[SECC] Contest Season

[Bill Coleman]

On Sep 18, 2007, at 12:47 PM, ku8e at bellsouth.net wrote:
>
> It would be interesting to hear what's going on with everyone  
> else.....

Well, life is very busy, especially on the weekends, so my contesting  
time is very limited. I don't think you'll find me putting in many  
full-time efforts for a while yet. I am looking to put in a few  
serious 160m efforts this season, since this may be the last season  
for a while with really low absorption.

I'm virtually maxxed-out antenna-wise with my single 15m tower QTH.  
Doing too much more would either require more towers (which I don't  
have room for) or lots more money (which always seems to be in short  
supply). I put up a couple of half-sized K9AY loops in early  
September, and they are pretty amazing on 80 and 40m. On 160m, they  
are almost too short -- they work, but signal levels are really,  
really low.

My 30m/17m trap dipole has a connection problem somewhere that I need  
to fix, but there's not much contesting to do on those bands. (I want  
to add traps for 12m, too) I also want to replace my untuned 80m  
doublet with a trap 80m/40m/20m dipole. This will make the second  
radio work much easier. I can build the traps, no problem. Anyone  
know where I can find about 150 feet of RG-8X or RG-58A/U cheaply to  
feed this thing?

( Last year I built a two-tube crystal-controlled 40m transmitter for  
SKN, and this year I'd like to build a matching receiver. I've got  
some circuits in mind. The transmitter may use tubes, but the  
receiver will use all integrated circuits! I'll call the pair the  
"odd-couple" )

In addition to 160m, I'm hoping to get full-time efforts on all three  
NAQP contests this winter. The NAQP is easily my favorite contest  
these days.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901