I don't have a 160m antenna up, so I wasn't really planning on getting in
the contest, but after listening to the band last night when I got home from
work, I just had to give it a try.
I tried the tuner in the rig to see what it would do as far as loading up
the 80m dipole. I was astounded when it did. I was expecting very narrow
band width, but I was good to go over about a 30-40 kHz. So I jumped in.
After about 10 QSOs, the stray RF floating around the shack set off my home
security system. After getting all the horns and alarms shut down and
allaying my family's fears that I was burning down the house, I found that I
could work safely (no false fire alarms) at 50 watts out. I managed to make
60+ Qs last night; worked about 25 states or so plus ZF2NT.
I'm still not in the contest seriously, but I'll be looking for all SECCers
tonight to give you an extra point.
Kent, AE4Y
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