[3830] CQ160 CW AA4V Multi-Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: AA4V
Operator(s): AA4V N4SF
Station: AA4V

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: SC
Operating Time (hrs): 30

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1080  State/Prov = 57  Countries = 42  Total Score = 324,621

Club: Carolina DX Association

Comments:

I've been away from serious 160 for nearly two years due to extensive
construction including a new pier and dock. I finally had enough of Titanex's
poor quality and service so after using (abd repairing) the V80E for many
years, I built a DX Engineering DXE-7580FS-VA-2 vertical on the end of my 150
foot long pier. Although it is advertized as 'free-standing', I put one single
set of guy lines at the 40 foot level. We had 30-40 MPH winds and it was solid
as a rock. The mount supplied with the DXE vertical works really well and
putting the antenna up and down is a one-man job.....very convenient. I used
the Titanex matching network which worked perfectly. The ground system is two
resonant radials extending from the end of  the pier to land about 6-10 feet
above the salt water (depending on the tide level). I am going to experiment
with some other grounding ideas over the next few months. Unfortunately,
transmitting was not really our problem.

This island setting is usually a fairly quiet place to operate. I had 4
different receiving set-ups this time including the transmit antenna, a
Pixeltech rotatable magnetic loop, a home brew set of Pennants pointing NE and
W, and a Hi-Z 2-element switchable vertical array pointing NE and SW. At the
start of the contest, the noise level from all of the receiving antennas was
very high (S4-S6) and sounded like electrical noise although the NB/NR did
little or nothing to solve the problem. The transmit antenna had an S5-S7 noise
floor. The test started very slowly for us and, at times during the evening, one
receiving antenna was superior to others pointed in the same direction and after
a while, that changed to another antenna being better for receive. At times, the
transmit antenna was superior for receiving to all the other arrays.
We did manage to work a number of DX stations on Friday night and Saturday
night but had any number of stations calling but the noise prevented us from
completing a QSO. Our apology to those whom we could not pull out. 

We worked 57 states and provinces and missed KL7, BC, VO2, NU, NWT, SK and YT.
Our 42 countries included RI1 (South Shetland), 3V8, KH6, 5B, YO3 and the usual
suspects. No Scandinavia heard or anything further west than KH6. We had 131 10
point contacts in all with 897 W and 52 VE.

The gear on this end included Elecraft K3, P3, ACOM 2000A using N1MM.

Congradulations to most of the other M/S stations who cleaned our clock.
Special well done to Drubber, W4IX, John, K4BAI and Jim, VE7ZO for a great
performance from NQ4I's QTH. I had the pleasure of working the 2012 CQWW Phone
from there in October and Rick has a beautiful set-up.

It is always a pleasure to operate with my friend, Gay, N4SF, who came in to
the Isle of Palms from his home in CA. CU all in the ARRL CW and Phone from
here....no trip to KH6 this year.


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