[3830] ARRLDX CW KH8/K8GU SOAB LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: KH8/K8GU
Operator(s): K8GU
Station: KH8/K8GU

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Tula
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:    0     0
   40:   80    33
   20:  230    43
   15:  346    52
   10:  433    49
-------------------
Total: 1085   177  Total Score = 573,480

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Work-related travel put me at the right place at the right time for this one.  I
flew into Pago Pago on Friday night after the contest had started and made my
way to the operating site (which is an hour drive from the hotel followed by a
15-minute hike over varying terrain from the parking spot) by around 1900 UT on
Saturday.  Due to a bunch of stuff I was carrying for work, baggage space was
very tight so I was reduced to bringing the K2 and a pair of custom verticals I
call the "GU Specials" that slip into my suitcase.  I had one antenna
and the radio set up shortly before 2000 UT.

The only creature comfort of the shack was air conditioning, which had
mercifully been replaced on Friday.  I set the radio, key, and computer up on a
crooked table just inside the door and sat on a Pelican case.  I did discover
that I could lean against the door frame with the laptop in my lap, but it was
hard to reach the key then, resulting in some liddish moments.  

Originally, I had thought about doing SOSB-15, but then I decided to just play
around with as many bands as I could, which turned out to be a fun plan.  I
could tell I wasn't very loud most of the time, but I'm grateful to everyone
for their patience and general discipline in the pileups when they occurred.

40 meters was a real surprise!  The GU Special is pretty flimsy in its 40-meter
configuration and I was even short a segment so the SWR was hovering just over
2.0:1 causing the K2/100 to fold back 50 watts or so.  But, people kept
calling!  Thanks!

This QTH is on a cliff above the ocean with a 270-degree panoramic view of
nothing but saltwater from the west all the way around to the southeast, to
include all of NA.  Modeling during the run up to the contest suggested that a
vertical antenna would have lots of vertical lobes in this configuration but I
elected to use it anyway since I already had it.  Around 2230 on Sunday, I
wondered if I could do better so I made up a 10-meter dipole out of hookup wire
and suspended by the fully-extended GU Special.  That seemed to be a good idea
since I spent the rest of the contest on 10 meters.

Anyhow...thanks for the QSOs...lots of 4-banders...we'll do this again
sometime...

73,

--Ethan, KH8/K8GU.
http://www.k8gu.com/


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