I have been in the process of getting a rotating tower system installation
activated from my QTH. It looked like we weren't going to make it in time,
but at the 11th hour things seemed to fell into place.
We managed to get my antenna system on the air around midnight Friday so I
lost six hours on the front end. Since the system is new, we were also
running experiments during the contest to diagnose an SWR issue on the stack
of tribanders.
Obviously I was interested in seeing how the new system would perform. A
contact with a KH6 on 40M relieved all doubt that the system was working
okay on that band. He was working a pile of stations when I gave him a
call. He returned my call and took the time to ask me about my station. He
told me that my signal was 100 dB over S9. (I don't think I have ever seen
a rig with 100dB on the S-meter so I don't know how to objectively evaluate
his comment). However, it was the emotional high point of the contest for
me. :)
I did hear some of you on the air during the contest. The guys over at NQ4I
were doing a "bang-up" business from what I heard. It seems that all the
hard work on the antennas really paid off. Congratulations to them on a
great effort.
I know my QSO rate wasn't that high, but it is the first time I've worked a
sustained pile-up like that since 1979. I am under pressure to get better
if I want to stay competitive with Dan in the AL QSO party...
CALLSIGN: K4TD
ARRL-SECTION: AL
CLUB: South East Contest Club
CONTEST: ARRL-DX-CW
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP-ASSISTED ALL HIGH CW
OPERATING TIME: 26.75 Hours
Band QSOs Pts Cty
3.5 85 255 38
7 516 1548 81
14 442 1326 88
21 248 744 85
28 45 135 35
Total 1336 4008 327
Score: 1,310,616
For those of you who are interested in the antenna system, here are the
specifics:
160M: See Note
80M: Rotating dipole at 155' (M2)
40M: 4 Element yagi at 140' (Opti-beam)
20M: 4/4/4 at 125'/85'/45' (Opti-beam)
15M: 4/4/4 at 125'/85'/45' (Opti-beam)
10M: 8/8/8 at 125'/85'/45' (Opti-beam)
Note: Unfortunately I had to cancel the plan for the 80M/160M inverted-L at
the last minute, so the summer project will be to add 160M capability.
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