[SEDXC] Notes from the 160 contest this past weekend and my receiving loop

[Tad Williamson]

I didn't get on at all Friday night.  I moved my Pixel Technologies Receiving
loop (RF PRO1-A) from the ground to the top of the mast on my tower (about 45 feet) on Saturday.  It seemed to perform well up there.  It was hearing as well as my transmit antenna but with less noise.  
Over 425 Q's in a little over 9 hours is pretty good for my small station on my small lot.
Ran into a lot of old friends and as always, had a great time.
Running My K3 into a Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.5KFX at about 750 watts.  Transmit/main
antenna is a Bazooka with the apex up about 65'.  One leg slopes down to my front yard and the other snakes through the trees behind my house.

This is a link to the Loop Antenna http://www.pixelsatradio.com/antennas.htm 
It's on the right side of the page, the RF PRO1-A.  A little pricey, but I am impressed with it's performance so far.  I noticed some directionality, but not much as  the lobes are pretty wide.  I want to do more testing with some known signals (like WWV and maybe some broadcast station)
 
Please no blasting me for putting the antenna up high.  I wanted to test it up there and it seemed to do a good job.  There were some stations I couldn't hear very well on the Bazooka that were up out of the noise enough on the loop to make a valid contact with.
 
I will get my K9AY up one of these days and compare the two, but for now the loop will stay up high.  Once I have the K9AY up, I'll do some A-B testing between the two.
 
Hopefully when I get the house built and squared away in Putnam county, I'll be able to get a couple of beverages running and do some real low-band DXing!
 
Contest Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 428  State/Prov = 55  Countries = 19  Total Score = 78,440  
9.3 hours B.I.C.
 
Tad, WF4W



"What a long, strange trip it's been"
 
The Grateful Dead
 
Truckin'