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[3830] ARRL 160 WB6BWZ Single Op QRP

To: <3830@contesting.com>
Subject: [3830] ARRL 160 WB6BWZ Single Op QRP
From: wb6bwz@arrl.net (wb6bwz@arrl.net)
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 20:26:40 -0800
                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: WB6BWZ
Operator(s): WB6BWZ
Station: WB6BWZ

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 13

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 128  Sections = 35  Countries = 1  Total Score = 9,432

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

My first ARRL 160M contest. 

Earlier this year was the first time I operated on 160M. The SECC and SEDXC were
encouraging their members to participate in the CQWW-160 contests so I decided
to give it a try with my QRP station and 73-foot Inverted-L stealth antenna.

I knew immediately that I had a serious antenna problem when SECC club members
W8JI and K9AY could not copy my QRP signal early in the CQWW-160-CW contest with
their outstanding receiving antennas. They could hear someone calling but they
could not copy a single letter of my callsign. (W8JI and K9AY are within a
hundred miles of my QTH.)

I was using a 73-foot 28-ga insulated wire end-fed Inverted-L stealth antenna up
40 feet hidden in trees. (I live in a fourth-floor apartment.) The Dentron Jr
Monitor antenna tuner could not match this shortened antenna.

So...under the cover of darkness, I used a slingshot to launch another 80-foot
Inverted-L 28-ga insulated wire element into other trees about 90 degrees from
the first element.

With the "new" OCF wire antenna, I was able to complete Q's with W8JI and
K9AY...and another 35 stations in the CQWW-160M-CW contest.

In this contest, stations worked were within a 1000-mile radius. Not bad,
considering that the current antenna is resonant near 5 MHz. I believe the SGC
SG-237 autotuner is doing a better job of matching the low feedpoint impedance
(vs the Dentron Jr Monitor).

Country worked was Cayman Island (ZF2AF and ZF2NT).

Thanks for the Q's. 

Yaesu FT-817 QRP xcvr, 5 watts to 5-MHz OCF 28-ga insulated wire stealth antenna
up 40 feet (randomly routed) in trees next to I-75 in downtown Atlanta
industrial area. SGC SG-237 autotuner.

--Matt, WB6BWZ


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