Topband: ARRL 160 Contest from Nebraska

[Bill Hohnstein K0HA]

A delayed report on the contest from Nebraska.  My results didn't
seem to rate a report, but now that I hear from others maybe it
merits some mention.
Do to needing to be awake at work, I didn't have time to even listen
in the morning.  I spent the majority of my time trying to listen
for DX and rate my just completed 3 phased parallel Beverages towards
Europe.  The static level was awful on the first night.  A couple of
strong South American stations were heard early on our Friday night
(LU7EE and PY2BW) but I never heard them CQing.  The non-North
American worked on the first night were DJ7MQ @ 0304, I3VHO @ 0542,
S57M @ 0546, and DJ5BV @ 0551.  I heard I3VHO the longest of those
but struggled to get him to hear me while I struggled to hear him
between 59 +20 static crashes.  I heard, but didn't work IV3PRK,
OK2RZ, and OM2XW.  The static level prevented any meaningful rating of
the benefit of adding the third parallel Beverage.  
The second night the static was down to a tolerably bad level.
Europeans worked then included: DK8ZB @ 0411, OK1AWZ @ 0437, DF2PY @??
0501 (stateside QRM in window left me very unsure), S58A @ 0513,
9A2TW @ 0552, DF2PY @ 0654 (sure of that one).  Still only a poor
evaluation of the Beverages due to the static level.  However, switching
in the third Beverage did improve readability on the majority of the
Europeans Saturday night.  I never did find a way to put much of a
dent in the static level over the weekend though via my two MFJ-1026's.
Most of my 403 QSO's were NA contacts made during short runs.
73,  Bill     K0HA


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