being very loud (all
with a 50â?? high zepp.) 40 was well 40 and the 240N did well as all that I
called came back to me. A few JAâ??s sweetened the log and many Europeans got
into the log during the short time I was on the band.
20 was a workhorse and the C31XR was a hose on those three bands it is designed
for. I had a run on Saturday of three consecutive stations who must have
recognized me. The 1st was a station in the Caribbean that said hello and
asked about my health. The second was in Africa and did the same. The third
station was a HV and addressed me by my first name and this gave me pause as
now I can claim I'm on a first name basis with the Vatican!
Never did I miss all the aluminum, including the C31XR stack, from the previous
hilltop location. I guess it is possible that less is more and Iâ??ve learned
never to underestimate the value of a stone quiet QTH that performs better than
it should. Thanks to everyone who worked me in my 40th CQWW phone. This was
totally a non serious S&P operation. Now, where is the stacking bracket for the
2nd C31XR?
73
Natan W6XR/2
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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