[CQ-Contest] WPX Assisted revisited

[stoskopf at tri.net]

Decided that I might try 40 Phone for the WPX.  Threw up a couple of
corner-fed half squares:  one on Eu and the other SA/JA.  Better than 2 S
units difference in signals in the favored/unfavored directions.  SWR
about 1.4 across mid-part of the band.  Orion I set to go.

OOOO arrived along with a major Kansas thunderstorm with lightning across
the sky in all directions.  No way would I risk the Orion (and me) in
that.

Next evening no lightning, but major lightning QRN all night.  Finally
decided to try one of the DX packets to find a few DX signals as they were
all requiring lots of listening to see who was interesting.  Turns out
that I found more signals just tuning than following the BB and in many
cases the WEB calls were wrong.  I won't attempt that again with one
exception:  I normally work single band so I may follow another band to
pick up the countries I don't have confirmed.  Since they don't count for
single band, that shouldn't be cheating.  Weather cleared late Sunday in
time to take down the antennas!  A lot of work for 75 contacts.

Question:  What is worse than no SWR bridge?  Four!  Tuned up with the
CIA-HF, had the LP-100 in line, SWR indicator on Orion, and reflected
power on the ACOM.  None matched: reading from 1.4 to 2.3 at the same
time.

N0UU