[3830] ARRL SS CW VA7RR SO HP

[Gary Caldwell]

ARRL SS CW 2000
VA7RR         1271 x 80    203,360

80    46
40  234
20  280
15  360
10  351

SO2R

     Decided to operate from the home station after putting up some new
antennas.
In the past month we've added, at 39 feet, a dual bander consisting of 5
el on 10
and 5 el on 15. It's all on a 36 foot boom, and is based on a design by
NW3Z.

     Also, at 56 feet, there's now a 4 element 10 on a 20 foot boom,
which was modeled
for me by VE7IN.  The other antennas remain the same--a Force 12 5 el 15
at 86 feet,
4 el 20/2 el 40 Force 12 at 73 feet, and an inverted vee for 80.  Am
running a pair of
Stackmatches to stack 10 and 15.

     The station seemed to play very well this weekend, especially on 10
and 15.  As
expected, things went downhill as soon as I hit 40--I could make QSOs,
but not as well as the bigger guns could.  It would have been nice to
have another 50 feet of antenna height, but that's not practical at our
city lot QTH!

     As other have noted, Sunday was slow--averaged about 40 per hour
most of the
day, and it got much slower the last hour and a half.

     I smoked the MLA-2500, being used with the 2nd radio, about halfway
through the weekend (filter cap failure), and had to replace the 2nd
radio TS-830S because of VOX
problems.

     Thanks to all for the Qs, and cu in WW CW.  I'm  gonna try all band
low power
and see how stacks measure up for working DX.

73,

Gary  VA7RR










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