[3830] ARRL 160 W2ID Single Op QRP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: W2ID
Operator(s): W2ID
Station: W2ID

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: NNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 29

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 554  Sections = 57  Countries = 2  Total Score = 63,498

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

What tremendous fun!  I had absolutely no idea that 5 watts could travel so far
on top band!  Huge thanks and congrats to a lot of fine ops who had the ears
and patience (and antennas) to pull me out of the noise. Especially of note is
K0RF who heard me on the first call for my biggest DX the first night. Amazing!
 Condx seemed better the second night, as I was able to work KS, NE, NM, AZ, OR,
WWA, VE5, VE6, and PJ2T, all of which eluded me on the first night despite
dozens of calls to each. Not a single W6 in the log either night though,
despite being able to easily copy several of them. Oh well, I guess the laws of
physics can't be broken even for a contest.  I did have a surprising amount of
luck CQing, with an almost endless supply of EPA and MDC stations replying. I
think every single ham in EPA with any kind of antenna for 160 must have been
on - it feels like EPA made up 20% of my QSOs!

Many thanks to W2XL for providing the capacitor which got me on the air, both
this year and last. Looks like that cap is now responsible for two division
records! The antenna here is an Inverted-L made of 12AWG solid copper, 70'
vertical and then 90' horizontal, with the W2XL capacitor at the feedpoint. SWR
is below 2:1 from 1800 to 1875 - not bad!   Thanks also to N8LP for the LP-100A
wattmeter, a fantastic product which gave me confidence in knowing that I had
my power set to exactly 5.00 watts for the contest. (LOVED the meter in CQWW
last weekend with the dual monitor feature for SO2R!!)

I wasn't planning on a full effort this weekend, so I decided to try QRP
because I figured I'd get frustrated quickly and wouldn't feel guilty about
quitting early. But what a surprise - it turned out to be so much fun, I
decided to stick with it and make a goal to beat the division record. Almost
every QSO renewed my sense of amazement at the miracle of wireless - I still
just can't get over the way 5 watts can travel on 1.8 MHz!  For kicks, I even
dialed it back to 2 watts before calling K2UF, and sure enough, he heard me
fine on the first call, more than 150 miles away!

Wish I had known ahead of time that I would be serious, because I would have
taken the time to figure out how to hook up the PC to send CW. All my code was
hand sent except for a CQ message on the memory keyer, so apologies for the
rusty fist! I guess I proved that in the right hands, even a Begali can make
mistakes. ;-)  Had to use the straight key quite a bit too, since the keyer
wouldn't QRS enough for some of the QSOs. That was actually kind of fun - I
don't even remember the last time I used a straight key on the air other than
for tuning up!

It's Sunday morning. As I write this, I am sitting here listing to K7KU in WY
calling CQ TEST. Called him for nearly an hour for my last mult of the contest,
but no luck. Amazing that he is still coming in strong 2 hours after sunrise. 

Top band sure is full of surprises. Can't wait to see all the huge scores. With
condx this good, I think there will be plenty of them!  And bring on 10 meters
next weekend!!


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