Stew Perry Topband Challenge
Call: W2GD
Operator(s): K2TW, N2OO, W1GD, W2CG, W2GD, W2NO
Station: W2GD
Class: Multi-Op LP
QTH: SNJ - FM29
Operating Time (hrs): 14
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 307 Total Score = 1,700
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
We found out what bad conditons can be like running 100W last weekend!
Difficult, frustrating, and a lot less fun than running a KW. We'll rethink
what entry class to enter next December.
Our grand plan for the weekend was to erect and test a new gain antenna for TX -
but alas the best of plans sometimes have to be delayed for another day. Our
delta loop is hung from about the 165 foot point on a 300 foot tower. We'd
never taken the time to properly work it around the guy wires to get it vertical
- it had been sloping away from the tower with the base leg almost 100 feet from
the base of the tower. Knowing that making our gain antenna design work, we
would need to bring the base leg much closer to the tower. Simple jobs,
especially in a salt marsh, are never really that easy, and we ended up
expending several hours moving the wires around, establishing new corner support
points, and then re-tuning the antenna so it once again resonated around 1830.
By then it was nearly sundown. Putting up the planned parasitic elements would
wait for another weekend.
We started the contest just about local sunset, planning to operate until just
after local sunrise with some off time in between. The first two hours set the
tone, 58 the first hour, only 37 the second, then we hovered between 30 and 40
an hour for the next few before dropping into single digits. Very low activity,
and signals from EU were just above the noise if there at all, with wave of QSB
fading. Many have commented about how quiet the band seemed to them. WAY TOO
QUIET...the effects of absorption! We managed to work only 10 EU, 1 PAC, a few
Carib, and no SA, OC or AF at all this year. It was a struggle just to break
300 QSOs. We figured a lot of casual ops turned their radios on, didn't hear
many loud signals, and after an hour or two just turned their radios off. The
bad conditions fed the activity downturn.
There was an upside to the slow action. We had plenty of time to run computer
models of our planned gain array, optimizing the design. It will actually
require putting up two new antennas, since the sloper we've been using off the
back side of the tower must be removed not to ruin the pattern. A a new
inverted L will be constructed 400 feet away as our secondary TX antenna. More
wire, more rope, and more time!
But there is a lot to be said for the commaradarie that is experienced in
situations like this. It was low pressure, we all had a shot at the key, the
pizza was good Saturday night, and the Sunday morning breakfast at "Penny's"
just down the road was simply fabulous.
Wishing everyone a HNY...see you in the CQ160 CW a weeks from now.
73,
John W2GD and the Gang (K2TW, N2OO, W1GD, W2CG and W2NO)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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