Topband: E51 operation

[feutz at wctc.net]

Greetings from Rarotonga,

Topband has been disappointing so far.  The first night of operation, two 
weeks ago, with 100 watts and only 2 radials in the inverted L, we had great 
conditions and made Q's all over the US, including the east coast.  Since 
then, its been a struggle.  I don' have the stats with me here at the 
internet cafe, but we had only a little over 100 US q's in the contest, and a 
total of around 150 during "fun" operating, mostly on the west coast with 
weak signals.

We have had lousy WX for the most part, with high winds and waves 
necessitating constant maintenance of the antennas.  Last night we had winds 
of near hurricane force, and both of our 60' Spiderbeam masts broke.  We 
intend to resurrect the longest stub today, about 40', and put the 160 L back 
up.

I am trying to be on daily at our sunset, and from East Coast sunrise on as 
the US lights up.  So if you want E51 on Topband, look for us on 1831.5 at 
the appropriate times.  I doubt we'll get back on 80.  Our ankles and feet 
are sore enough from stumbling around our treacherous rocky beach at all 
hours, and putting one big antenna back up is about all we have left in us.

Hope for some good condx and hopefully we'll be on some on Friday night for 
the ARRL.

Read K5KG's E51MMM blog at E51MMM.blogspot.com

73,

Ron KK9K, E51NNN