Hello from EWA,
This year we had high hopes of topping 2000, and from what we have read so did
a lot of others!! We completely rebuilt the antenna system. We removed the
two TH7-DXX ant (105' and 65') and added 20 feet to the tower. We put the
402-CD at the top of the mast (135') then put a Force 12 EF 180C 3' below it.
The EF 180C is a rotatable dipole that is 83' with linear loading. The rest
of the system consist of 3 Force 12 C31XR tribanders phased together at 125'
82', and 38'. After reading the N0AX and K7LXC antenna comparision report I
became a Force 12 fan. At least from a subjective point of view they seem
superior to the TH7's on a one on one basis. The WX0B phase box works
perfectly - low swr on all bands with any ant enna combo. This wasn't the
case with the previous brand X phase box!!
We started out with a bang on Sat averaging 126 QSO's for the first 6
hours then disaster struck. K7IR forgot to switch bands on the new Commander
HF 2500 linear and the tuner went up in smoke - literally, that burnt carbon
comp resistor smell is still lingering in the house!! (My excuse is that
after several years using the Alpha 87A self tune linear amp I'm basically an
appliance operator - K7IR) Fortunately it was only the metering circuitry and
who needs that - out it came and the tuner was fine. However, we lost 1 hour
of very good condx and I think it hurt us in the long run. By the way with
the Commander amp we no longer wiped out the neighbors phone and VCR, maybe
the are cleaner - if you remember to tune them! We didn't realize it the time
but we also smoked ( again literally)the parasitic plate resistors on the
Commander. By Sunday at 1300Z we were at 1102 making 2000 look easy, but
then people just quit calling. Never had a sustained run for the rest of the
contest. We "ground it out" for the rest of the contest, thank God for F1
(DVP). We sure have a great time doing this every year, we are two brothers,
a brother-in-law and an old highschool friend, Ops are: K7XS Phil, W7AGV,
N7CGW Mike, and K7IR Mike. WP3R score was depressing to see, our chances of
ever winng seem near zero, to top it off we didn't work him so there is one
more for him next year!!
Equipment:
TS950SDX
Commander HF2500/ALPHA 87A
Summary:
80M 173
40M 267
20M 594
15M 468
10M 379
All: 1881 Sections 79
Score: 293,436
Thanks for all the contacts, we are looking forward to next year already.
73 K7IR, K7XS, W7AGV, N7CGW
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