[3830] ARRL 160 6Y0A M/S HP

[Kenneth Silverman]

P.S. the amp tubes were weak, and we maxed out at 400w, often dipping down to 250w.  
   
  Kenny K2KW
  

webform at b4h.net wrote:
  ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: 6Y0A
Operator(s): N6BT, K2KW
Station: 6Y0A

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Jamaica
Operating Time (hrs): 32

Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1336 Sections = 79 Countries = 0 Total Score = 211,088

Club: 

Comments:

Another Team Vertical effort.

Tom and I came down specifically for this contest, and to try and work JA's on
160m as possible

We planned a 2 element vertical array, but the first element was very difficult
and broke on installation, so we scaled back to a single and shorter element. 
We ended up with a single 62' vertical with (4) 33' top hat wires, a loading
coil about 3' below the top hat wires, and minimal base loading to tune the
antenna. We had 2 elevated radials, one of which was over salt water. We also
added 20 ground screen radials too.

We had 2 RX antennas: 700' east/west unterminated beverage, and a 40m vertical.
Neither heard as well as the TX antenna.

We thought overall conditions were very good, though activity from the west
coast seemed down. Signals were there, but not the activity we anticipated. 
Propagation was very good to EU, and unfortunately the EU's pestered us
relentlessly for QSOs. If we worked a single EU station, we would have ended
up with a huge pileup during prime time to the US and the west coast. Sorry to
disappoint our EU colleagues by not working them on this trip (we have worked
over a 1000 EU stations on 160m on the past trips). Personally, I would have
hoped the EU's would respect our repeated efforts to ask them to stop calling,
as they were covering up USA stations! Of specfic note, DL2KQ just wouldn't
stop calling. 

Once we got the antenna installed, working and the amp operational (took us 4
days, much longer than expected) we were up each morning to work JA. In total,
we worked 44 JA individual callsigns. We worked JA as late as 45 minutes after
sunrise, and often signals were stronger after sunrise, peaking 589-599 on the
TS850 meter. 

Of interesting note, we were surprised at the propagation during sunlight hours.
We worked many QSOs on 160m 2 hours before sunset, and nearly 3 hours after
sunrise! We also appeared to hear a terminater enhancement when west coast guys
were at their sunrise, and we were in broad daylight. We noticed this on the
arc from WY down to AZ, which I think is the limit of our single hop, low angle
distance from Jamaica. Might not bear out in science, but we sure thought we
were hearing an enhancement!

Before the contest we operated much less than expected. Instead, we actually
took a real vacation and operated very little outside the contest. We also
handed out a few QSOs in the CQWWCW contest, mostly on 40m. 

Many thanks for the QSOs.

Kenny K2KW & Tom, N6BT


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