ARRL DX Contest - SSB
Call: ZF2JB
Operator(s): KK9A
Station:
Class: SOSB/40 Power: HP
QTH: CAYMAN IS.
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160:
80:
40: 1475 59
20:
15:
10:
----------------------
Total: 1475 59 = 261,075
Club:
Comments:
I arrived in Grand Cayman on a Saturday Afternoon, on February
26, 2000. This was the last day of the CQ 160M contest so I quickly
set up a very low dipole on the roof of my villa. Later that evening,
after going out for dinner, I got on 160M and tried to give out
a few contacts to those with good ears. I was surprised that many
people were able to hear me and I made about 225 contacts in 3 hours.
After this, I took a break from the radio until Tuesday when I
attempted to set up a 20M half wave vertical array on the beach.
When I turned on my transceiver signals were very loud, however
the SWR was 4:1. I designed the antenna using AO and it should
have been 1.4:1. I double-checked all of the measurements and everything
was correct. The antenna is rather simple, it's a vertical dipole
and a parasitic reflector. When I laid the antenna horizontal and
the SWR was perfect. Apparently making it vertical or running the
coax down the side of the antenna was changing something. I know
that in AO there are some inaccuracies if an antenna is modeled
too close to the ground. Since I didn't pack my antenna analyzer,
and I've had little experience with verticals, I didn't know what
was wrong. If anyone knows I would appreciate your suggestions.
Since I had two 30+ foot vertical and I didn't want to spend all
day working on the antenna I decided to move the feed point to the
bottom, space them further apart and make a two element 40M 1/4
wave vertical array. Also 20M was too good into Europe, and I worried
that no one would have their beams to the south. I put up an 80M
dipole about 8' high and compared the two antennas. The vertical,
which was about 30' from the ocean, was about 10db stronger than
the low dipole. The verticals were working well. On Friday afternoon
I wanted to give everything one last check and I noticed my Yaesu
FT1000MP was unplugged. I also had been looking for my camera all
day and couldn't find it. After doing an inventory, I concluded
that my villa was burglarized when we were out to dinner. Fortunately
they did not take any radio stuff. It was probably too big and heavy.
The police later came twice during the contest to make a report
and to take fingerprints. More distractions than I'd like during
a contest. That's the second time that I've been burglarized in
Grand Cayman. While we had a great time on 7-mile beach, shopping
and dining out, I'm not sure if we'll ever return. The police said
that a number of houses were burglarized recently. It's sad because
I really enjoy going there. The weather during this trip was sunny
and 81 degrees everyday. I entered the contest single band 40M
and had fun on this difficult band. Conditions were too good on
the higher bands and too noisy on the low bands for me to break
any records. Hopefully I'll win this category. I also made some
contacts on 10M and 20M during the daytime. It was still a great
vacation.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
ZF2JB 1475 59 261,075SOSB/40 HP
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