California QSO Party
Call: AE6Y
Operator(s): AE6Y
Station: AE6Y
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: SCLA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160:
80: 30 136
40: 165 53
20: 209 381
15: 203 543
10: 118 317
6:
2:
--------------------
Total: 725 1430 Mults = 58 Total Score = 292,030
Club: Mother Lode DX/CC
Comments:
This was a great contest. Condx on 10 were disappointing, but overall my best
score ever and first time over 2100 Qs. Thanks to all the out of staters --
there were lots of high QSO numbers from various parts of the country, with
unusually high activity from VE3 this year. Thanks also to the VE7s, AL1G,
KL7FAP, VY1MB, and VY1JA for sticking in there to give us the mults in the face
of very poor propagation in the northland.
I made one major station improvement that really paid off. Friday afternoon,
I put up a 2-element SteppIR antenna at 50 feet on the tower, fixed at about 60
degrees. I used this exclusively on 15m with the second radio, and made almost
750 contacts with it, using the TS570 and old Henry amp at 900-1000 watts. It
worked like a champ. Before this, I had only used a vertical for the second
radio antenna, but with the SteppIR, I could use it as a run radio, not just for
search and pounce. The biggest surprise was being called by 5R8GT Saturday at
about 11:30 a.m., who was using 100 watts to a dipole on Madagascar, and wanted
to chat!
I was very impressed with the design of the SteppIR. It only has a 5 foot
boom, and I was able to put it up all by myself. One fun part is that you can
reverse directions by pressing a button on the controller (I think it lengthens
the director slightly to make it a reflector), so if you get called by a
Hawaiian station, you can "turn" the antenna in two seconds and improve the
signals by about 4 S-units. It would also make an FB portable antenna, as the
motor housings and cabling all remain attached to the boom, and the "elements"
are just telescoping fiberglass tubes, each of which is attached to a motor
housing just using a single cable clamp.
With the new antenna, I had a great time using the software to call
alternating CQs on two bands, either 10 and 15 or 20 and 15. Sometimes I even
used both modes, i.e., calling CQ on 20 CW and 15 Phone. It can get confusing
at times, and you have to hit the right buttons when someone calls to answer
them on the proper radio, but it sure was entertaining, and I think contributed
to the overall score.
Equipment:
Radio 1: IC 756 Pro, Titan Amp, Force 12 3 elements on 20-10, 2 on 40, 1 on
80.
Radio 2: TS570DG, Henry 2KD, 2 el SteppIR.
Software: CQPWIN ver. 9.30
73, andy, ae6y
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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