TopBand: TBDC '98 from VR98BG

[VR98BrettGraham]

The deployable top hat for the HF2 was changed to an inv-L configuration,
tuned & all set to go for the start Saturday evening.  JH0BBE was eventually
worked, with some difficulty, but that was it for the first night.

Sunrise saw some EU being copied - EU, UA2, etc.  All were weak & not one
heard even a peep of me.

Saturday saw the inv-L cut down & an improved deployable top hat rigged up
again.  With only the 160m radials connected, the antenna again showed
reasonably narrow BW & all looked well for the second sunset.

Long after sunset, I listened to JK1GKG CQing on 1909 as I cooked dinner.
He never got very strong & answered Ws each time I called him.  For the
heck of it, I went back up on the roof & connected the 30/40/80m radials
back up (I figured I'd leave the non-reasonant stuff hanging for a
weekend of topband operation) & received signals returned a level I would
expect them to be.

Guess my 1/4-wave radials for 160 are too far from reasonance (due to
coupling into the concrete house on which the HF2 sits) & the eight
1/4-wave radials for 80 (which have decoupling stubs to establish 40m
reasonance) are serving double duty as 1/8-wave radials on 160.  Perhaps
I should dump all but two of the 1/4-wave 160s & deploy more 1/4-wave 80s!

With the antenna working again, I could run JAs the second evening.
YC0LOW called up in the window when I wasn't listening to my transmit
frequency & VK6VZ successfully attracted my attention down there later.
N6RO was the only NA heard, with a big signal, but never heard me.

A very late Christmas Day party which extended well into Boxing Day once
again skewed my sleep rhythm & I managed to sleep right through west
coast NA sunrise both evenings.

Our Monday morning sunrise saw some SP, OH, LA & other EU stuff in the
log after the contest, so the glorified rubber ducky is working & I probably
could've bagged some the previous morning if I'd had all the radials
connected.

73, VR98BrettGraham




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