[3830] PA5MW CQ160 CW MS HP

[M. van Wijk]

During last years CQ-WW DX SSB contest in october 2001 we made some progress
in involving many novices in the contest activities and finding the right
geographical spot.  This location; a farm outside in the country proved to
have very good RF ground
specs.
Since a local ham friend and I wanted to participate in a 160mtr contest for
the first time we thought to give it a try. Plans were made and soon we
tried the 'so called' Inverted L with elevated radials in a small city-lot.
We set it up using a glasfibermast
(50ft) for the vertical part. The remaining long horizontal piece was tied
to a streetlamppost. Only two elevated radials were tied 5 to 8 feet up
zig-zag through his small backyard and through the bushes. The results were
very pleasing; during the
november CW CQWW we operated 6 hours (from 21-03.00) and made 200 qso's with
43 countries using a single tube PA. Other (side-)results were a burned out
telephone system, a neighbours car which would not start and a small fire in
the bushes
(arcing to the yardfence). Nonetheless a positive experience as we could
easy take part in pile ups.

For participating in the CQWW-CW 160 of end january 2002 (PA5MW MS-class) we
did lotsa experiments and thoroughly organised all things for a really
serious event. The inv. L was tied in a Alu mast 45ft+another 20ft of
glasfiber for the vertical part. The
horizontal end was tied in the trees at 25ft height. 4 elevated radials were
carefully hung in the trees at 15ft height. Near the mast they would slope
down at app. 45 deg. angles  (Gull Wing method). We tuned them at 1900 Khz
to avoid resonance at 1840.
This to avoid the RF current flowing in 1 radial only as is usually the case
with low resonant radials. The radiator itself did not behave that well.
Total impedance of the system would be between 11 and 17 Ohms at minimum
reactance no matter what we
tuned (both radials and/or radiator). We expected to see some 34 Ohms on the
analyzer.  Being in the field for over 9 hours we decided to continue the
next (contest)weekend. Friday morning we started very early. Doing our home
work this time we found the
basic specs of the inv. L which has an impedance of 18 Ohms only and between
11 and 18 if elevated radials were used. Since we already had shortened
radials (all 4 at perfect 1900Khz resonance)   we lengthened the radiator by
some 20ft and compensated the
extra inductive component by using two parallel doorknob caps in series.
Also an extra 50ft glasfiber mast was raised to get the horizontal part
higher up in the air. Now we were at 18 Ohms and connected an UNUN from
Amidon (18/32 to 50) to get a perfect
match.  During the afternoon we installed two beverages at 6ft height with
lenghts of 585ft in the directions USA and JA. The japanese direction did
show S5 noise, whereas the USA beverage was at S1 or less. The inv. L
however would show S9+5dB in the
evenings and S6 at daytime.   Contest started at 23.00 local on friday and
already early in the night (00.19)we worked VY2ZMM from Prince Edward
Island.  From the local and world dx cluster we noticed that we were one of
the first from Eu to enter the N-american
continent. An hour later K5ZD was the first US station, quickly followed by
W1FJ. Many US stations were contacted that first night. The next saturday
afternoon we had to work hard to repair the bamboo sticks of both beverages
which broke down due to the storm which had started that morning. We
relocated the RG213 network
cable to the farm (internet cable comnection) which caused some of the noise
on the JA beverage.  In the evening we found ourselves QRT for 1.5 hour. Mr.
Murphy came punishing us for our second homework mistake;  forgot to use an
insulator at the end of
the horizontal part of the radiator. The 4mm nylon wire was burned through.
The storm and heavy rain hurt our hands and faces while lowering the mast in
total darkness. Needless to say that we had 3 wet_to_the_bone people.
Luckily the next operator shift
had just started.  The second night we worked PY0, FY5, ZF2, one JA and
numerous  americans.  We had some great fun in all and ended with 835 qso's,
61 countries and 26 US states.  113 US stations were worked. We worked some
36 asian countries as well but no VK or ZL.
After a week on the 3830 reflector our position is still superb for a first
time try-out I guess.
Nex year we will double the efforts on RX using better beverages + K9AY
loops.   Operators have been PA5EA, PA3EZL, PA0SHY, PA1MRK and myself.
Thanks to the support crew: PA3FGA+Claudia, PA3BMX, PA3GPX and family
Kuijpers. We look forward to next year.
'73 Mark, PA5MW


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