[3830] CQWW CW KA1IS SOSB40 LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: KA1IS
Operator(s): KA1IS
Station: KA1IS

Class: SOSB40 LP
QTH: Maine
Operating Time (hrs): 32+

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:  502    30      109
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total:  502    30      109  Total Score = 200,855

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Mostly S&P (not by choice) until mid-afternoon Sunday. But the sunspots will
return.

Thanks to everyone from everywhere. And my XYL for understanding.

My first field operation for CQWW (see QRZ page for photos of other contests).
QTH was a popup ice fishing shelter at the top of Witt Hill in Norway, Maine.

Gear: IC-7610 - powered with Bioenno LifePo 40Ah and 30Ah batteries. MrHeater
Buddy propane heater. Polaris Ranger with snow tracks.

Weather: Just less than a foot of snow on the ground. Friday and Saturday
extreme cold (single digits F) then warmed up to around freezing - with rain all
day Sunday producing frozen slush. Winds light and variable.

Antennas: 3 fixed wire beams and inverted V - all at around 40 ft high. Plus two
300 ft. reversible Beverages (not used).

Spent way too much time building antennas for this contest. Previously had 2
dipoles, a ground plane, and Beverages. Noticed I wasn't hearing stuff other
local stations were working. Originally tried an K8UR array but the fiberglass
mast was no match for the wind. Decided to build fixed wire beams and settled on
a simple long boom parasitic design from Frank WA3RSL. The tallest trees around
the hilltop are less than 50 feet high, and there are smaller trees and slash on
the ground from logging. Over the course of a few months I cut down about 3
dozen trees and removed many branches with a pole saw (redneck variant of
Russian roulette). Eventually got ropes over the trees to support the rope
booms. The elements are inverted V's. After a disaster with a huge windstorm
& 'some' lower back irritation - the antennas finally went up this week. A 4
element (66 foot boom) aimed NE (Europe) and 3 element versions aimed SW and SE.
The 3 element beams are slightly tilted down from the hilltop over skidder
trails. It was really difficult to get enough open space in the forest to keep
elements clear - so some are woven through branches.

The gain and takeoff angle of a low inverted-V Yagi's are not ideal. But the
hilltop helps. On receive they beat out the Beverage antennas and there was
certainly gain over dipoles at the same height. The band opened to Europe
several hours earlier than with a dipole.

The beams were fed with open wire line (600 ohm) cut to match 50 Ohms at 7.05
Mhz. I used ladder line (450 Ohm) for the SW beam and the rain on Sunday
completely messed up the SWR. Since there was no wind I had to go out and shake
the feed line occasionally to fix it. 

I wasn't able to build an antenna for NW (Japan/China). I could hear Asian
stations on the NE beam, and probably could have worked them using an amplifier.
So antenna building will continue over the winter.


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/