[3830] WO1N Stew Perry SOLP + Story

[KEN CARUSO]

XAA01139
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 Call: WO1N                     Country:  USA
 Power: 100W                    Category: Single Operator
 Grid: FN42                     Hours Op: 4.5hrs

      BAND     QSO     GRIDS
 
      160       75     50

 Equipment Description: FT1000D, Inv-L at 55'

 Club Affiliation: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

 Soapbox: The early date of the 1999 version of the SPTBC turned out
 to be a blessing in disguise. This year the temporary Inv-L set up ritual 
 has been dogged by recalcitrant hardware (stripped screws, crushed pipe
 caps etc etc.), lack of time and some M.I.A. internal motivation. A half
 hearted attempt to get it together was made for the ARRL 160 test, but 
 the aforementioned hw problems killed that.

 After spending the entire days worth of daylight setting up the kids
 skating rink (OK, I'll admit it, I use it too!), I set out to tackle 
 the Inv-L again to be able to make some Q's in the test. Working in the 
 dark, before and after dinner I managed to solve the hw nasties and get 
 4 130' radials and the coax to it. No RX antennas. SWR wasn't good at 
 all, but I cut in the auto-tuner and gave it hell. Started out about 
 0235Z. A sweep of the band rounded up the usual suspects and at that 
 time S57M was the only DX heard. These guys must have some kick butt 
 setup as they were able to pull me out in the ARRL 160 test when I 
 was using my 40' Alpha Delta DX-LB trap dipole. However, first DX was 
 Wil, DJ7AA at 0356Z followed quickly by DF2PY (crushing signal!), UA2FF,
 S57M and CO8JY.

 I started my first run at 0519Z and was quickly rewarded
 with S50U stopping by. Chased those K7RAT guys but no luck. Last DX
 was Kent, SM4CAN at 0618Z. Heard John, ON4UN in there for the first time 
 in a couple of years, but he couldn't pull me out. Did a little more 
 running and S&P but the effects of the full day out in the cold were 
 to great, I pulled the plug at 0700Z.

 This was essentially the first night back on Top Band with the vertical
 and it was good to hear/work some of the old regulars. The QSB was
 very intense, but you knew you could wait around a minute or two and
 make a Q. IV3PRK and 9A4U were in there, but couldn't make the
 grade with them either. Looks like some new locals have picked up the
 top band bug as W1FJ and KB1EBG have front-end folding signals at
 my QTH, gonna have to find out who these guys are!

 CU in the next one,

 Ken
 WO1N
 WO1N at ARRL.NET






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