[3830] ARRL 10 KT8K SO Mixed QRP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: KT8K
Operator(s): KT8K
Station: KT8K

Class: SO Mixed QRP
QTH: EN82ch SE Michigan
Operating Time (hrs): 3:41

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  66     24
  SSB:   6      3
-------------------
Total:  72     27  Total Score = 7,452

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Only scraps of time to spend on the contest what with the wife in the hospital
after spine surgery.  Condx were so-so or worse when I was on but I managed to
scrape out a few.  

Interestingly, while conditions were not great, I could hear various parts of
EU and SA popping through midday both days, but not a lot of Eastern hemisphere
stations except the usual big guns.

At one point Sunday AM around 13-1400z, just as the band seemed to be trying to
open, my band scope was flat with no signals but every 15-30 minutes it would
"grow teeth" as signals popped up for just a few minutes.  Then the
band would die for another while before the "teeth" appeared again. 
When they did, I set the step size to 100 Hz and jumped on them as quickly as
possible.  Some QSB'd away but I managed to snag a lot of them.  Big fun!

Unfortunately my vertical tribander driven element at 60 feet was a couple of S
units down from the sort-of horizontal loop, and performing very poorly, so I
had to use the 500 foot loop for the contest.  It has typically performed just
as well on 10m as the dipole, so I didn't really lose much except the ability
to put one antenna in each ear and cut down on the fading.  Good thing the
weather has been mild - I hope to bring the dipole down and fix whatever is
ailing it before the next big contest.

Best 72/73 to all and thanks for the Q's -- Tim, KT8K

Equipment:
Tentec Orion turned down to 5 Watts, MFJ Grandmaster memory keyer with Bencher
BY-1 paddle set
Ancient XP laptop barely running N1MM+

Antenna:  500 foot horizontal loop zig-zagging between 20 and 70 feet and
strung out in a crescent moon shape in the tree branches (a product of having
several branches and one tall tree fall on the loop at different times)

R.L Cebik swore by the horizontal loop as one of the best all around, all-band
antennas and I completely agree.  It makes a great main antenna for a small
station or a great backup and WARC band antenna if one has a tower or two, etc.
 Feeding it with low loss twin lead or ladder line and an autotuner makes for
one SWEET antenna, and it's not even as sensitive to height as dipoles.  Also,
the more wavelengths of wire in the loop, the lower the radiation angle -
making it great for DX on 10 and 15m.  
If I couldn't have an antenna I would staple some insulated wire around the
eaves of the house and feed it as I described, and it would be a very effective
and invisible antenna.  To make an even bigger stealth-loop I would string 18
gauge magnet wire through the trees - you can't see that stuff at 15' ... at
all!


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