Topband: WTX section activity in ARRL 160m test

[Sam M]

Was I the only WTX station active in the ARRL 160m contest?
Surely not, but I I never hear any others?

Heres a little summery of play time from San Angelo, Tx.

Modest WTX QRP effort.

I finally got to play in my first 160m contest since becoming an apartment
dweller many years ago. It took 5 years to get the landlords approval for *any*
antennas allowed, and then 2 more years to get a Hi-Q 5/160 antenna installed
for 160m on the apartment building roof at 20 feet.

The Hi-Q is an excellent antenna. Above the 5/160 coil my installation has a
EB-8 tophat and a 102" whip, so it's all of about 13.5 feet tall. For the ground
plane there are sixteen radials each 13 feet long, with a wire connecting the
outer ends of the radials. There is one radial each for 160m, 80m, 60m, 40m, and
30m thrown in there for grins, all laying on the tar and gravel roof at 20 feet.

If you take my Elecraft K2's 5 watts output, times the Hi-Q's 1.3% efficiency on
160m, we end up with an approximate effective radiated power of about 65
millawatts. Can you say, WTX section <big_gun> *NOT* hi hi

By about 1AM local time of the first night I had worked everyone that could hear
me, all 25 of them. Saturday morning added about 14 more to the log  Sunday
morning, 4AM local started with about an hour of no Q's, I figured I was done.
Then came KF4T, who deserves a very big thanks for working so hard to dig me out of
the noise. He broke my no contact streak, and I managed to get another 10
stations in the log by daybreak.

End result 52 Q's and 19 sections, all with 65 millawatts and a 13.5 foot tall
vertical at 20 feet. Who said you can't have fun on 160m from a mid town apartment?

Pics of the Hi-Q installation can be found on links from my home page
http://pages.suddenlink.net/ka5oai-1

P.S. My hats off to all those that did all the work copying my peanut whistle,
you guys/gals are the greatest!
-- 
GB & 73
KA5OAI
Sam Morgan
http://linuxbasics.org
Linux, the lifetime learning experience.