CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: AC6DD
Operator(s): AC6DD
Station: AC6DD
Class: Single Op HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 598 State/Prov = 54 Countries = 24 Total Score = 153,426
Club:
Comments:
I was back a the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse (www.piedrasblancas.org) for another
CQ 160 CW portable operation.
The weather can be pretty rough out there.
It was raining on and off on Thursday, Sunny on Friday, extremely windy on
Saturday.
On Thursday I first set up a RX 4 square, than a receiving loop which I was
hoping to use with a second radio during slow times,
and the TX vertical attached to the Lighthouse.
After the antennas were up I set up the radio equipment and returned home for
the evening.
On Friday around Noon I laid some extra radials for the vertical to the NE
direction, and was also going to add radials towards the NW.
Since I was getting short on time I decided to set up a single beverage towards
EU instead.
By the time I got into the action at around 00:30 everything was working
excluding the beverage, which was completely dead.
The loop was pretty weak compared to the DXE 4 square and it was never used.
The band conditions were not too hot, the only mainland EU heard was OL7M,
pretty slow night really.
By morning it was a bear to work any of the Chinese stations. Geat try by
BY4BBS who spent a ton of time trying to copy me but kept getting stuck on
AC6BD with no QSO.
Heard but unable to work OL7M, HL5IVL, VE9ML for missed multipliers.
On the second day I tried to add some antenna radials to the NW, but got almost
blown off by the wind which has picked up considerably.
A parts bag was blown out of my hand never to be seen again. After a few
unsuccesful tries and a pile of tangled wires I abandoned the plan for the
radials.
With my extensive skills I easily fixed the Beverage problem - it was missing
a coupling in the feed cable which could be seen from a Helicopter.
The Beverage worked good, about 1200' long, made of 28 gauge kynar wire, six 5'
tall supports.
The conditions seemed much better on the second day, I was able to use
Diversity reception during the EU opening, and was able to contact a few
stations.
After the EU sunrise everything went downhill.
The wind damaged the vertical, the RX 4 square was cutting in and out, when it
was in it sometimes had directivity sometimes not, the amplifier was shutting
down.
I went out trying to find the problems but the wind was too much. At around
11:45z it finally all broke down.
Called many times but never worked OZ7YY, DR4A, F6FYA for missed multipliers.
Missed SD for US.
DX: 6Y, FM, HI, KL7, KP2, XE, ZF
CE, HC, HK, P4, PJ2, PY
BY, JA, UA9
KH0, KH6, VK, ZL
CT, EA, G, GM
Lots of work for little show.
Niko - AC6DD
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