Topband: ARRL 160M Test

[Charles Bibb]

Hi, All

I decided to do something a little different in this year's ARRL 160M 
contest.  My goal was to see how close I could get to 160M WAS running QRP 
- 5 Watts output.  Besides being quite a challenge, I figured it would be a 
good indication of antenna performance.

Well, in just under 5 hours of "hunt and pounce" Friday night I managed to 
work 46 states.  Did not get HI or AK (of course) and could not find a LA 
or ND in the lower 48 to even try to work.  Came back later and worked some 
others, plus worked a few Saturday night until the QRN got too bad from an 
approaching storm system.  Conditions, however, did not seem good at all on 
either night.

Worked a few "DX" stations with my peanut whistle, too:  VE2, VE3, VY2, 6Y, 
P4 and ZF2.  Thanks to all those who took the time to pull my signal out of 
the noise, but for most it seemed just as if I were running 100W or 
so.  Guess the labor of installing all the extra radials last winter really 
paid off.

73,

Charles - K5ZK