[SCCC] W4EF ARRL 160 CW M/S HP

[Michael Tope]

                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: W4EF
Operator(s): W4EF
Station: W4EF

Class: M/S HP
QTH: LAX
Operating Time (hrs): 3.5

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 129  Sections = 47  Countries = 1  Total Score = 12,528

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

Rig: FT1000MP MKV and Drake L-7 (~1100 watts)
Antenna: 60 ft series-fed top-loaded vertical

Had the packet on Friday night to see if any DX was being spotted. 
Saw KA6SAR spotted by a OK station, so I decided to investigate. 
Turns out Mike was in Georgia (probably at NQ4I). Gave him a 
QSO, so that put me in the M/S category and then I went to bed. 
Saturday night/Sunday morning, I fired up around midnight and did 
some S&P for a few hours, but without any packet (had my 
computer booted up in DOS for TRlog, so I wasn't setup for 
telnet). Seems like me new TX antenna (60' tall top-loaded vertical) 
at the home QTH is working okay. I didn't feel all that weak for a 
change. I am sure it still could stand to be improved (the radial system 
on the west side is still pretty sparse) and there are no radials on 
the north or south side (and never will be) due to the property line 
to the north and my house to the south. 

I was kind of tired from doing antenna work all day Saturday (had to 
rebuild the K9AY array at W6VIO because the gardners cut down the 
loops - guess it got in their way), so I went back to bed around 0930 
UTC and then got up again around 1130 UTC for another 1.5 hours. 
Finished off after another catnap with a ~30 minute shot at around 
1500 UTC. Seemed like a fair amount of activity, but conditions didn't 
seem terribly good. Nice to work many familiar callsigns.

73, Mike W4EF...................