[3830] Commonwealth VK3MI SO-Restricted-24 LP

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                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest - 2020

Call: VK3MI
Operator(s): VK3MI
Station: VK3MI

Class: SO-Restricted-24 LP
QTH: Hoddles Creek
Operating Time (hrs): 21

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   39
   40:  164
   20:   75
   15:    6
   10:    0
------------
Total:  284  Total Score = 4,045

Club: Eastern and Mountain District Radio Club

Comments:

Last year I had good success operating from a rural farm stay property in
Hoddles Creek (about an hour’s drive east of my city QTH in Melbourne) so I
decided to book the property again for the 2020 contest. 

I originally planned to set up and test the antennas on Friday afternoon but bad
weather in the form of high winds and rain soon killed that plan. So, as usual,
I ended up scrambling to erect the antennas on Saturday afternoon and finished
just in time to join the start of the contest.

I was pleased to see a noticeable increase in the number of QSOs on both 40M and
20M this year. This can be attributed to the use of two separate multiband
dipole antennas aimed at North America and Europe respectively, whereas I only
used a single dipole aimed at North America in the 2019 contest. 

80M was disappointing. Although the band appeared to be in good shape, many
stations could not hear me calling and I ended up making fewer QSOs on this band
than in 2019. I used a full-size quarter wave vertical wire with 2 sloping
elevated radials. This configuration has previously performed well for me at
other locations but I’m suspicious its proximity to the supporting tree and
other trees at this QTH was introducing losses. The measured radiation
resistance was around 65 Ohms whereas my modelling suggested it should have been
close to 40 Ohms. Horizontal polarisation should be less susceptible to any
losses from adjacent trees, so I think I’ll try a horizontal 80M dipole next
year, assuming I return to the same location.

I only managed to make 6 QSOs on 15M but was pleased to work ZF2CA and 3B8XF,
along with 4 VK QSOs at near ESP levels. No stations were heard on 10M. 

I made a total of 284 QSOs to produce a raw score of 4,045 points - a satisfying
improvement over the 196 QSOs and score of 3575 points that I achieved in the
2019 contest.

Radio: FLEX-6400 100W

Antennas: 
40M – 10M – Pair of orthogonal multi-band horizontal dipoles (20m height)
aimed at North America and Europe
80M – Quarter wave vertical with a pair of sloping elevated radials 

Thanks again to everyone for the QSOs and for your patience in pulling my low
power signal out of the QRM and QRN!

73, Brian VK3MI


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