Topband: WPX

[Bob Marshall-Read]

Topbanders,

Well, either nobody from W/VE operated or we had no prop from here!

NB1B and VE1ZZ were the only two worked, heard AA4MM, but splatter from an
OT (5 KHz or more all weekend) made that one impossible.

Couldn't get the balloon up as the weather was a bit breezy, so was left
with the 70 foot vertical, but used the Drake 4C line (with a genuine old
D104, no processing) and got used to re-peaking every 10 KHz all weekend.
The finals are a bit old so just made the 100 watts output mid-band, and
with careful tweaks could get it at the top end.  The old Drake is much more
tolerant of the high SWR at the band edges.....and the Sherwood R4C mods
also work well on SSB.

The sun seemed to have calmed down just in time for the end of the contest,
and I hope it stays that way for a while.

I hope to begin Boatanchor operations this week as the 75A4 500 and 2400 Hz
filters have just arrived and the new 6146 has been put into the Ranger II.

CU on THE BAND.

BTW, score for WPX SSB:

 BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Prefixes
 _____________________________________________________

  160SSB     186         185        376      136
 _____________________________________________________

 Totals      186         185        376      136


    Final Score = 51136 points.


Bob  G4VGO


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