TopBand: ARRL 160 Contest My Personal experience and observations
Dennis G. Peterson
n7ckdennis@juno.com
Sun, 08 Dec 1996 19:19:19 EST
Hi all;
I surely hope that what I'm about to say is okay to be said on
the reflector. I guess maybe I'm a little gun shy at saying something no
one wants to hear. Anyway, having worked this contest now from two
separate locations using two entirely different antenas and station
setups; I can truthfully say that operators can well thank their lucky
stars for living where they do. Yes West Coast ops and Pacific Northwest
ops have a very distinct advantage when it comes to JA's and the Pacific
stations, Europe is a rarity and if one is in the right place at the
right time EU is possible. BEEN THERE-DONE THAT from Washington and now
IOWA.
My modest antena from what several now call "THE TEXAS
TOOTH-PICK" certainly lived up to it's expectations and specs. I guess
one could say LUCK might also be a factor; but I think the main FACTOR is
in the design of the antena and how well it performs. Ever since I put
up the antenna in mid August, I have specifically operated with 50 watts
or less just to put the antena through it's paces and to test its
efficiency and ears. Very consistently I have worked the EAST COAST
stations with 59 and sometimes as much as 10-15- and 20 over s9 reports
with only 50 watts of power. The WEST coast stations were worked the
same way but not as often or as consistent. The Texas-Toothpick is a
Performer as well as an Efficient Radiator when it comes to working DX
and just casual rag-chewing. With my 70 vertical in Auburn, WA fed
against a 50 foot squarre of 1 inch mesh chicken wire ground screen and
14 elevated radials I worked 84 countries and confirmed 82 in 16 years.
Since relocating to Muscatine, Iowa in may of this year 1996 and getting
back on the air with the Uni-Hat/CTSVR (Texas-Tooth-Pick) in mid August;
I now have 98 countries worked and 93 confirmed. The 98th country came
during the test this past weekend from GM3POI. I will very briefly
summarize my results which are merely guestimates at this time as I did
not have a computer program that I was comfortable using or knew how to
use. Everything had to be done on paper and with a pencil. So dupes are
not known at this time. Living on the West Coast and operating the
contest for several years my personal best was 195 QSO's and 3 or 4 DX
stations 3-5 VEs and 35-40 mults.
Here are the rough figures:
Total Qso's worked ********** 685
Total DX stations ************ 006
Total VE Provs. ************** 007
Total Multipliers ************* 070
Total in the following Call Districts:
--------------------------------------------
1.................. all 7 mults
2.................. all 6 mults
3.................. all 4 mults
4.................. all but PR & VI
5.................. all 8 mults
6.................. all but SB, SF and SJV
7.................. all but AK
8.................. all 3 mults
9.................. all 3 mults
0.................. all but ND
VE............... all but YU/NWT
Somewhere around 95,000 QSO points +/_ dupes if there are any and I'm
sure there probably is.
I might also add to this antenna that my listening was done on this
antenna because I'm on a city lot and the prperty orientation only
permits a beverage antenna TRUE North and South. I have had a noise
problem that generated an s7 noise and I couldn't get it reduced or
eliminated even with an ANC4 noise cancelling unit. With a few problems
and a new ANC4, I decided to try an experiment. That experiment was to
take a 125 foot piece of RG8x coax and terminate the far end with a 52
ohm 1/2 watt resistor and lay the antena SNAKE on the ground around the
perimeter of the home and use it as my source antenna. A low dipole and
a 6 foot and 8-10 foot wire wouildn't touch the noise or even hear it.
To make a long story short, THE SNAKE heard it and allowed me to cancell
it 100%
and hear with the UNI-HAT.
Early on when I first put the antenna up, I was told that it wouldn't
work and that I shouldn't waist my time, money and energy on a 31 foot
vertical that can't work DX or be egfficient. All I can say at this time
is this "FOR AN ANTENNA THAT CAN'T WORK AND WON'T WORK IT SURE MADE A
BELIEVER OUT OF ME AND MANY OTHERS". For those of you who don't have one
and claim not to have the space, It's your loss. I wouldn't trade this
antenna for anything else and NO I'M NOT getting paid to comercia;lize
this antenna. I'm merely stating a personal opinion. If I could afford
4 of them and had the realestate to put them on, I'd do it in a
heartbeat.
I would like to hear from some of you other operators and USERS OF THE
CTSVR/UNIHAT ANTENNA as to how well you did and what your scores are for
comparison purposes and just to see the corelation between different
areas and operating conditions. 73s and if I've stepped over the
boundary with this posting "I'M SORRY". de N7CKDennis/0 in
IOWA............
PSS: for those who might be interested, my power level for only 45% of
the contest was a KW the rest of the time I operated with only 100 watts
as I was too lazy to hit the foot switch and it appeared that I didn't
need the power at that time anyway; so I didn't use it. I definitely
used KW for the DX . Dennis
N7CKDennis G. Peterson
1815 Mulberry Avenue
Muscatine, Iowa 52761-3554
319-263-2272 voice
319-262-0120 data/fax
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