[3830] TBDC G3LET Single Op HP

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                    Stew Perry Topband Challenge

Call: G3LET
Operator(s): G3LET
Station: G3LET

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: IO91
Operating Time (hrs): 14

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 455  Total Score = 3,523

Club: Horsham Amateur Radio Club

Comments:

Rig: K3 with linear
Antenna: 250ft wire, supported by 150ft sequoia tree, sloping down to the shack
in a NW direction.
Rx Antenna: None yet . . .
Logger: Pencil and paper, with SD by EI5DI in post-contest mode to create the
entry file.

Having worked Stew many times in the 60's (and contributed to his DXCC!), I
felt I'd like to pay my respects while 160 is still in good shape.  I also
wanted to see how a basic station performs in today's environment.  The K3 of
course is SOTA, but everything else is pretty much as it was in the 1960s. 
Christmas guests pulled rank for a couple of the best evening hours, but at
least the decision on when to take "rest" time was made for me.
 
Not having done the "challenge" before, I hadn't a clue about the locators and
had expected the W7s who appeared in the log to be guys who'd moved further
east.  Keying the paper log into SD was quite exciting to see the distances!  

The K3 performed suprbly, with the sloping wire antenna supplemented by some
temporary radials laid out on the grass.  These seem to have worked reasonably
well, as the CE, HQ and other DX pileups were unexpectedly easy to crack.  Most
of these guys were excellent operators and gave no encouragement to the packet
caller brigade, which was often in evidence.  A nice bonus was a call from
OA4TT, new for 160.  

With no dedicated Rx antenna the wire was often noisy, but 35 JA (all
districts), 140 W/VE and a good assortment of other DX made it into the log,
approximately 70/30 run/trawl).  The algorithm used was to run until no QSO for
5 minutes, then trawl the band until clean and find another run channel.  In
contrast to an amazing 5 hour opening to JA, The path to the US was very
variable for most of the night, with rapid deep QSB on many signals.  Quite a
few fell into one of these holes and my apologies are offered to those who
called and didn't quite make it.

Later on, searching became effectively limited to 'new' DX, as this was another
last minute entry and there was no time to design and prepare custom dupe
sheets.

Many thanks for all the QSOs and the welcome activity that made the event so
enjoyable.

73, Peter G3LET


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