CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Carroll, Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 24.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 8
80: 27
40: 343
20: 601
15: 73
10: 0
------------
Total: 1052 Prefixes = 558 Total Score = 1,456,938
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
This was my first CW WPX contest. Normally, the contest collides with
my annual Memorial Day weekend activities, but not this year. Perhaps
the contest should be permanently delayed by a week.
Since I could almost dedicate the whole weekend to the contest, I
decided to make some antenna improvements prior to the test. Since
financial constraints continue to enforce my un-official "all
verticals all of the time" policy, I decided to make use of the 1200
square foot metal roof of my pole barn. I drilled a hole through the
peak, and poked an aluminum tube through the hole, U-bolted to the
rafters. To the pole I mounted an old Hy-Gain vertical bracket with
enough tubing to make a quarter-wave 20 meter vertical.
I had an FT-240 left over from some prior experiment with a 5:6 ratio
transformer wound on it, and that seemed to produce an adequate match
on 20 meters. Since I now had a dedicated 20 meter vertical, I took
down the ground-mounted 4-BTV and put the full-sized 40 meter vertical
in its place. I finished these tasks just minutes before the contest.
Although conditions were poor, I was pleased with the performance of
the 40 meter and 20 meter verticals. The 40 meter vertical also
performed reasonably well on 15 meters. I frequently used my
Beverages for reception on 20. I think I need a better feedline to
the 40 meter vertical, as 15 meter signals were all rather weak.
There may be as much as 3 db of loss in my ancient pieces of RG8,
although I'm just guessing.
Late in the afternoon and in the evening of both days I was able to
have modest runs on both 20 and 40. In fact, stations were still
calling me right up to the end of the contest.
Radios: IC-765 (needs trimmer caps replaced), ETO-91B (thanks, Jeff!)
Antennas: 160 - 65 foot "T" with with 75 radials
80 - 2 inverted-L wires attached to 160 vertical feed point
40 & 15 - 32 foot ground mounted vertical with 32 radials
20 - 17 foot roof mounted vertical over metal roof
12 Beverages 500 - 900 feet
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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