CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: OH0R
Operator(s): OH2PM
Station: OH0R
Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: Brando
Operating Time (hrs): 14
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 932 State/Prov = 24 Countries = 74 Total Score = 526,946
Club: Contest Club Finland
Comments:
You might remember that Brando is located in the eastern part of the Aland
Islands. The municipality consists of hundreds of small rocky islands and about
450 permanent inhabitants.
The 160 antenna farm consists of two wire dipoles: one sloping to the west and
the other to the east from a 42 m tower. When I arrived at the station, late on
Thursday evening, I found the east bound antenna wire laying on the road. It was
already dark so I could not see what exactly had happened. On Friday I found
that the recent storms had cut the wire at the top of the tower. The dipole wire
was stuck on trees, actually top branches of three different trees.
I did not have materials strong enough to build a new dipole. I had to cut two
10 m high trees. The lower tail, end of the dipole, had twisted around the guy
wire about 7 m high. The wire was too high to reach without a ladder, and there
was no ladder on site. I found out that there was a ladder about 1 kilometer
away from the station site, and as it happened, I had to carry two pieces of
ladder from the village. The transportation would have been easier by car, but I
had no ski rack on my car. After that I had to take a brake because this was all
I could do by myself.
Then I called Kim, OH6KZP, and he was kind enough to take the last ferry on
Friday night and come over to give me a hand.
Kim arrived late Friday night. I worked the first contest night (Fri-Sat), 9
hours, with the west bound antenna only.
Then, on Saturday noon we got the dipole repaired. And just when it was ready to
be lifted up to the tower, rain and snow fall began!
I am almost 77 years old and as you might ques, I climb rather slowly especially
in 0..+2 C deg, windy and rainy weather. I have to admit, when climbing up, I
had some concerns with my thumb freezing and operating the safety belt with my
freezing hands, wearing a pair of wet gloves.
After all, Saturday noon the work was done and I was safely back on the ground
(actually, on solid rock). To my relief, Kim kindly carried the ladder back to
the village and I tested the dipole. According to the measurements, SWR was
acceptable on the CW portion of the band.
Kim went back to the continent by 2.20 pm ferry.
As one can imagine, all of my clothes were thoroughly wet, and it took some time
to get my body warmed up again.
My original plan was to operate at least 12 hours during the second night.
Unfortunately, I had to give up and take a rest since my legs gave me a really
hard time (muscle pain, cramps etc). This was due to the extra strain in the
cold, wet and windy tower climb.
For sure, this was an unforgettable CQ 160 CW contest and hopefully the only one
of the kind. After this adventurous trip, I was back to the continent at 3 pm,
and arrived home (safe and sound) at 5 pm.
Many thanks for the QSOs.
Some times contesting on TOP band can be very exciting.
See you in the next contets.
Pertti, OH2PM
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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