Station : VK3TZ
Operator : Tony Burt EMAIL to jennyb@alphalink.com.au
Category : Tribander Single Element
Equipment : FT-107m (yep its old!!), FL2100Z (400 Watts max)
Antennas : TH6DXX at 50ft, Homebrew rotary dipole 40m @ 53ft (90 degrees to
TH6 elements, 45ft vertical for 80m on garage roof suspended from tower.
RESULTS:
Band Qs Pfxs Pts Score
10m 57 39 165
15m 308 166 873
20m 352 222 1029
40m 337 188 1974
80m 11 11 60
160m 0 0 0
All 1065 428 4101 1,755,228
Comments:
Three months work of changing the antenna over went to hell in the first 2
hours of the contest. My homebrew software had a bug in the dupecheck
algorithm and my hombrew headset developed RF feedback (bad). Headset is now
fixed but I had to use a desk mike throughout the contest. Software fixed
during the test. At 0300z on day two, nice neighbour came to abuse me!
Subsequent operation was sporadic and lost about 400 Qs (day1 700 Qs, day2
300 Qs)
Propagation was very poor. 10m QSOs were all Ja's and VK via sporadic E.
Thank heaven's for 40m and 6 point QSOs. 20m path to US was very very poor
and I could not raise a run. Path to EU was just as bad. Only the very big
stations were heard or worked. The prefix total was consequently very low
compared to previous years. E.g. no Gs at all!!!!
At 1400z on day two I was about to go to bed, nothing new to work on 40m and
20m was dead..... 2 minutes later the sporadic E layer disappeared and I
worked XE2, 2 mins later and heaps of EU sigs. Never heard 20m like that
before, only 10m in the 1990, 1991 tests.
I think that 1 point QSOs for in country is the go! Scores from USA are low
considering the massive stations there! I work a VK6 (3000km plus) for no
points. VK is almost as large as W, but far less hams. Can make it very
difficult to get Qs as not many multipliers either. Would love to know how
many Vks the ZLs work.
If you worked me thanks! If you need a card I am OK in the callbook but hey,
the buro is cheap and reliable in VK. See you next year
Tony
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