[SECC] CQWW approaching

[Kt4zb at aol.com]

Hi all – Looking forward to  CQWW.  I don’t have any old-timer  stories to 
tell; although, this year I am officially old.  My first CQWW was in 1996 or 
1997 when  the bands were like they are now; bottom of the cycle.  I was always 
interested in contesting  but finding no contesters in Savannah, I went 
looking and found SECC.  There, John, K4BAI, and many  others encouraged me and I 
was later invited to join NQ4I for CQWW in  2001.  Now you have to realize, that 
 until I parked at Rick’s old QTH, I had never seen a tower over 50 feet!  It 
was a real experience… Rick took me  in, found me a place at the 40m 
multiplier station and hoped that I would stay  out of trouble.  We had two choices  
for antennas on the mult station, a dipole and a 40m yagi laying on the bucket  
of a cherry picker at about 40 feet pointed more or less at Europe.  At 
first, all I heard was noise, but  after a bit, I could start to make some sense 
out of the band.  The only thing I had going for me was  that since I had only 
been a low power op with wire antennas, I was experienced  at search and 
pounce. 
Now after several trips to NQ4I  (including the three top teams for CQ WPX), 
I am ready to for my first CQWW as a  single op (assisted) from my new station 
in Savannah.  It will eventually be a full SO2R  station; however, the 
interfacing and filtering will not be complete until later  this year or early next. 
 Currently  the setup includes a FT1000D and a FT1000mp Field with a QRO 
2500DX amp as the  run amp, the antennas are a TH6DXX at 72 feet (rotatable) and a 
Cushcraft A3S  fixed on Europe at approximately 40 feet.  The 2 tribanders 
can run as a stack into Europe and I have the dual feed  option from Stackmatch 
so that the fixed antenna can be fed by radio A and the  other by radio B for 
SO2R.  The  tower is a motorized US Tower that allows all to nest down to 25 
feet for  hurricane season.  40 meter and 80  meter dipoles round out the farm. 
 Nothing yet for 160.  This  year I will use only the TH6 and the wires for 
CQWW, but plan to have the full  setup operational for ARRLDX.  Also  plan to 
add a Yaesu Quadra to the Field for more SO2R power.  All this will hopefully 
provide many  hours of fun and some “Savannah” points for SECC. 
Good luck to all…now if I can just find a clear  frequency…..
 
Jere - KT4ZB
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