[3830] CQWW CW W4EF SOSB/160 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: W4EF
Operator(s): W4EF
Station: W4EF

Class: SOSB/160 HP
QTH: El Mirage, Ca
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  86     15       28
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total:  86     15       28  Total Score = 7,783

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

QTH: El Mirage Off-Highway Vehicle Range; El Mirage, Ca

Rig: Ten-Tec Omni 6+ and Drake L-7 (~1100 watts)

Antenna: 45ft top-loaded vertical w/35 ~100ft long radials

Power Source: 2 Honda EU2000I generators in parallel (4KVA peak)

Decided that I wanted to see how the other half lives, so I dragged my portable
low-band setup to the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in northwestern San Bernardino
County, Ca (about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles) for the WW CW weekend to
enjoy some QRN free low-band DXing. Made the mistake of setting up on the
eastern end of the lake bed which turned out to be the down-wind side. The winds
got very fierce on Friday afternoon to the point that I wasn't sure I could
safely erect the antenna. Dust clouds from the lakebed reduced visibility to a
few tens of feet at times and everything inside and outside the truck got
covered with dust. Finally winds calmed a bit around 4 PM and I was able to put
the antenna up. Just as I got the antenna up, two teenagers started doing donuts
in their cars near my setup and attracted the attention of all the park rangers
who promptly busted them and called their parents. Thought for sure one of those
park rangers was going to give me a hard time about the antenna. Fortunately the
only scrutiny I got was from a park volunteer who suggested that I get some
battery operated strobes from REI to light the antenna and guy wire attachments
(he showed me one - they are really neat - size of a small flashlight with a
very bright strobe that can be seen for miles). Winds started up again after
sunset, so I was greatful for the brief window that allowed me to get the
antenna up. 

One-sixty sounded really good at the beginning of the contest with strong
signals from VY2ZM and the other usual suspects (HC8N, PJ2T, KV4FZ), but
absorption seemed to increase as the night wore on. I had my guy ropes tied to
the fence, which turned out to be problematic. As the winds Friday night reduced
visibility to near zero, vehicles leaving the lakebed were hugging the fence
line as it was the only visible point of reference, so I had to stop operating
from time-to-time and get out with a flashlight and direct vehicles around my
camp so that they wouldn't snag my guy ropes and bring down the antenna. Later
in the night my truck battery went dead (even though I was being careful to run
the engine occasionally). I tried re-charging it with the +12V output on one of
the Honda generators I was using, but this caused massive RFI on 160 meters, so
I had to stop and build a common-mode choke for the charging cord. This cleaned
up the RFI, but turned out to be a mute-point since the battery wouldn't take
the charge. It had clearly given up the ghost. Without the ability to run the
engine on the truck perdiodically, I had to bundle up pretty good to stay warm
as it got down below freezing that night (one of the rangers told me +21 deg F).
Luckily I had plenty of warm clothing with me.

When 160 got slow, I listened on 80 meters a little. It sounded good (OJ0B and
OH2BH coming through with loud signals), so I cut a 80 meter 1/4 wave wire and
ran up the side of the 160 meter vertical on a pulley I had installed for just
such a contingency (45 feet vertical, 21 feet sloping down toward ground at
around 40 degrees). This improvised 80 meter antenna seem to work well, so I had
a little extra fun working DX on 80 meters when 160 meters got unbearably slow.
Between 1100 UTC and sunrise on Saturday morning I drifted in and out of sleep.
At sunrise, I got up and partially rolled up my radials so the moto-cross people
wouldn't get tangled up in them while I slept in the bed of my pick-up (El
Mirage crawls with dirt-bikes and ATV's during the daytime). 

After a few hours sleep, I called my wife and convinced her to pick-up a new
truck battery and deliver it to me in the afternoon. I slept some more and then
got up and built a quick disconnect for my loading coil so that I could QSY
between 80 and 160 meters a little more easily. By four o'clock my wife still
hadn't showed, so I began to worry. Meanwhile I listened on 80 meters. It was
amazing to hear IR4X coming through very loud with the sun still so high in the
sky. Just around sunset my wife showed up with the new battery (it was good to
know that she was safe and that I would be able to run the engine and stay warm
that night). One-sixty wasn't much better the second night, but it was nice to
be able to hear so well. Briefly heard CU2A and TM2Y with good signals from
Europe, but I couldn't get their attention. I also heard TZ5A very well both
nights, but seemed like he was having trouble with QRN, so I never made it into
his log. The highlight of the contest was working 4W3ZZ on Sunday morning on a
QSB peak around sunrise for DXCC #99 worked on 160 meters. Also hear RU0AT
calling CQ from zone 18, but I could raise his attention (it was a thrill just
to hear him). After the sun started burning up the bands on Sunday morning, I
started packing up. Got on the road around 1PM. After subsiding all weekend off
of Fritos corn chips, diet Coke, and cold canned spaghetti and meatballs, those
chicken tenders from the drive-thru at McDonalds in Littlerock, Ca seemed like 5
star cuisine. 

Despite all the difficulty of getting up to El Mirage and getting the antenna
up, I really had a ball. In terms of ability to hear on the low-bands, the
difference between my noisy urban QTH and this quiet rural location is like the
difference between night and day. The only downside of this is that I ended up
hearing a lot of stuff that couldn't hear me. My short vertical models out in
EZNEC to only about 6 ohms radiation resistance on 160 meters, so I could
probably stand to do a little better on the TX side (I felt louder on 80
meters). Heard but not worked on 160 meters:

TZ5A
ZD8A
CT3EN
CU2A
TM2Y
RU0AT (zone 18)
5J1W
EA8ZS
CX5BW
HI3/SP9XCN
PY2FUS
PY2RO

73, Mike W4EF....................................


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