STEW PERRY SUMMARY SHEET
Contest Dates : 27-Dec-97, 28-Dec-97
Callsign Used : W4EF
Operator : W4EF
Category : SO/LP/WN(Single Operator/Low Power/Wet Noodle)
Default Exchange : 599 DM04
Name : Michael C. Tope, W4EF
Station Location : 3944 East Mountain View Avenue
Pasadena, Ca
Country : United States
Mailing Address : 3944 East Mountain View Avenue
City/State/Zip : Pasadena, Ca 91107-4905
Station Description:
Rig: Ten-Tec Paragon (100 Watts Output)
Pentium 133 running Trlog 5.80
Antenna: 1/2 A3S Tribander Driven Element at 25' with 4 16'
radials fed thru antenna tuner with shield of coax
open at shack. System fed against 1 inductively loaded
radially (see Soapbox)
BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points
__________________________________________
160CW 20 20 54
__________________________________________
Totals 20 20 54
Final Score = 54 X 2 = 108 points.
Band Date Time QSO# Call worked Sent Rcvd Qth
Pts
---- ---- ---- ---- ----------- ---- ---- -----
---
160CW 27-Dec-97 15:01 1 N6TR 599 599 CN85
3
160CW 28-Dec-97 15:19 2 NI6T * 599 599 CM97
1
160CW 28-Dec-97 00:40 3 AD6C 599 DM04
1
160CW 28-Dec-97 01:19 4 N5IA 599 599 DM52
2
160CW 28-Dec-97 03:58 5 K7RAT * 599 CN85
3
160CW 28-Dec-97 03:59 6 N2IC * 599 DN70
3
160CW 28-Dec-97 04:00 7 K7OX 599 DM43
2
160CW 28-Dec-97 04:01 8 K6SE 599 DM04
1
160CW 28-Dec-97 04:06 9 KO7X * 599 DM40
2
160CW 28-Dec-97 04:10 10 K7CA 599 DM26
1
160CW 28-Dec-97 04:14 11 N6RO * 599 CM98
1
160CW 28-Dec-97 06:32 12 WA2DFI 599 DM43
2
160CW 28-Dec-97 06:42 13 W7XZ/6 599 579 CM99
2
160CW 28-Dec-97 06:45 14 NC7W 599 DN41
3
160CW 28-Dec-97 06:49 15 N6LL 599 DM04
1
160CW 28-Dec-97 08:55 16 K8MK 599 559 EN80
7
160CW 28-Dec-97 11:36 17 NL7Z 599 BP51
8
160CW 28-Dec-97 11:38 18 N6CMF 599 DM14
1
160CW 28-Dec-97 11:44 19 K8ND 599 EN80
7
160CW 28-Dec-97 12:00 20 W7GG * 599 CN94
3
QSO Distribution
Grid QSOs PTS
1. DM04 3 1
2. CN85 2 3
3. DM43 2 2
4. EN80 2 7
5. CM97 1 1
6. DM52 1 2
7. DN70 1 3
8. DM40 1 2
9. DM26 1 1
10. CM98 1 1
11. CM99 1 2
12. DN41 1 3
13. BP51 1 8
14. DM14 1 1
15. CN94 1 3
Soapbox: Discovered Saturday morning that my kludge 14MHz ground plane
(1/2 the driven element from my A3 tribander stuck in a tree) would load up
on 160 with 2:1 VSWR if I opened the shield of the feed line where it comes
into the shack. What I didn't know was that the ground system for this very
short vertical was the coax for my 2 meter station which connects to the HF
rig's ground through the common connection to my Astron power supply. I
discovered this quite by accident when I pulled the HT out of the packet
station to take it with me to a CITARC (Caltech ARC, W6UE) workday on
Saturday morning. When I returned early Saturday afternoon, I left the HT
in the truck. When I tried getting back on the air late Saturday afternoon,
I noticed that the VSWR had increased drastically and my rig was shutting
down when I tried to match the antenna with the tuner. In the desperation
that followed, a multitude of half-baked theories flashed through my brain
including a conjecture that the afternoon sun had evaporated the morning
dew which still filled the traps of the A3 driven element on Saturday
morning when I made my first contact. Apparently the RF burns that followed
my attempts to keep the paragon from shutting down planted the seeds of
reason - "Eureka, it's the missing HT". I ran out to my truck, grabbed the
HT, and then wired it back into the packet station. My VSWR went from
infinity down to 2:1 and the Paragon quite balking as I pushed the drive
level up towards 100 Watts.
Some experiments after the contest revealed that the RG8 coax which feeds
my packet antenna, a 3 element 2 meter Yagi stuck in the tree, was acting a
single inductively loaded (most of the 100' of coax is coiled up as the
antenna is only about 15' above the shack) radial for my ad hoc vertical. I
am amazed that this kludge seems to have been resonant at around 1880 KHz
quite by accident - this is definitely a case of inverted Murphy's law.
Post contest bandwidth measurements suggest that the antenna is not very
efficient (2:1 bandwidth ~200 KHz) which is no surprise given the physical
height of the antenna and the extent of the radial system (this is not
K1ZM!).
Despite the Maxcom factor in the antenna system, I was really surprised to
manage 20 qsos, including NL7Z (8 points), K8MK (7 points), and K8ND (7
points)- nice ears guys! I even had two stations answer my CQ's! BTW, I
left the noise blanker on the Paragon running throughout the contest. This
served to kill the local line noise which is quite strong here. It also
served as a broadband receiver which let me know when a new powerhouse who
might be capable of hearing me showed up on somewhere on the band CQing.
N5IA gets the big signal award despite his running low power - the
earthworms under Milt's antenna are obviously not getting warm.
Was wishing I had better antennas, but glad to hand out a few points.
73 es HNY de Mike, W4EF/6
I have observed all competition rules as well as all regulations
established for amateur radio in my country. My report is correct and true
to the best of my knowledge. I agree to be bound by the decisions of the
Awards Committee.
Date _1-1-98_ Signed __Michael C. Tope_ Call _W4EF__
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