[3830] WPX CW K1LT SOAB HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Carroll, Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 24.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    8
   80:   27
   40:  343
   20:  601
   15:   73
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1052  Prefixes = 558  Total Score = 1,456,938

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

This was my first CW WPX contest.  Normally, the contest collides with
my annual Memorial Day weekend activities, but not this year.  Perhaps
the contest should be permanently delayed by a week.

Since I could almost dedicate the whole weekend to the contest, I
decided to make some antenna improvements prior to the test.  Since
financial constraints continue to enforce my un-official "all
verticals all of the time" policy, I decided to make use of the 1200
square foot metal roof of my pole barn.  I drilled a hole through the
peak, and poked an aluminum tube through the hole, U-bolted to the
rafters.  To the pole I mounted an old Hy-Gain vertical bracket with
enough tubing to make a quarter-wave 20 meter vertical.

I had an FT-240 left over from some prior experiment with a 5:6 ratio
transformer wound on it, and that seemed to produce an adequate match
on 20 meters.  Since I now had a dedicated 20 meter vertical, I took
down the ground-mounted 4-BTV and put the full-sized 40 meter vertical
in its place.  I finished these tasks just minutes before the contest.

Although conditions were poor, I was pleased with the performance of
the 40 meter and 20 meter verticals.  The 40 meter vertical also
performed reasonably well on 15 meters.  I frequently used my
Beverages for reception on 20.  I think I need a better feedline to
the 40 meter vertical, as 15 meter signals were all rather weak.
There may be as much as 3 db of loss in my ancient pieces of RG8,
although I'm just guessing.

Late in the afternoon and in the evening of both days I was able to
have modest runs on both 20 and 40.  In fact, stations were still
calling me right up to the end of the contest.

Radios: IC-765 (needs trimmer caps replaced), ETO-91B (thanks, Jeff!)

Antennas: 160 - 65 foot "T" with with 75 radials
          80 - 2 inverted-L wires attached to 160 vertical feed point
          40 & 15 - 32 foot ground mounted vertical with 32 radials
          20 - 17 foot roof mounted vertical over metal roof
          12 Beverages 500 - 900 feet


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