We returned to Colorado late last night after our operation on Christmas
Island. After reading the notes on the reflectors, I thought I would
tell you a little of what happened on the other side of the mike and
key.
The equipment I used on the 160 station was an Icom 756, ICE bandpass
filter, Alpha 76 running about 400 watts, a beverage antenna oriented to
NA, and a Gladiator vertical antenna with 1/8 wave tuned elevated
radials. The vertical antenna was installed in a large open area,
approximately 300 feet from the ocean, with clear shots to NA and JA, as
we were on the north side of the island. Christmas Island, along with
other Pacific Islands, has water which seeps down through the coral and
is held in underground wells. This is how the native people get their
drinking water and probably contributed to a very good ground plane for
the antenna. With El Nino this last year, Christmas Island got 10 times
their normal rainfall and there is still standing water on the island.
I operated 160 every non-contest night from T32 sundown to sunup. I was
happy that we got out so well the first night. At sunup I had worked 338
Q's, all to NA. The next night the contest had started, and I was
determined I would run on 160 for a time. We were a M/S operation, and
it was hard to justify the slower rates on 160. After running on 40, I
switched to 160 and had a run of about 50 Q's. The next night I ran
another 30+. The night after the contest I wanted to give JA's some Q's
and any other NA's that missed the first night. Signal strengths were
not as good as the first night, but I did work VK6, VE1 zone 2, UA0/1
and ZL along with NA and JA. When the sun rose, I had about 150 more Q's
in the log on 160.
Thankyou to all those who stayed up with me all night to work a new one.
And to those who were not sucessful, I thankyou for your efforts also,
maybe next time.
When we went QRT, we had over 10K Q's in five days, 500 of them were
with you. Thanks for the help and 73,
Bill Leahy T32MP, K0MP
QSL via K0MP
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