Mike, you are right, money is indeed required, but you can build a
competitive station for a lot less money than what Tim spends on his
station.
But you are jumping leagues.
I was speaking about a single op.
If you want to play in Tim, Frank, and Matt's league, you need something
else: good intelligent planning and execution.
There is a lot more home brew, + blood, sweat and tears going into those
stations than you might imagine.
You cannot buy what they have!
For the past 20 years, I owned the all time highest score record in one
European country (CQWW CW).
Last year SP7VC broke my record.
I drove down to that country pulling a camping trailer, put up 3 antennas:
a vertical dipole and a horizontal dipole, both fed with openwire thru
symmetrical match boxes, and a 160m OCFD. I ran my Omni VI and an old
Ameritron AL-80A amplifier (with home-brew time sequencing). Granted, there
was a fair amount of money involved but less than the cost of a single
IC-7800 (if we don't count the BMW and the camper).
Oh well, I don't think I will try and reclaim that record. I nearly froze
my "you know what" off putting up antennas in the snow and wind, up in the
Alps. Anyway, I was the 80m operator on the team that still holds the all
time record for that country in SSB CQWW. We didn't spend a lot of money
either. We begged, borrowed or stole everything.
See: http://www.dj0ip.de/my-expeditions/hb0csz-1988/
Look closely at the picture, you'll even spot my Omni-A near the middle of
the picture.
Oh, and one year later, that same team, plus a few more operators broke the
all time European record in CW and SSB for CQWW, using that same tired old
equipment.
73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mike Bryce
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2014 5:33 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Modern version of the Tec Tec Corsair - please , Ten
Tec!
rick,
you need to insert one more item to your list right after operators
Money!
Let's face it, the guy (or club) that has the $$$ can afford to buy all the
neat things that together win contests.
I don't live too far away from the K3LR contest station. There's enough
aluminum up in the air to supply airplanes to a small country.
the guy with a (fill in the blank with your favorite rig) can't compete with
stations like that with dipole slung in the trees.
Yes, Yes, and Yes, I know you don't compete in the same category as K3LR
with a dipole and Argonaut V. But still, after the smoke clears, who get's
their photo on the cover of CQ magazine? The crew of K3LR or me with my
dipole and Ten Tec rig?
MIke, wb8vge
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