ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX
Class: M/S HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 12.5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 348 Sections = 61 Countries = 5 Total Score = 47,124
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
I've never operated in this contest before because it's sandwiched between all
of the November contests and the ARRL 10-meter contest. But with my wife out of
the country I was free to try it out this year. John, W6LD, had operated in the
160-meter contest for a couple of years so I assumed I'd be joining John in a
multi-op this year. My only previous experience on 160 meters had been a couple
of hours in NAQP contests and about the same in DX contests.
I got off to a late start, just before 0400Z on the first evening. Our inverted
vee for 160 was on the ground and had never worked well anyway, so I opted to
run a tuner into the 80-meter inverted vee instead of trying to put up a proper
160 antenna at the last minute. I'd heard that it was best to short the braid
to the center conductor when using an 80-meter antenna on 160, but I just wanted
to get on the air so I loaded it directly to see what would happen. The SWR was
less than 1.2 and the Alpha 87A would go up to full legal power, so I started
S&P'ing up the band.
After 3 quick Q's I realized I was being heard and started CQing myself when I
found an opening. I worked about 50 stations in a half hour including a
several-minute ragchew with W7LNG, who had been a member of my local ham club
when I was a teenager. Then I noticed that almost all my Q's were from the west
coast, so I began to S&P again, looking for new mults. I was surprised that
almost everyone I heard could copy me, but maybe that's just because the
inverted vee isn't a great receiving antenna.
Sometime in the middle of all this fun my receiver began overloading from a very
strong local signal. W6XX was CQing around 1825 kHz, a couple of miles away and
about 60 over S9. So I cranked down the RF Gain, put in the maximum attenuation
that the MP has, and kept going. With so much front-end attenuation I could no
longer hear any of the QRN and the signals were actually more readable. On the
second day I started before W6XX got on, reset the attenuator and RF gain to
normal, only to realize that I could copy better with the attenuation in.
I operated just over 5 hours each evening and a couple of hours on Sunday
morning. I was disappointed to have missed the JA opening on Saturday. I never
worked P40TA even though Ken came back with W6? a couple of times, only to work
a W7 or W5. My only W1 was K1PX and I was shocked when VE2OJ called me for my
only QC. Stations that I remember hearing but not being able to work were NO2R,
NZ1U, and K1LT. They must have been listening on their EU beverages when I
called, since they just kept CQing.
I was the only operator but since I had set up packet in anticipation of a
multi-op effort, it ends up as a M/S entry. Dave, AA6XV, has grand plans for an
inverted L and beverages for 160. They won't be ready for this contest season
but that should help out for next year.
-Mike, N7MH
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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