[3830] ARRL 160 W1SJ Single Op HP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: W1SJ
Operator(s): W1SJ
Station: W1SJ

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 29.5

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1092  Sections = 73  Countries = 22  Total Score = 223,440

Club: Radio Amateurs of Northern Vermont

Comments:

Things VERY QUIET first night. Thought something was wrong with system, but then
rates picked up. Early rates and very late night rates were pretty bad with
little Europe or West Coast Stations to speak of. Saturday night the distant
stations showed up (along with massive QRM, too). 

This time, for the first time, I tried a Beverage antenna. I've been thinking
about this for years, and finally came up with a plan to run 600' of wire E-NE
down the path in the woods nearby. It was a hastily thrown together affair and
I didn't even include the terminating resistor (hoping for it to be
bi-directional).

Although it didn't do anything for west coast stations, every time I switched
in this antenna on a European station the noise and QRM went down and the
European station came up! Magic!  Now I could actually copy the distant
stations instead of making educated (and usually wrong) guesses). Why didn't I
try this antenna 20 years ago???

I later found out that I was spotted as EW1SJ for most of the contest. I can
say that no one from Belarus was involved in the operation! 

All in all, it was nice contest - score was just about the same as last year
with much poorer conditions. Can't complain about that!


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