[3830] ARRL 160 K1TN Single Op LP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: K1TN
Operator(s): K1TN
Station: K1TN

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: SNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 7

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 156  Sections = 32  Countries = 0  Total Score = 9,984

Club: 

Comments:

Congrats to everybody who heard me! Thank you. 

Who was it who said "If I had known I would live this long I would have taken
better care of myself"? Was it Mickey Mantle? George Burns?

Well, if I had known I would make this many contacts I would have used my
computer and CT instead of paper log sheets. I had figured I'd be lucky to work
W2GD, 20 miles away.

For the first time in 46 years of contesting, I am using two antenna tuners, in
series. Therein lies a tale.

As soon as I moved into this second-floor apartment last March I began
experimenting with indoor antennas. I'm on the top floor of a wood building. I
figured an indoor wire would at least get me on 40 and 20, and it did. About
six weeks ago I worked up the nerve to throw 33 feet of wire from the balcony
into a tree (about 2 a.m.). I ended up with a final configuration of 33 feet of
wire inside and 33 feet outside; I center feed it on 40 and above and end feed
it on 80 and 160.

It was only last week that I tried to load it up on 160. I figured -- 1/8
wavelength, no way. But lo and behold it would load it up and I could actually
hear people. 

I really wanted to get in the 160 contest, to work YCCC friends to the north,
PVRC friends to the south, FRC friends all around, and maybe even SMC friends
to the west. 

And I wanted to put a scare into the usual suspects up the road at W2GD ... a
little SNJ competition from The K1TN Superstation.

Here's how I did it -- the 66-foot wire ends up over the refrigerator, where I
tune it with an MFJ artificial ground tuner. I have a few counterpoise wires
for  80 and above. On Friday afternoon I added a 200-foot roll of wire as one
more counterpoise, snaked around the apartment, even through the bathtub. What
I couldn't unroll I just left coiled up in the kitchen. I was getting a lot of
ground current ... a good thing. 

There's a GFI outlet in the kitchen near the tuner and I trip it on 80, but not
on 160. Go figure. After nearly a hundred uneventful contacts on 160 this
weekend, for some reason I suddenly started setting off the CO2 detector,
conveniently located right above the tuner. Hmmmm I just disconnected it. 

This antenna unfortunately has a bandwidth of about 10 kHz. During contests I
make trips to the refrigerator but didn't want to have to time them to when I
want to move frequency. Well, I feed the "refrigerator tuner" with 50 feet of
coax, so next to the radio I added an MFJ autotuner, which I use to "touch up"
when I've moved too far in frequency. 

What's really wacky is ... if I put the radio on TUNE, then go out to adjust
the refrigerator tuner, if I change it too much that sets off the autotuner,
which starts searching. This is sort of like two people dancing and both of
them trying to lead. 

Or a tug-or-war. Tug of wire.

This weekend, for some reason, my usual noise level decided to drop down to S4,
which in an apartment building is nothing short of miraculous. I could really
hear! Unfortunately, I could hear lots of stations that couldn't hear me. I was
unable to cross the Mississippi. Best "DX" was either Wisconsin, West Central
Florida, or PEI (thanks Jeff). I heard some EU, and called C6 and XE, but no
luck. 

Oh, it goes without saying that I was LP, 100 watts out. 

It took a lot of calls and repeats, and I really appreciate the people who hung
in there with me. Maybe because I was so weak they thought I might be DX, OK1TN
or somebody. My little Ten-Tec jupiter's good QSK was indispensible for all the
back-and-forth.

Couldn't even work Minnesota; I called several of them, including K0AD, with
whom I operated Field Day 40 years ago. 

I worked a lot of old friends this weekend, which is precisely why I pursued
the madness of working 160 Meters from an apartment. 

Cheers,

Jim Cain, K1TN/2
Near Atlantic City (Not CT, Not IN, Not STEX, Not MS).


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