[SCCC] CQP 2021

[Bob Grubic]

Contest: California QSO Party 2021

 .

Call: NC6Q

Operator(s): NC6Q

Category: Single Op Low Unassisted

Station: HOA restricted QTH of NC6Q

8 ½ hours operating

99% calling CQ

.

Club: Southern California

         Contest Club

.

Summary:

.

Band    CW    PH    Total

 80         24        0        24

 40         37        0        61

 20         95        0       156

 15       115        0       115

---------------------------------------

Total:    271      0        271       (44 multiplier)

.

Score: 35,772

.

FT-1000

Winkeyer

N1MM+ logger

40m/20, wire full-size vertical

.

Comments: So, I made this 40 meter/20 meter wire vertical combo for another
operating location, but here I was at home now. (Long story. Was going to
be a CA Expedition in Imperial County but it didn’t work out.) Full size
wire vertical strung up a Sotabeam telescoping mast (very light, folds down
to 27 inches to fit in a suitcase for traveling, easy to hoist up.) Took
some trimming to tame the interaction of the two vertical wires to a low
enough SWR, but SWR looked good in the end. I decided to set it up on my
patio at ground level, spread out some radials, and it tuned well with an
LDG AT-600 Pro II auto tuner—even on15m, even on 80m! Wow! So, now I can
A-B compare this vertical to my attic dipoles which I’ve been forced to use
for years. (The tuner has Ant 1 and Ant 2 on the back.) The dipoles are up
two floors higher but in the attic with a lot of other things including a
furnace unit, electrical wiring, etc. And the vertical is at ground level
with a small hill or earth to the west and 4 condo units to the east (in
the direction of all the other U.S. stations I want to contact.) A lot of
structure to go through to the east. Well, it turns out I could hear
stations on my vertical that I couldn’t even hear on my dipoles. Or, if I
did, they were much, much weaker and noisier. Besides improving my home
antenna system (which I still need to put away, out of sight of the HOA
Board Police), this experiment showed me just how awful my attic dipoles
were this whole time! Sheesh! Oh, I had some decent runs on 15m.  It was
cool!