[3830] ARRL 160 W2GD M/S HP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: W2GD
Operator(s): K2GN, K2SZ, K2SG, K2TW, KC2COB, N2EA, N2HM, N2OO, W1GD, W2ARP,  W2GD, W2KP, W2NO, W2RQ
Station: W2GD

Class: M/S HP
QTH: West Creek, SNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 40

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1430  Sections = 79  Countries = 46  Total Score = 420,500

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Station Location:  In a salt marsh adjacent to Barnagat Bay, 20 miles north of
Atlantic City, NJ, 70 miles south of NYC, the former site of marine coast
station WSC.  The location features a 300 foot tall tower (previously used as a
500 khz vertical) surrounded by a minimum of 600 feet of tidal salt marsh. This
is a temporary FD style station set up for 5 months each fall/winter
specifically for the 160M contest season.  It is also the future home of
WYRS-FM.

Station Equipment:

Run Station:   IC756ProII, IC746 (rx only), Alpha 99
Mult Station:  IC781, AL1200

Antennas:

2 element sloping dipole array fed against a delta loop reflector @ 190' above
the salt marsh, which fires NE, W or Omni, fed with 550' of 5/8 inch heliax

Marconi "T" (65 ft. vertical + top) with 4 elevated tuned radials above the
marsh.

2 ele 935' phased NE beveage array - 280 foot spacing
2 ele 1/4W staggered 580' West beverage array - 20 foot spacing
2 ele 1/4W staggered 580' NW beverage array - 20 foot spacing
580' unterminated beverages to the East, South, and Southwest
K9AY rx loop 900 feet from TX antenna

The Story:

This year's adventure in 160M contesting from the New Jersey shore began in
October, a week before CQWW PH.  About 6 of our core Team and several members
from the SJDXA converged on the site to put up the TX antennas and make repairs
to the permanent beverage rx arrays.  Over this past summer the site owner had
done extensive renovations of the main 300 foot tower in the marsh, including
installation of several new guy anchors, replacement of all guy wires, and a
complete tower paint job.  Our primary concern was the replacement of the
original insulated guys with an uninsulated system....our modeling programs
indicated this could have a negative impact on TX antenna gain/performance as
compared to prior years.  It was a fairly successful work party, all beverages
were walked and repaired as needed, the inverted L backup TX antenna replaced
with a "T", and the main TX antenna 2/3 installed (delta refl. and NE driven). 
We felt there would be adequate time on the Friday of the ARRL 160 to complete
all remaining antenna work.

During the next month it was also decided that we would switch logging programs
from CT to N1MM, hoping to simplify networking requirements and to have a
program which fully supports the TBDC later in the December.  Little did we
realize this process would cause us big problems the weekend of the ARRL160.

Work commitments limited to four the number of our core team who could come and
help setup on December 2nd.  But we managed to finish installing the main TX
antenna 3 hours before the start, and in the process reoriented the SW driven
element to a more westerly direction, further away from the new tower guys that
run SSW.  Everything seemed to tune well, and over the course of the weekend we
felt this antenna was very effective to both EU, the US west coast and
everywhere else in omni mode.  Most of the beverage work had already been
completed previously, with the exception of installing feedlines.  A little
later on we found there were problems with the NE phased bev. array.  More about
this later.

The biggest challenge of the weekend turned out to be setting up the computer
network.  W2CG had delivered the computers 2 weeks earlier before heading to P40
for vacation.  The understanding was they were configured and talking to each
other.  Well.....not quite!  W2NO and N2EA did there best to sort out things but
without much success.  At the 2200Z start we were without computers and network.
 Yours truly logged the first 62 qsos by hand (yuck). The remainder of Friday
night we had use of just one computer, limited packet connectivity, and a
virtually useless mult station position without a second networked computer.  


Conditions both nights never lived up to CQWW CW weekend levels.  It seemed EU
signals were very high angle, which rendered the beverages useless most of the
time.  We struggled to work 75 EU and 14 other DX contacts the first night. 
Virtually all of these DX contacts were made listening on the TX antenna, we
just could not hear DX on the beverages (the same kind of condx. existed in the
2004 ARRL160, only it was even more acute last year). We apologize to the many
EU stations who called that we could not copy.  Fortunately, the band was
otherwise quiet, with little atmospheric or power grid noise on Friday night. 
Condx. to the western US seemed excellent, with all states/sections except VE4
logged the first night.  Without packet, we missed the 5T and probably a few
other easy mults.  Two JA stations made it into the log at sunrise but no
VK/ZL.

Saturday morning during our traditional team breakfast at a local restaurant, we
prioritized the problems needing attention, and developed plans.  Highest
priority would be establishing a working computer network to enable use of the
mult station computer and to interface packet at both operating positions.  The
second priority was doing a full examination of the 2 ele NE phased beverage in
the hope of deterining why performance of this antenna was below expectations.  
W2NO and N2EA again went to work on the networking problem, managing to finally
get both machines pinging each other, but could not successfully configure N1MM.
 Through the help of a telephone consultation provided by W3PP, the N1MM
configuration problem was resolved, and everything was finally in working order!
 TNX Dallas!

Examination of the 2 ele NE phased beverage was left to K2TW and W2GD.  Various
measurements and direct physical examination of each system component was
performed (matching transformers, feedlines, matching stubs, walked each
beverage element wire to ck continuity, termination resistor checks, etc.) in
the hope of finding some obvious source of trouble.  Unfortunately nothing
difinitive was discovered.  The only abnormal condition we found was built-up
corrosion inside the T-connector between the ends of the 75 ohm phasing lines. 
Replacing all of the T-connectors did not show any change in our prior
measurements, but it was hoped actual performance had improved.  We'd have to
wait until darkeness to find out.

As the afternoon wore on, the noise generated from the local power grid began
increasing.  We were not initially worried since the previous day we heard the
same noises but they disappeared after darkeness, most likely from street lamps
cycling on.  But this was not to be the case on Saturday night, the line noise
never disappeared.  It rendered the TX antennas as well as the NE, E, and SW
beverages virtually useless except for medium to strong signals.  The W beverage
was moderately quiet and was used to work a number of Europeans.  Only the
unterminated N/S beverage was totally uneffected by the line noise.  It was
frustrating all night sensing there were stations calling, particularly European
stations, but we were rendered an alligator in rx terms by the unending noise. 
Further exaserbating the problem was an approaching weather front that initially
brought an inch of snow before changing over to rain just before sunrise.  On a
30 minute expedition out to the nearby major highway at 5 a.m., three seperate
sources of power grid noise were identified.   We're hoping the local power
company will respond to the report and resolve them before the CQWW 160. 

Despite the problems, Saturday night we managed to add another 70 EU stations,
7X, TI, and a VE4 to the log. VE8/VY1 needed for a sweep was never heard or
called out as far as we could tell all weekend.  In general signals on Saturday
night were weaker with greater QSB from all directions.  We heard ZL6QH but not
well enough for a solid contact.  No JA opening at sunrise.  Once we reached
420K about 2 hours after sunrise we turned everything off and went to breakfast.
 There is always next year.  We're now looking forward to the TBDC on 17 Dec. 05
and CQWW CW 28/29 Jan. 06.   

Congrats to Jon, AA1K for his outstanding one-man multi effort (we want a
rematch next year OM), and to W8JI, K9DX, WA1Z at KC1XX, and VE3EJ for their iron
man single op scores.  BRAVO gentlemen!

We want to again thank the owners of WSC and WYRS-FM for the use of this
wonderful radio facility.  

73,

John, W2GD (for the entire TEAM)


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