ARRL 160

[RFPWR at aol.com]

CALLSIGN:  N8RR
Entry Category: Multioperator (N8RR plus packet)
Section: Louisiana

Hours Operated:      9.3 
ARRL Sections:       74     (Missed VE5,VY1,KP2)
Countries:               16
Total Mults:             90
QSO's :                444
Score:               85050

Station:    FT1000D/LK800
               Antenna- 130' Inv L 
               (#16 wire run up the side of my tower-
               100' vertical and  30' horizontal-
               fed direct with 72 ohm hardline with a 
               tuner in the shack-6 130' radials). 
               RX Antennas:20 M quad and 80M inv vee. 

A casual operation... goal was to work all states
 on 160 and what DX I could hear. Also first
 attempt to use packet to help spot mults.
 Picked up about 5 or 6 mults this way, but
 found most of them again later. Probably 
won't use packet again in a contest, although
 I see how it could be fun working contests with
 friends this way. 

About 85% S&P.....not enough confidence in 
my RX capabilities to do a lot of CQ ing, the
 L was noisy on RX. My apologies to anyone
 who answered my CQ if I couldn't hear you.

There were a lot of US stations CQing in the window. 

73, Chas N8RR       

>From john.devoldere at eunet.be (John Devoldere)  Sun Dec  3 14:14:15 1995
From: john.devoldere at eunet.be (John Devoldere) (John Devoldere)
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 1995 14:14:15 +0000
Subject: ARRL 160 M at ON4UN
Message-ID: <199512031412.PAA05636 at box.eunet.be>

ON4UN SCORE IN THE ARRL 160 M TEST
----------------------------------

QSO'S    QSO POINTS   PTS/QSO    SECTIONS    COUNTRIES 
-----    ----------   -------    --------    ---------
 460        920         2.0         53          0

TOTAL POINTS: 48,760

Worked all sections in W1, W2, W3, W4
Missed WTEX in W5
missed only NDK and SDK in W0
W7 and W6 is another story...

THE STORY
---------

I distinguish between four types of propagation:

1/ excellent: the "big" stations from the East Coast are S9 plus the
mid-west big guns are S9 and the super stations from the West Coast (N6DX,
N7UA) are S7. The second layer stations are easily worked and at least 15 dB
above noise level. We can easily work the "third" layer stations from the
East coast, and occasionally a third-layer West coast station. I understand
this were the kind of conditions we had last weekend during the CQWWCW (too
bad I was on 80).

2/ good: The big East coast stations are S9, the big mid-West stations are
S5 and we can only hear N6DX, N7UA and maybe one or two more from the West
coast. We can work second layer stations from East Coast and Mid-West
(difficult), but only top-stations from the West Coast. THIS WERE THE KIND
OF CONDITIONW WE HAD THIS PAST WEEKEND.

3/ poor: Only East coast can be worked, and only the big guns.

4/ band is dead: only VE1ZZ can be worked (MUST BE GROUND WAVE ... ???)

It was frustrating, at times to hear callers, copy part of calls, but not
being able to copy well enough for a QSO. I know I started calling CQ TEST
again while stations were calling, but they were just too weak (thrid layer,
hi ..). 

Five W6-7 stations were worked: N6DX, N7UA (first day), W7LR (MT), NA7R
(WY)and K6NA (nice surprise!).

Last time I participated in the ARRL160 was 1992, with 118 QSO's in 36
sections (8,496 points). This year I quadruppled my last score, so can't
really be unhappy.

I wish I could put up a longer Beverage to the US (only 650 ft). Maybe next
year we will try phased beverages for this contest.

I have the impression that the DX window worked quite well. Apart from a few
sessions of serach and pounce, I sat on 1832/- 1833 during most of the
contest, and did not hear any strong US stations nearby, and I am sure this
made it easier for the US stations to copy the DX (me...)

See you in the CQ WW 160m contests,

73

John, ON4UN

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
john.devoldere at box.eunet.be  
Call us in all major 1995 contests: OT5T or ON4UN
John Devoldere (ON4UN-AA4OI)
POBOX 41
B-9000 Ghent (Belgium)