[NCC] 2004 ARRL 160 Contest QRP W8VE

[Gray, Roger]

Greetings, during CQ WW weekend, I installed a 3/8 Inverted L for 160 meters
in anticipation of the 160 contest this weekend. The vertical leg is 62 feet
and with the remainder going across the street the county park. Much time
spent trying to get the far end of horizontal wire up in the tree. I tried
the old fishing rod trick but too many tree branches hang up the fishing
line etc. One neighbor asked me what I was fishing for up in the tree. After
loosing fishing line, and weights, I gave up and pulled out the extension
ladder and tied the end out about 25 feet.up. So the antenna in not a true
inverted L (more like an inverted V with a slant! ) 

 

I got on the air Friday evening with 2 1/8 wave length radials. I had a poor
match but was able to use my Drake tuner to match the antenna. The bands
were excellent and quiet at my QTH.  I had a rate for the 1st couple hours
of 60 per hour which is excellent for my S&Ping with my 5 watt K2.

 

Saturday afternoon, with advice from Dan W8CAR, I installed 2 elevated
radials.  Boy ¼ wave radial for 160 is a lot of wire. One radial runs from
my deck to the gutter spouting over the garage roof and along the gutter on
the front of the house intertwined with the Xmas icicles. The XYL asked what
I was doing and I told her I was re-adjusting the icicles!  The other 160
radial is strung through my trees at the edge of the yard. The radials were
real help in getting the antenna to resonate.  I then tried various series
capacitors reduce my SWR  to 1.5 to 1 from  1.80 to 1.8060 MHZ.

 

All I can say is the inverted L works much better than my G5RV that I used
last year.  This is a fun contest! 

 

Congrats to W8CAR and K8BL on their excellent scores.  

 

Roger W8VE

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   ARRL 160 METER CONTEST -- 2004

 

 

      Call:      W8VE

      Category:  Single Operator

      Power:     QRP       

      Band:      Mono 160

      Mode:      CW 

      Section:   OH

      

               QSO       SECTIONS  COUNTRIES                          12
Hours of operating time.

 

 

 Totals      306             51                0              =   31,212

 

 

 

All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.

 

Equipment Description:  Elecraft K2 Xcvr  3/8 Wave Inverted L a total of up
62 feet 

and 115 feet horizontal.

 

 

Club Affiliation: North Coast Contesters