[3830] TBDC ZL1AZE Single Op HP

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                    Stew Perry Topband Challenge

Call: ZL1AZE
Operator(s): ZL1AZE
Station: ZL1AZE

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: ZL
Operating Time (hrs): 8

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 24  Total Score = 444

Club: Wellington Amateur Radio Club

Comments:

This was my first time in the Stew Perry contest, as I am usually away on
holiday over the Christmas period. I enjoyed the event, despite only ending up
making 24 QSOs. I like the distance scoring format in this contest as it helps
to level the playing field, especially for more remote parts of the globe like
ZL!

I used an FT1000MP plus AL80A amp, and a half wave inverted vee dipole with the
centre at 13 metres above ground. The ends of the dipole were bent to fit within
the perimeter of our 1000 square metre property. The QTH is about 100 metres ASL
on a steep hillside, with a good takeoff in the downhill direction towards
America, but poor in the uphill direction towards the short path to Europe.

The QTH is located in Wellington city and suffers from a high level of manmade
noise radiated from a nearby commercial area. The noise level ranged between S4
and S9 (using 250 Hz filters) throughout the contest and forced me to QRX on
many occasions. I apologise to those who I was struggling to copy at times. I
need to do further work on receiving antenna options, as well as seeking to
clean up the sources of the noise.

There was good propagation towards Europe before our sunrise on Sunday morning,
although the local noise meant that I could only hear the louder signals. I was
pleased to make my longest distance QSO with RX3APM who had a tremendous 579
signal. I also noted good signals from UA4JMG and E77DX but they were not
hearing me.

Conditions seemed to be average on the Sunday evening. I did not hear any
Europe stations at sunset. There were some very loud USA stations but I could
only work a few of them. K5NA was the loudest, peaking up to S9 at times, but
after repeated calling I could not even raise a QRZ. The only Canadian station
heard and worked was VE6WQ. Later in the evening there were some good signals
from Asia, and at one point I even managed to generate a small pileup of JA
stations. My 'best ears' award goes to Herb KV4FZ and James K9YC, who both
heard me after a single call. 

Thanks to everyone for the fun and the QSOs.

73, Brian ZL1AZE


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