ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: W7RH
Operator(s): W7RH
Station: W7RH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 470 Sections = 73 Countries = 15 Total Score = 90,640
Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
Comments:
Weather conditions were favorable enough to participate once again this year.
The backwoods station is 12 miles off paved roads in Northern Arizona. There
are four road conditions, dry, wet and treacherously muddy and frozen. This
years event had frozen roads.
The station had been prepped and tested a week before the contest. Started at
the bell and ran for three hours. With darkness the band opened nicely to the
east coast. Wanting to be undisturbed during peak times I decided to run the
generator to peak charge the batteries. All appeared well, but upon generator
shutdown the battery voltage quickly dropped to what could be described as 70%
level. Some of this is contributed to age of batteries and cold weather, but a
sudden drop is not normal. This is not good. Under no load they appeared to be
good. Under load was another story. I inspected and gave each one a good thump
and charged a few more times and off we went. Time lost 2.5 hours of prime.
Friday night brouht a brief unexpected opening to Europe. Saturday morning
there was a good opening to Pacific, Japan and Russian Asia.
Saturday afternoon it began to snow. It snowed until late evening. Band
condtions were way down from the previous evening. Late evening precipitation
static fron high winds and dry snow coupled together with a Geomagnetic storm.
I'm not sure which was worse. To be fair to myself it was off to bed.
Got up about 2:30 Sunday morning and did search and pounce for the remainder of
the test. All things considered a reasonable effort for conditions.
Definately looking forward to next year.
Thanks to all who made contacts!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
73, Bob W7RH
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