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The following is a blow-by-blow account of the multi-op effort by K6NDV.
Co-operators were K6SE and KR6C.
The operation was from the Koehn Dry Lake bed in southern California,
with an almost pure salt soil. It was a field day type of operation, far
from any commercial power mains. The team of K6NDV, K6SE, and KR6C have
been experimenting with the site to determine how a highly conductive
ground (moist salt) might enhance the performance of a mediocre vertical
antenna on topband.
The antenna was a 70-foot mast (5" diameter) with three equally-spaced
45-foot top-loading wires which served as the top guy wires, sloping
downward from the top of the mast at a 45-degree angle. The mast was
shunt fed with a wire attached to the mast 11 feet above ground and
sloping down at a 45 degree angle to the ground, where the slant-wire was
fed via an omega match.
For receiving, a "Diamond" antenna was set up about 400 feet from the
transmitting vertical. It was hoped that distance would minimize the
effect of the resonant transmitting vertical. The "Diamond" is a
relative of the "Pennant" and "Flag" antennas, and this was the first
trial of this antenna. Receiving results with the "Diamond" were
disappointing, however, as S/N on signals from directions 45 degrees off
to the side of the antenna were better than with the tx vertical, and
signals directly off of the front of the "Diamond" were poorer. Hence,
the tx vertical was used for receiving all stations worked in the
contest. We may try the "Diamond" again, but with a T/R relay at the
base of the tx vertical to detune the vertical while receiving.
The station was set up in K6NDV's motor home and consisted of an
FT-1000MP and Alpha 91B running 1400 watts output. 110/220 VAC power was
provided by a 6 kw Diesel generator. The operation, many miles from any
town and commercial power, was truly a field day type of operation (but
sorrowfully, nobody sponsored a "Best Field Day Operation" plaque, hi).
Because of the 14-hour rule, we began the contest at 0100 GMT.
Conditions seemed to be very poor, with only western USA and Canada
stations being heard/worked. Later, W4s began showing up in our log.
Propagation continued to improve -- the W3s then appeared, then the W2s,
and finally the W1s. Finally we broke the ice on DX when KH7R called us
at 0321 GMT. That must've been 30 minutes before his sunset, which was
encouraging.
The 9-pointer with KH7R remained our best DX until KV4VZ made it into the
log at 0430 GMT with an 11-pointer. We listened to Herb handle the
tremendous pile-up he had going and marveled at his talent. It would be
a crying shame and a terrible loss to amateur radio if the upcoming U.S.
Supreme Court decision goes against him -- not only because of his
operating ability, but for his contributions to the community in times of
disaster.
FO0EEN called us at 0641 GMT, with his 18 points upping our distance
record. Although our grid map showed the Austral Islands to be in grid
square BG??, one of the operators (K6SE) said that he was penalized two
years ago for correcting the obviously-wrong grid squares he received
from a couple of stations, so we'll leave the grid square for FO0EEN as
is. We heard him later giving out the same grid (QL43) to another
station.
Although propagation didn't appear to be good, we called Kent, SM4CAN in
the blind on his pre-contest announced frequency (1836.3) at about 0740
GMT. To our amazement, a weak G3PQA came back to us! After finally
getting his call and exchange at 0745 GMT, we proceeded to CQ on 1829 kHz
and were greeted by Mike, G3SED at 0753 GMT. Another G3 called us
shortly after that, but we couldn't pull his callsign out of the mud.
Obviously propagation was improving, but unfortunately sunrise was over
for Europe.
ZF2NT called us at 0829 GMT (a close-in 8-pointer) and at 0919 GMT we
logged KH2/K4SXT who increased our distance record with his 20 points.
We had been looking for the JA gang since their sunset (0730 GMT in
Tokyo), but didn't hear any until 1105 GMT when we logged the first JA.
Only 12 JAs were logged, which was a disappointment. The JAs logged all
had strong signals, so we feel there was not much activity in the contest
from Japan.
At 1200 GMT we tuned across a huge pile on 1831.1 kHz calling VK6VZ.
Steve was coming back to mostly W1s at the time, so we were pleased to
break that pile-up and log him at 1204 GMT for a new distance record - a
31-pointer!
About 30 minutes later we heard VK6HD calling CQ on about 1834 kHz with
no takers, so Mike was easily logged. This 31-pointer was 107 km farther
from us than VK6VZ and is our farthest QSO in the contest at 15,157.618
km.
UA0MF made it into the log at 1340 GMT for our final country worked in
the contest.
Although we know they were there, no South American or African stations
were heard during the contest. Although we listened for 4X4NJ and VQ9DX
at their sunrise and sunset times, not a trace was heard.
K7RAT, the Boring Radio Club station, called us at the close of the
contest and we exchanged our scores. They had 1660 points, more than 200
better than our score! This was sad news for us because we were hoping
to win the plaque for high west coast multi-op. Well, maybe next year!
Congratulations to K7RAT!
We really enjoyed operating from that salt lake bed. It is very
noticeably quieter there for receiving than at our home QTHs, and
obviously the soil conductivity there makes a big difference in
transmitting. "Black holes" may exist in other areas, but this "hole",
which is lower than all of the surrounding terrain, really plays, even
though it's uphill in every direction!
73 from K6NDV (Will), K6SE (Earl) and KR6C (Chuck)
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