ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: W4LT
Operator(s): W4LT
Station: W4LT
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: WCF
Operating Time (hrs): 24:07
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 180
40: 222
20: 588
15: 15
10: 0
------------
Total: 1005 Sections = 81 Total Score = 162,810
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
Rig : Elecraft K3 with power knob turned to 11 (11=110w indicated)
Antennas : A3s @ 40 ft, 2-1/2 waves (40m) in phase @ 38ft, EFWA "M" @
45ft, MonoGAP 40 @ 6 inches
Soapbox : Murphy and Propagation were not my friend this year. Lack of high
bands made me attempt to compensate with better low band performance using a
new, sort of last minute, antenna addition.
*BIG* thanks to Danny Horvat, E73M, owner of MyAntennas, who loaned me one of
his End Fed Wire transformers from which I constructed an end fed 1/2 wave wire
antenna for 75 meters. 128 feet of THHN #14 went up into my back yard pine tree
and front yard Oak tree with my trusty slingshot lofting method. This created
a "M" shaped wire with two vertical elements and a sagging center
with the two peaks at roughly 45 feet. This antenna resonated beautifully with
a perfect match at 3.750MHz! At last! A real 80 meter antenna (even if its
still way too low, but in a city lot, that's the best I can do)!
This new configuration resulted in my actually having a viable signal on 80
meters! 180 Q's may not be a lot to you, but at my station, its a miracle!
The 40 meter antenna's southwest leg was overlapped 15 feet by the center of
the M... There was some interaction; with the SWR on the 40m wire increasing to
2.0 at 7.200MHz. Oh, well... Managed it with the tuner.
My Internet went down for several hours on Saturday afternoon, overnight and in
the morning on Sunday. This deprived me of the cluster for about half of the
contest. Never heard VY1 or KH6, thus, no sweep in Phone for the first time in
6 years.
Lost the headset mixer feed from my KRX3 while running on 80m overnight for no
apparent reason. Checking after the contest, I found that the cable feeding the
mixer PHYSICALLY FELL OUT OF THE SOCKET! That one's on me, not Murphy!
Poor conditions overall, a local buzzing power transformer somewhere in the
neighborhood, 15 being somewhat useless resulting in overcrowding on 20m were
the keys to this contest from my perspective. Tactically, I spent way too much
time looking for KH6 and KL7 on 15... and not on 20m. Ironically, I was called
by two AK stations while running there.
As always, it is a continuing challenge to battle large, multi antenna tall
tower SO2R stations in this contest and remain competitive with a tribander and
some wires. I continue to resist SO2R in this classic and highly entertaining
contest.
73
Lu Romero - W4LT
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