Stew Perry Topband Challenge
Call: K1WHS
Operator(s): K1WHS
Station: K1WHS
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Maine
Operating Time (hrs): 12.5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 608 Total Score = 3,739
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
My goal in the Stew Perry was to have some fun and try out my newest beverage
wires at 180 & 290 degrees. I was amazed at how well the 290 wire worked.
In fact, I found myself using it almost exclusively for contacts out west. I
was amazed at the strengths of the W6s and VE6 and VE7s on the beverage. I was
just tuning around the bottom end of the band late at night, and heard VK3IO
calling CQ around VK sunset. He was actually quite loud on the new wire. I
called him and he came right back! I was very impressed with everything I heard
well to the west all night. VE6JY was good copy here, and I just recently saw on
3830 Scores, that he was running QRP! The two KH6s I worked were also nice copy
on that wire. Some people cautioned that the wire was too long, but I am going
to leave the wire as is. If anything, I might try to parallel a second wire
with it and use the NCC-1 phaser to steer it. I can space the wires about 3/4
wl apart. A job for next year. Too much snow now.
I started at about 2030 UT and worked very few EU stations at first. I was
setting up my computer at 1900 UT and was hearing EU weakly at that time. EI2CN
was very good copy then.. When I started operating at dusk, it was slow to non
existent to the East. One interesting fact was that noise levels on the various
wires changed in no relation to the levels I observed at mid day. The JA and 290
degree wires were quiet at mid day, but were quite noisy at night. The East wire
and south wire were quiet at night, but had big noise bursts on them. The static
crashes to the South were awful. It felt like Summertime with all the noise. I
needed a lot of repeats as lightning would wipe out parts of calls. The Europe
wire was the quietest of all. It had much less storm static on it too. I quit
for dinner, but then ran all night up to about 1030 UT for my operating hours.
I probably missed some time to play, but I did not want to exceed my 14 hour
time limit. I am not sure how to add up break times, so I played it safe. Later
I found that I had an other hour and a half for my sunrise. Oh well, I had
fun.
MY TX antenna has been constant for two years, a 1/4 wave single vertical tower
next to my barn. This year, I added another 1400 ft worth of radials last month
for a total of about 120. Make that 119 radials as my snow thrower just
happened to eat one of them up while I was not paying attention! I built the
two new beverages this Fall. One is aimed due South. The other completed just a
few days ago is a very long 1300 ft one that starts near the house but ends up
way up on top of the hill all in the woods and aimed at 290 degrees. I was
amazed at how well it worked. I have bad power line noise that ruins the two
beverages aimed at 220 and 260 degrees. The 290 wire is quiet and a joy to use.
It was the reason I could hear WL7E calling me from Alaska! It also was
effective for the Pacific NW. The W7s and VE7s were all easy copy with the new
wire. I am really glad I slogged through the woods in the snow cutting and
chopping my way along the new beverage path!
All the interest in the new wires made me pay less attention to the East,
which was not a good idea, as those Qs are all very valuable, but I wanted to
check out the new wires in other directions. I still ended up working 153
European stations. I lost a few in the QRM though. I'll bet I missed a bunch by
not having The EU wire chosen more often. The South wire was effective as well,
and HI8A and OA4TT came blasting in with it along with the other Carib
stations.
I used a new solid state amp for the first time, a SPE 2K-FA and it ran
well at 1500 watts. The heatsink temps hit 46 C so it was rather cool and a
pleasure to run. The Stew was it's christening! My old homebrew 3-1000Z sat
idle. I love that amp. It weighs a ton and the loading Vacuum variable in it is
as large as a Christmas ham covered with glaze. Hard getting used to an amp that
does not glow.
Thanks to all who were QRV and thanks to the Boring Radio Club for
sponsoring my favorite HF contest.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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