[CQ-Contest] 10M Test Experience

[Hill, Russell C.]

This was my first serious contest effort since '87, as K5UCV, and I had a
ball.
I want to first thank all who answered my questions re tribanders( I put up
a monobander-below), CW readers(I used the gray one), Drake lowpass filter
repair, and CT mode selection....Most everybody has been helpful and
patient with me, and I appreciate it very much.  This reflector has been
invaluable to me in the encouragement and general information to get active
again.  Thanks very much to all.

I have been asked to report impressions of the Force 12 Magnum 810 antenna.
 I decided if I were going to do a monoband effort, then I should have a
monoband antenna setup.  I have used a less expensive 24' boom 5 el
commercial beam in past, but decided to put up the best my very patient
XYL, wallet, and tower could stand, and selected the Force 12 Magnum 810
which went up at abt 53'.  Reactions:  Assembly--all precut, element
supports premounted, holes predrilled for poprivets, no measuring needed. 
They obviously want the buyer's experience to be successful.  About three
hours.   96 poprivets, among other things.  Directions excellent. 
Construction-- First class all the way-- seems very stout.  Includes a
truss cable, which provided the only real obstacle-- it mounts about 4'
above the boom, and I only had 1 1/2' of stub above the tower.  The folks
at Force 12 advised me that the truss cable was not really necessary, but I
decided to remove the stub and install a 10' mast---fun! 

Results--Operating Low Power, Mixed Modes, and missing 4 1/2 hours during
the heart of good propagation on Saturday (Our high school playing in the
state championship game --I wasn't going to miss that, and they won!) I had
500+ Q's, 87 mults, and uncorrected score of 103K.  If my CW were decent, I
would have done better.  It speaks very well for the Force 12 antenna, I
believe, and I had no TVI complaints this time-- thanks low power.

I strongly appreciate all the CW ops who slowed down to work me.

I hope everyone enjoyed the contest-- I sure did, in spite of poor prop on
Sunday, compared with Saturday.

73,
Rusty
NA5TR

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