Rain kept my tree guy from putting up my big 160 antenna and my PC lost the
back up hard drive
so I could not really try 160 or even log on the computer. So I decided to
test each band out. I would guess I have 310 to 330 contacts in 8 hours of
mostly S&P. I had a problem with the receiver in my primary SO2R FT 980. I
pulled the one from my low band station and put the FT 920 on low band. I
had two instances of the T2X rotor sticking even with the new starting cap.
Guess I need to use the KC4UZ Antenna Mart kit which replaces two wires in
the hook up and puts the cap at the rotor.
I found 160 good but had problems getting Dx to hear my little Spi-Ro dipole
mounted as a half wave L. I did work 13 countries including HG6N, DL5YY,
SN7Q, and G6PZ. For some reason
EA8BH and D4B (who was loud last week in the CQ 160 SSB) were covered in
noise. My phased Mor-Gains worked great on 75. SP4JAI (who is he??) and
OR3T (ON4UN) were 20DB over and worked on first call. I got posted on the
European packet so I called CQ on 1823 and after two calls ran 22 stations
in 14 minutes. Then the band changed and I called for 5 more minutes with
no luck. I S&Ped and worked F6DZU, CN2R, and EA8BH (59+40). 22 Countries
in 45 minutes of operating. 40 is always my best band and many said I was
loud with the LK500NTC at 1200 watts to the cushcraft 40. I did have a run
of 21Q's with 20 Europeans and one EA9 calling in. SSB stations below 7100
were so thick that I heard contesters down to 7022. Loudest signal on the
band was either EA8BH, 6D2YFM, or RN0CT (location??? UA0 or just Russia).
RW2F said I was 50DB over at his QTH and louder than the broadcast QRM.
I had the most QSOs on 20 as the band was loaded and all I did was S&P. I
counted 50 DXCC mults on 20. I don't have an AMP on 15 right now unless I
put my WARC Henry 2K amp on the band so I ran 100 watts and mainly S&Ped.
About 40 QSOs and used the band mainly to test how quick I could QSY. I
seemed to work all but one (4W6MM) on first call (third call). He left when
some W6 would not stop calling. 10 meters was strange with Northern Europe
in at 2230Z
(SM and LA). I noticed that signals were inconsistent toward the SE with LU
and PY loud at times and in the mud at others. Most time spent was 5
minutes to work VP8LP who was peaking Straight south. Seems W1 had the
Southern Skip at least on Sunday afternoon. Ran one run of JA's on Saturday
at 28617 but a W6 broke in to say I was QRming S9SS just above me (he came
on after I started). I moved to keep the peace.
So I have my needs fixing list....Better antenna on 160. Fix the amp on 15
(LK500NTC) and fix the Reflector on the 40 meter beam which lost a capacity
hat in the summer 2001. Since I had no front to back I could leave the
antenna on 40 pointed SW and work EU and VK/ZL. Turning the antenna NW gave
me South America and JA. maybe I don't need a the full reflector for Dx
contests. Only guy who beat me to anybody was K9ES in Florida and I worked
ES and KH2 over the big east coast Multi ops.
The computer is at the techs getting a new second hard drive. I may lose
one of my CQ 160 log checking files so have no time trying to convert the
QSOs to a cabrillo format for ARRL (post contest is not a forte of
Writelog!!!). So I will turn in the log pages to ARRL as a check log.
hey guys contesting can be fun and profitable from 1/2 acre city lots.
Band Transceiver Used Amp Antenna Used
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
160 FT 920 8877 Spi-Ro
100 foot Dipole in half wave L
75 FT 920 8877 two
Mor-Gain dipoles phased NE
40 FT 980 LK500NTC 2 El
Cushcraft at 86 feet
20 FT 980 LK500NTC KT 34XA at
76 feet
15 FT 980 None KT
34XA
10 FT 980 LK500NTC KT 34XA
But using a hand log again was a chore. I kept having to look back to see
if I had worked someone. When running work them and don't worry about dupes
(especially UR's and I's).
Stations heard many times NA4W and WA4TII on 160, N4PN on 40, NQ4I on 15,
N4NX on two or three bands, W4KZ on 20, and K4EA and K4WI on 10.
73 Dave K4JRB
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