[3830] ARRL 160 W2GD M/S HP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: W2GD
Operator(s): K2PS, K2TW, NA2U, N2HM,  N2OO,  W2CG, W2GD, W2KP, W2OB, W2REH
Station: W2GD

Class: M/S HP
QTH: SNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 34

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1595  Sections = 76  Countries = 49  Total Score = 454,625

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Station:  IC756ProIII, IC746Pro, Alpha 91, IC756ProIII, AL1200
Antennas:  2 el Vert Beam NE and W, Vertical Dipole, Beverages NE, E, S, SW, W,
NW

For over 20 years our 160 team has been doing FD style operations from 
locations along the NJ shoreline, initially on Sandy Hook, in NNJ near NYC, and
more recently near Tuckerton, NJ in SNJ, about 20 miles north of Atlantic City. 
The current location is adjacent to Barnaget Bay, and features a 300' tower
completely surrounded by salt marsh.

We normally use the ARRL 160 to shake down the station in preparation for CQ160
CW in January.  Some years we're very competitive, others, like this year, we
run into problems, and just do the best we can with the hand dealt.

W2CG and I arrived at the station Friday morning to set up the station.  When
we went to tune the NE/EU transmit antenna, the SWR was infinite.  Hmmmm,
further investigation determined the feedline was badly contaminated (typical
saltwater damage) and needed to be replaced.  Over the next 4 hours K2PS and
W2REH joined the fun and we made three coax replacements, the first two also
turned out to be damaged cables, so it wasn't until the third and final
replacement was completed that we had a EU antenna that worked....but by this
time the sun has set,  we're already 30 minutes into the contest, K2PS, W2REH
and I are still out in the swamp, and not a single QSO is in the log.   Great
start.

We all trudge back through the muck to the shack  (its a 500' trek), and find
the station is still not yet completely setup....so there's another chinese
fire drill to get the run station functional.  The band is filled end to end. 
We find a hole at 1847 and start running.  The mult station and the telnet
connection are still not working, and the East and NW beverages are still not
connected.   

After having a half dozen EU stations call in, its clear our pair of phased
900' NE beverages are not working properly (EU sigs were louder on the
unterminated SW bev).  A work party is dispatched to look into the problem.  We
ultimately went to a single wire NE beverage configuration but it still wasn't
working correctly.

Other commitments by several of our regular team members left us short of
operators this weekend.  It was therefore most fortunate to have K2PS, NA2U and
W2REH agree to join us on very short notice. 

By the end of the first night, having missed most of the first hour we were
about 150 QSOs behind the leaders, but our mult total, particularly the country
total was still competitive.  W2OB arrived at sunrise and did a reprise of his
daytime ironman role.....thanks Arnie!  

NA2U arived just before sundown the second night and was put in the chair
immediately.  But Murphy was to strike again, the NE TX sloper, the focus of
repairs Friday, was once again exhibiting elevated SWR shortly after sunset and
eventually became unusable.  So the West 2 element array became the primary TX
antenna most of the second night.  And the NE beverage was still not working
properly.  These lingering problems made the weekend a continuous challenge but
we still had a great time.

Congrats to the teams at KC1XX and WE3C for their great scores, and to our
friends at K5ZG and W2FU for their spirited efforts too.

Many thanks to the owners of WYRS-FM for the continued use of their wonderful
facilities.

We'll be back for the Stew at the end of the month!

73,

John W2GD


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