XAA01139
Sender: owner-3830@contesting.com
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X-Sponsor: W4AN, KM3T, N5KO & AD1C
Call: WO1N Country: USA
Power: 100W Category: Single Operator
Grid: FN42 Hours Op: 4.5hrs
BAND QSO GRIDS
160 75 50
Equipment Description: FT1000D, Inv-L at 55'
Club Affiliation: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Soapbox: The early date of the 1999 version of the SPTBC turned out
to be a blessing in disguise. This year the temporary Inv-L set up ritual
has been dogged by recalcitrant hardware (stripped screws, crushed pipe
caps etc etc.), lack of time and some M.I.A. internal motivation. A half
hearted attempt to get it together was made for the ARRL 160 test, but
the aforementioned hw problems killed that.
After spending the entire days worth of daylight setting up the kids
skating rink (OK, I'll admit it, I use it too!), I set out to tackle
the Inv-L again to be able to make some Q's in the test. Working in the
dark, before and after dinner I managed to solve the hw nasties and get
4 130' radials and the coax to it. No RX antennas. SWR wasn't good at
all, but I cut in the auto-tuner and gave it hell. Started out about
0235Z. A sweep of the band rounded up the usual suspects and at that
time S57M was the only DX heard. These guys must have some kick butt
setup as they were able to pull me out in the ARRL 160 test when I
was using my 40' Alpha Delta DX-LB trap dipole. However, first DX was
Wil, DJ7AA at 0356Z followed quickly by DF2PY (crushing signal!), UA2FF,
S57M and CO8JY.
I started my first run at 0519Z and was quickly rewarded
with S50U stopping by. Chased those K7RAT guys but no luck. Last DX
was Kent, SM4CAN at 0618Z. Heard John, ON4UN in there for the first time
in a couple of years, but he couldn't pull me out. Did a little more
running and S&P but the effects of the full day out in the cold were
to great, I pulled the plug at 0700Z.
This was essentially the first night back on Top Band with the vertical
and it was good to hear/work some of the old regulars. The QSB was
very intense, but you knew you could wait around a minute or two and
make a Q. IV3PRK and 9A4U were in there, but couldn't make the
grade with them either. Looks like some new locals have picked up the
top band bug as W1FJ and KB1EBG have front-end folding signals at
my QTH, gonna have to find out who these guys are!
CU in the next one,
Ken
WO1N
WO1N@ARRL.NET
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